Doctors in the French island of Martinique in the Caribbean have the linked the high level of prostate cancer among the males to pesticides used to battle weevil in banana plantations on the island.
The prevalence level is 227 for every 100,000 males, the highest known figure in the world, much higher than the French living in France. The islands of Dominica and Puerto Rico have lower figures, so also Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados; the United States of America has 98 per 100,000.
The pesticides used include DDT, DDE, Dieldrin, Aldrin, Alpha, Beta and Gamma HCH all of which are said to be carcinogenic and mutagenic. According to a paper presented in 2009, researchers concluded that the islanders’ connective tissues are repeatedly contaminated by these pesticides
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