Abstract: Tropiques toxiques : Le scandale du chlordécone , published in 2020 by a creative team led by Jessica Oublié, is a bande dessinée documentaire that examines the social, political, and historical context of chlordecone contamination in Martinique and Guadeloupe as well as the pesticide's persisting effects on the local inhabitants and environment. The product of two years of research and nearly 140 interviews, this work highlights the complex web of debates and decisions that allowed for the continued use of chlordecone in the French Antilles even after the product had been discontinued in the Hexagon. It is now estimated that approximately 92% of Martinicans and 95% of Guadeloupeans have been contaminated by chlordecone following its use in the cultivation of bananas between 1972-93. This text thus serves as an important resource for raising awareness about the chlordecone contamination and the ways in which the local population is responding. Beyond the pages of the BD , Oublié and her team used digital media—including augmented reality and social networks—to encourage dialogue, thus cultivating a shared intellectual space where voices, perspectives, and media coexist as complementary elements of a knowledge ecology promoting a more sustainable future.
Lindsey Leigh Smith (Wed,) studied this question.