The New Dark Age

A petition signed by over two million people has reignited the debate in France over the so-called “Duplomb law”, which was passed by the lower house of the French parliament on 8 July. The record-breaking petition labels the new law a “scientific, ethical, environmental and health aberration”. The reason? Among other things, it facilitates the conditional reintroduction of acetamiprid, despite many scientists considering this neonicotinoid insecticide to be not just toxic to biodiversity but harmful to human health. France led the way in banning it in 2018. The new law – named after the right-wing lawmaker Laurent Duplomb, who proposed it – triggered a wave of concern from when it was first mooted, with some 1,200 French doctors and scientists warning the French government in an open letter about the dangers it represented to public health. Also, France’s National Council of the Order of Physicians (CNOM) has issued its own hard-hitting statement on pesticides. The CNOM asserts that “from a medical point of view”, there is no doubt that pesticides are “substances that could expose the population to major risks” and that “these warnings cannot be ignored”. It also deplores “the persistent gap between available scientific knowledge and regulatory decisions”. GMWatch