ABSTRACT
Banana crop, which has been the main agricultural product in the French West Indies (Guadeloupe and Martinique), requires the intensive use of pesticides to prevent attacks by insect pests. Chlorinated pesticides, such as hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), chlordecone (CLD), and dieldrin, were used from the 1960s until the beginning of the 1990s. CLD has a strong persistence in natural environments and high resistance to chemical reactions and microbiological degradations. This pesticide was used until 1993, resulting in a generalized diffuse contamination of
16.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 223 16.2 Activated Carbon Preparation and Characterization ....................................224
