The ghosts of pesticides will haunt our environments for a long time to come.

Published on 07/11/2025

Published in The Conversation, an article co-authored by Gaspard Conseil and Damien Banas highlights the persistence of ‘chemical ghosts’: transformation products derived from pesticides, which are still present in our waters despite having been banned for several decades in some cases.
Drawing on the work of the Animal and Agroecosystems Laboratory (L2A) and in particular the CABARETox project (L2A - OFB - ANSES), the article stresses the need to rethink environmental risk assessment by broadening the focus beyond ‘historical’ pesticides to better take into account these legacy contaminants, which bear witness to the chemical memory of our agricultural landscapes. The Conversation media outlet relies mainly on results from peer-reviewed journals, offering a mainstream outlet for this academic research.
Read the full article on The Conversation: The ghosts of pesticides will haunt our environments for a long time to come.