Issued on: 01/05/2026 - 07:18
By: Benjamin DODMAN
French residents are three to four times more likely to register unsafe levels of cadmium in their bodies than their European counterparts, ingesting dangerous amounts of the carcinogenic metal through the food they eat. Experts blame government inaction, farming practices and a historic reliance on North African phosphate-based fertilisers that is rooted in the colonial era.
A toxic metal that has long eluded scrutiny, cadmium is quietly poisoning the French population via their favourite food staples, from bread and breakfast cereals to pasta and potatoes.
Nearly half of French residents are exposed to levels exceeding recommendations, the country’s health and food safety agency ANSES said in a March report, warning that women and children are most at risk.
Contamination rates are three to four times higher than in most other European countries, according to the study. It cites food as the primary source of contamination, accounting for up to 98 percent of exposure in non-smokers.
ANSES called for urgent action to address a crisis long ignored by France’s government, despite the repeated warnings of scientists and health professionals alarmed by a surge in cases of pancreatic cancer and other ailments linked to the heavy metal.
Experts link this French idiosyncrasy – and the prevailing political inertia – to the vested interests of an entrenched agricultural sector that remains largely resistant to change.
They also point the finger at geopolitical considerations with deep roots in the country’s colonial past.
Less well known than other heavy metals like lead or mercury, cadmium is classified as a proven carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The European Union also labels it “toxic to reproduction”.
In June last year, a group of French doctors wrote to the prime minister as well as the ministers of health, agriculture and ecology, warning that cadmium exposure was a “public health time bomb”.
The toxic metal spreads though the bloodstream and accumulates in the kidneys and liver, also settling on the pancreas, lungs and bones, says Pierre Souvet, a cardiologist and president of the French Association for Health and the Environment (AESF).
“It causes neurological and reproductive disorders, increases cardiovascular risks and leads to bone fragility ranging from osteoporosis to multiple fractures,” Souvet explains. “It also increases the risk of cancer, particularly pancreatic or lung cancer.”
Cadmium can also replace essential minerals inside the body, causing the types of iron and calcium deficiencies to which women and children are particularly vulnerable.
While the substance is naturally present in the environment, its concentration can be dramatically increased by human activity – particularly agriculture, through the spread of cadmium-laden phosphate fertilisers to aid crop growth.
The origin of these fertilisers is one reason France's soils are especially contaminated, with the French farming sector historically reliant on imports from Morocco and Tunisia, where phosphate is naturally rich in cadmium.
Permissive legislation is another factor. While EU rules cap cadmium levels in phosphate fertilisers at 60 milligrams per kilogram, France allows up to 90 mg/kg – well above the 20 mg/kg threshold recommended by ANSES and which is already the limit in some other countries like Finland, Slovakia and Hungary.
The health and food safety agency has been warning that the French are overexposed to cadmium for the past 15 years, and has repeatedly urged the authorities to lower the level allowed in fertilisers.
France's agriculture ministry first discussed lowering the limit in 2023, but the talks went nowhere. It now proposes a goal of reaching the ANSES target of 20mg/kg in 2038 – a timeframe critics have blasted as “criminal”.
France's reliance on North African fertilisers dates back to the early 20th century, when European powers began plundering African soils to help feed their fast-growing populations.
“Colonial France searched for phosphate-rich rocks in the Moroccan subsoil, just as it had done a few years earlier in Tunisia,” says Arianna Poletti, an independent journalist based in Tunis and author of a forthcoming book on the social and ecological impact of phosphate mining for fertilisers.
The mining city of Youssoufia, where phosphates are still extracted today, was once named after Louis Gentil, the French geologist who identified and studied phosphate deposits in Morocco, then a French protectorate.
“The history of the Office chérifien des phosphates (OCP), the Moroccan company that operates the mines, is also linked to the colonial period,” says Poletti. “It was founded in 1920 by royal decree during the administration of Resident-General Hubert Lyautey,” the de facto colonial governor.
A state-owned monopoly with ties to King Mohammed VI, OCP still controls Morocco’s vast phosphate reserves, the largest in the world. A pillar of the country’s economy, it employs thousands of people and is the world’s leading exporter of phosphate fertilisers, accounting for a fifth of all Moroccan exports.
Morocco has long resisted EU efforts to regulate the multi-billion-euro fertiliser industry. Its huge reserves have given it significant leverage in a critical sector that is more concentrated than the fossil fuels industry.
Geopolitical considerations have further strengthened Morocco’s hand, with the war in Ukraine effectively barring European countries from turning to Russian phosphate despite its lower cadmium levels.
“Diversifying imports is not straightforward, in part because lower-cadmium phosphates account for a smaller share of global output and are distributed across a limited number of countries, including Russia, which adds geopolitical constraints," Poletti explains.
France’s ties to the Moroccan phosphate industry attracted renewed scrutiny this month when it emerged that the French Development Agency (AFD) had granted OCP a massive, €350 million loan – its largest ever non-sovereign loan.
“The AFD is supposed to support sustainable or development projects in priority countries, which Morocco is certainly not. Indeed, the loan was heavily criticised within the agency,” says journalist Anne-Claire Poirier, who broke the story in an article on the website Vert.
Poirier said the loan was part of a series of agreements negotiated in 2024 to cement France’s rapprochement with Morocco, at a time when relations with several former African colonies have soured dramatically. It coincided with French President Emmanuel Macron’s move to support Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over Western Sahara, the subject of a decades-long dispute with indigenous groups backed by rival Algeria.
Citing anonymous sources within the AFD, she described the loan as “a way of maintaining our diplomatic relations with Morocco, at a time when France has no other gateway to Africa”.
According to the investigative website Mediapart, the development agency dismissed critical opinions and internal warnings that highlighted the environmental and financial risks associated with these investments. They included a warning from the AFD’s own risk management department which found that the agency’s exposure to Morocco was too high.
When quizzed on the subject of cadmium, the AFD – whose newly appointed director previously served as France’s ambassador to Rabat – cited OCP’s assertion that the phosphate fertilisers it exports to Europe are now labelled “low-cadmium” and contain less than 20mg/kg – a third of the current EU regulatory limit.
While the cadmium scandal has led to unprecedented scrutiny of phosphate fertilisers from North Africa, they are not the only factor fuelling the poisoning of French soils.
Poletti points to the “structure of French agriculture”, with its “highly industrialised, high-input system that relies heavily on mineral fertilisers to sustain large-scale production”. In this context, she adds, “contamination is also the result of a historical accumulation that should lead us to more broadly rethink intensive, monoculture-based agriculture”.
Poirier flags a tendency to ignore experts’ warnings and prioritise the short-term interests of France’s influential farming lobbies, often to the detriment of farmers themselves, who are most exposed to pesticides and other toxic substances.
“France is still an agricultural country, or at least it sees itself that way, and notions of ‘food sovereignty’ and the sector’s competitiveness take precedence over other considerations,” she explains.
Health and environmental activists say such thinking accounts for the failure of successive governments to take cadmium poisoning seriously – which left-wing lawmaker Clémentine Autain has branded a “state scandal”.
In the days following the ANSES report, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard appeared to downplay the risk of contamination from food, telling Sud Radio that cadmium “is dangerous in particular when inhaled”. When challenged in parliament, she urged lawmakers to avoid “stoking conflict” and instead “support our farmers and French agriculture, which is the most virtuous in the world”.
Farming lobbies have in the past resisted attempts to lower cadmium thresholds. With public anger mounting, the head of the powerful FNSEA union said earlier this month he could support stricter limits once affordable alternatives are available to farmers.
Those alternatives already exist, according to Green lawmaker and farmer Benoît Biteau, who has spearheaded the battle against cadmium in parliament. They include farming methods that reduce reliance on phosphate fertilisers, technology to remove cadmium from fertilisers, and sourcing lower-cadmium phosphate from European countries including Finland and Norway.
Biteau tabled a bill in December that would ban fertilisers with cadmium levels exceeding the 20mg/kg threshold. But many rival politicians have very different priorities, and examination of the bill has been repeatedly delayed.
"We have all the evidence, and yet we keep waiting,” Biteau told FRANCE 24’s sister radio station RFI, calling the resistance “incomprehensible”.
In its March report, ANSES also called for new farming practices, such as making use of the phosphorus already present in the soil rather than systematically applying new fertilisers, or using crop varieties that accumulate less cadmium.
But the agency – which answers to three ministries, including agriculture – has also faced criticism for failing to endorse organic farming as a remedy to cadmium contamination, despite mounting scientific evidence that organic growing methods help reduce exposure to the toxic metal.
“We do know how to do things differently, and studies have shown that the cost is affordable,” says Poirier. “But the dominant thinking remains to produce a lot, fast – and without hurting profit margins.”
Contamination rates are three to four times higher than in most other European countries, according to the study. It cites food as the primary source of contamination, accounting for up to 98 percent of exposure in non-smokers.
ANSES called for urgent action to address a crisis long ignored by France’s government, despite the repeated warnings of scientists and health professionals alarmed by a surge in cases of pancreatic cancer and other ailments linked to the heavy metal.
Experts link this French idiosyncrasy – and the prevailing political inertia – to the vested interests of an entrenched agricultural sector that remains largely resistant to change.
They also point the finger at geopolitical considerations with deep roots in the country’s colonial past.
Time bomb
Less well known than other heavy metals like lead or mercury, cadmium is classified as a proven carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The European Union also labels it “toxic to reproduction”.
In June last year, a group of French doctors wrote to the prime minister as well as the ministers of health, agriculture and ecology, warning that cadmium exposure was a “public health time bomb”.
The toxic metal spreads though the bloodstream and accumulates in the kidneys and liver, also settling on the pancreas, lungs and bones, says Pierre Souvet, a cardiologist and president of the French Association for Health and the Environment (AESF).
“It causes neurological and reproductive disorders, increases cardiovascular risks and leads to bone fragility ranging from osteoporosis to multiple fractures,” Souvet explains. “It also increases the risk of cancer, particularly pancreatic or lung cancer.”
Cadmium can also replace essential minerals inside the body, causing the types of iron and calcium deficiencies to which women and children are particularly vulnerable.
While the substance is naturally present in the environment, its concentration can be dramatically increased by human activity – particularly agriculture, through the spread of cadmium-laden phosphate fertilisers to aid crop growth.
The origin of these fertilisers is one reason France's soils are especially contaminated, with the French farming sector historically reliant on imports from Morocco and Tunisia, where phosphate is naturally rich in cadmium.
Permissive legislation is another factor. While EU rules cap cadmium levels in phosphate fertilisers at 60 milligrams per kilogram, France allows up to 90 mg/kg – well above the 20 mg/kg threshold recommended by ANSES and which is already the limit in some other countries like Finland, Slovakia and Hungary.
The health and food safety agency has been warning that the French are overexposed to cadmium for the past 15 years, and has repeatedly urged the authorities to lower the level allowed in fertilisers.
France's agriculture ministry first discussed lowering the limit in 2023, but the talks went nowhere. It now proposes a goal of reaching the ANSES target of 20mg/kg in 2038 – a timeframe critics have blasted as “criminal”.
Legacy of empire
France's reliance on North African fertilisers dates back to the early 20th century, when European powers began plundering African soils to help feed their fast-growing populations.
“Colonial France searched for phosphate-rich rocks in the Moroccan subsoil, just as it had done a few years earlier in Tunisia,” says Arianna Poletti, an independent journalist based in Tunis and author of a forthcoming book on the social and ecological impact of phosphate mining for fertilisers.
The mining city of Youssoufia, where phosphates are still extracted today, was once named after Louis Gentil, the French geologist who identified and studied phosphate deposits in Morocco, then a French protectorate.
“The history of the Office chérifien des phosphates (OCP), the Moroccan company that operates the mines, is also linked to the colonial period,” says Poletti. “It was founded in 1920 by royal decree during the administration of Resident-General Hubert Lyautey,” the de facto colonial governor.
A state-owned monopoly with ties to King Mohammed VI, OCP still controls Morocco’s vast phosphate reserves, the largest in the world. A pillar of the country’s economy, it employs thousands of people and is the world’s leading exporter of phosphate fertilisers, accounting for a fifth of all Moroccan exports.
Morocco has long resisted EU efforts to regulate the multi-billion-euro fertiliser industry. Its huge reserves have given it significant leverage in a critical sector that is more concentrated than the fossil fuels industry.
Geopolitical considerations have further strengthened Morocco’s hand, with the war in Ukraine effectively barring European countries from turning to Russian phosphate despite its lower cadmium levels.
“Diversifying imports is not straightforward, in part because lower-cadmium phosphates account for a smaller share of global output and are distributed across a limited number of countries, including Russia, which adds geopolitical constraints," Poletti explains.
A controversial loan
France’s ties to the Moroccan phosphate industry attracted renewed scrutiny this month when it emerged that the French Development Agency (AFD) had granted OCP a massive, €350 million loan – its largest ever non-sovereign loan.
“The AFD is supposed to support sustainable or development projects in priority countries, which Morocco is certainly not. Indeed, the loan was heavily criticised within the agency,” says journalist Anne-Claire Poirier, who broke the story in an article on the website Vert.
Poirier said the loan was part of a series of agreements negotiated in 2024 to cement France’s rapprochement with Morocco, at a time when relations with several former African colonies have soured dramatically. It coincided with French President Emmanuel Macron’s move to support Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over Western Sahara, the subject of a decades-long dispute with indigenous groups backed by rival Algeria.
Citing anonymous sources within the AFD, she described the loan as “a way of maintaining our diplomatic relations with Morocco, at a time when France has no other gateway to Africa”.
According to the investigative website Mediapart, the development agency dismissed critical opinions and internal warnings that highlighted the environmental and financial risks associated with these investments. They included a warning from the AFD’s own risk management department which found that the agency’s exposure to Morocco was too high.
When quizzed on the subject of cadmium, the AFD – whose newly appointed director previously served as France’s ambassador to Rabat – cited OCP’s assertion that the phosphate fertilisers it exports to Europe are now labelled “low-cadmium” and contain less than 20mg/kg – a third of the current EU regulatory limit.
An unsustainable model
While the cadmium scandal has led to unprecedented scrutiny of phosphate fertilisers from North Africa, they are not the only factor fuelling the poisoning of French soils.
Poletti points to the “structure of French agriculture”, with its “highly industrialised, high-input system that relies heavily on mineral fertilisers to sustain large-scale production”. In this context, she adds, “contamination is also the result of a historical accumulation that should lead us to more broadly rethink intensive, monoculture-based agriculture”.
Poirier flags a tendency to ignore experts’ warnings and prioritise the short-term interests of France’s influential farming lobbies, often to the detriment of farmers themselves, who are most exposed to pesticides and other toxic substances.
“France is still an agricultural country, or at least it sees itself that way, and notions of ‘food sovereignty’ and the sector’s competitiveness take precedence over other considerations,” she explains.
Health and environmental activists say such thinking accounts for the failure of successive governments to take cadmium poisoning seriously – which left-wing lawmaker Clémentine Autain has branded a “state scandal”.
In the days following the ANSES report, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard appeared to downplay the risk of contamination from food, telling Sud Radio that cadmium “is dangerous in particular when inhaled”. When challenged in parliament, she urged lawmakers to avoid “stoking conflict” and instead “support our farmers and French agriculture, which is the most virtuous in the world”.
Farming lobbies have in the past resisted attempts to lower cadmium thresholds. With public anger mounting, the head of the powerful FNSEA union said earlier this month he could support stricter limits once affordable alternatives are available to farmers.
Those alternatives already exist, according to Green lawmaker and farmer Benoît Biteau, who has spearheaded the battle against cadmium in parliament. They include farming methods that reduce reliance on phosphate fertilisers, technology to remove cadmium from fertilisers, and sourcing lower-cadmium phosphate from European countries including Finland and Norway.
Biteau tabled a bill in December that would ban fertilisers with cadmium levels exceeding the 20mg/kg threshold. But many rival politicians have very different priorities, and examination of the bill has been repeatedly delayed.
"We have all the evidence, and yet we keep waiting,” Biteau told FRANCE 24’s sister radio station RFI, calling the resistance “incomprehensible”.
In its March report, ANSES also called for new farming practices, such as making use of the phosphorus already present in the soil rather than systematically applying new fertilisers, or using crop varieties that accumulate less cadmium.
But the agency – which answers to three ministries, including agriculture – has also faced criticism for failing to endorse organic farming as a remedy to cadmium contamination, despite mounting scientific evidence that organic growing methods help reduce exposure to the toxic metal.
“We do know how to do things differently, and studies have shown that the cost is affordable,” says Poirier. “But the dominant thinking remains to produce a lot, fast – and without hurting profit margins.”
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