We live in a toxic world' Cancer patient inspires pesticide campaign

On the day French MPs gave themselves a round of applause for approving legislation to reintroduce a banned pesticide last month, a figure rose from the public gallery to shout: "You are supporters of cancer... and we will make it known."

- Kim Willsher

Fleur Breteau made it known. Her outburst and appearance – she lost her hair during chemotherapy for breast cancer – propelled a petition against the "Duplomb law" to well over 2m signatures.

On Thursday, France's constitutional court struck down the government's attempt to reintroduce the pesticide acetamiprid – a neonicotinoid banned in France in 2018 but still used as an insecticide in other EU countries as well as the UK – in a judgment that took everyone by surprise. The ruling said the legislature had undermined "the right to live in a balanced and healthy environment" enshrined in France's environmental charter.

For Breteau, 50, the struggle goes on. "The law is a symptom of a sick system that poisons us. The Duplomb law isn't the real problem. It's aggravating an already catastrophic system," she said.

"We are living in a toxic world and need a revolution to break the chain of contamination... If people don't react we'll find ourselves in a world where we cannot drink water or eat food that is uncontaminated, where a slice of buttered bread, or a cup of tea, poisons us. It will be a silent world, without animals, without insects, without birds.

"We are accused of politicising cancer, of weaponising the disease. That is exactly what we're doing because that is what's necessary."