The Journal of Pesticide Action Network UK
An international perspective on the health and environmental effects of pesticides

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 Subject:   Pesticides News No 54
 Date:      Thu, 10 Jan 2002 08:22:44 -0500
From:        Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
          Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation 

cc:    Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov

Dear Mr. Helliker, Following are the contents of the latest issue of Pesticides News and links to a selection of articles
published online, I thought you might find them interesting......

Pesticides News No 54
The Journal of Pesticide Action Network UK
An international perspective on the health and environmental effects of pesticides
Quarterly/December 2001

 

News
Food retailer aims to restrict pesticide use 3
 The UK retailer Marks and Spencer is committed to phasing out pesticides which may pose serious risks to health or the environment – before they are officially banned. David Buffin interviewed Mike Barry and Emmett Lunny of M&S. 

Developing country hazards
Prickly issues for pineapple pesticides 4
 Smallholder farmers in Ghana have benefited enormously from cash-cropping pineapple since the 1990s but their livelihoods are threatened by changes in European market requirements and EU pesticide residue legislation. Seth Gogoe, Angie Dekpor and Stephanie Williamson report on the dilemma between providing safer food for consumers and protecting the income and health of African smallholders.

Safe Use – not so safe 6
The Global Safe Use Project was launched in 1991 with funds from the pesticide industry’s association to train pesticide operators in developing countries. Douglas Murray and Peter Leigh Taylor report on one of the projects, the Guatemalan pilot scheme, and examines how the campaign has not lived up to its original billing. 

Aerial herbicide impact on farmers in Ecuador 8
Alarm bells first rang in Ecuador about aerial spraying of herbicides in September 2000 when 44 people from one community reported stomach and skin problems to their local health centre, shortly after major aerial spraying across the border in neighbouring Colombia.

Alternatives
Zapping mosquitoes with biopesticides 9
Mosquito control can be an expensive and hazardous process relying on highly toxic and persistent insecticides. Recent experiences in Central America show that biological control is effective, safer and cheaper than chemical control.

Pesticide reduction
Persistence pays – lower risks from pesticides in Sweden 10
Consistent regulation over a 15-year period has proven that government policies can reduce pesticide use, as well as the risks to health and the environment. George Ekström and Peter Bergkvist of the Swedish National Chemicals Inspectorate (KEMI) report on the strategies and the results achieved.

Regulating pesticides
Dangerous pesticide use in Central America – Wanted: a new approach 12
Excellent local data on pesticide imports and impacts is available in Costa Rica and other Central American countries, and pioneering work on organic agriculture has been initiated. Yet pesticide use is increasing and regulation is poor. A health programme to promote pesticide poisoning surveillance systems has yielded disappointing results. Catharina Wesseling recommends a multi-stakeholder approach to address the problems.

Food and agriculture in Rome 15
Pesticide Code tripped by TRIPS - Will delay mean more deaths?
Governments meeting at a recent UN world food body in Rome failed to adopt a new international code for pesticide use aimed at renewing the fight against pesticide hazards in developing countries.

Progress in PIC
The Senegal government has drawn international attention to a hazardous pesticide being used by its farmers which has led to at least 16 fatalities, and many more cases of acute poisoning.

European news 16 
PAN Europe conference: ‘Time for a Change’ 
Sixty-four participants representing nineteen European countries, Ghana and the Kyrghyz Republic congregated in Bremen, Germany for the Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) conference from 7-9 November. The participants were drawn from public health groups, environmental and consumer organisations, sustainable agriculture groups and unions. Kathy Wormald reports on the main achievements of the conference.

Disposal 17
Bayer – Toxic pesticide dump in Nepal 
Greenpeace activists completed the containment of a stockpile of highly toxic obsolete pesticides in Nepal. The pesticides were exported to Nepal by multinationals such as Bayer, Sandoz, Shell, Rhone Poulenc, Du Pont, Union Carbide and Monsanto and abandoned there after they reached their expiry date or were banned.

Obsolete pesticide stocks removed from Pakistan 
On 9 August 2001 the Minister of Agriculture for the Province of Punjab, Mr Khurshid Zaman Qureshi, announced in Lahore that a project for the removal for destruction of some 317 tonnes of obsolete pesticides has now been completed. 

News 18-19
Legal action against Bayer in Peru
On Monday 22 October 2001, two years to the day after 24 children in the remote Andean village of Tauccamarca were killed and 18 more severely poisoned when they drank a powdered milk substitute that had been contaminated with the pesticide methyl parathion, their families filed a suit against the product’s principle importer and manufacturer, the agrochemical company Bayer.

Sweden defiant over banned pesticides
Sweden has launched a challenge to the European Union (EU) chemicals policy by declaring it will use any means possible, including going to court, to block marketing on its territory of EU-approved pesticides that are currently banned under national law.

German organic cotton initiative
PAN Germany’s Cotton Consumption Conversion Initiative aims to encourage institutions to convert to using organic cotton textiles. The first stakeholder workshop discussed how to increase organic cotton usage.

US IPM target fails to reduce pesticide use
Chemical pesticides can have adverse effects on human health and the environment, and their long-term effectiveness will be increasingly limited as pests continue to develop resistance to them, according to a new study from the US General Accounting Office (GAO).

Pesticide safety advice to be revoked?
The UK Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP) decided against revoking pesticide safety advice aimed at children when it met in October 2001.

Fact sheet 20-21
 Rotenone
 A recent study linking rotenone – a pesticide with a ‘natural’ image, commonly used in organic farming and gardening – to Parkinson’s disease, has increased demand for a level playing field in the safety assessment of pesticides. The current regulatory system, designed for synthetic agrochemicals, impedes research into, and registration of, least toxic, relatively benign pest control substances. 

International news 21

Book reviews and resources 22-23

New methyl bromide resources

Well Mr. Helliker, - Winston Churchill once noted: "...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on. " Every single day there are more and more articles, research, documentation, studies and/or concerns over the continued use/misuse of your "registered" POISONS. Until you will "legally" allow the use of safe and far more economical and effective (unregistered) alternatives the "registered" contamination and destruction will obviously continue. Reminds me of a sign I once saw in an office: "The beatings will continue, until morale improves."

Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten

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