Time To Phase Out Paraquat - Syngenta's Controversial Pesticide
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To Phase Out Paraquat - Syngenta's Controversial Pesticide
Date:
Tuesday, October 15, 2002 12:00 PM
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
Kampagne: Ernährung/Landwirtschaft Syngenta
22.04.2002
Time to phase out paraquat – Syngenta’s controversial pesticide
Zurich, 22.04.2002 - Workers and farmers regularly exposed to the pesticide paraquat, sold by Syngenta as Gramoxone, experience serious problems with their health. The high toxicity and lack of antidote leads to serious ill-health, and even death, from exposure. The Berne Declaration, Foro Emaus, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Asia Pacific, PAN UK and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) urge Syngent,a one day before the company´s AGM, to phase out the production and use of this hazardous pesticide.
A new report published by the five public interest groups shows alternative ways of controlling weeds. It is time to take global action and remove this old pesticide from the market and to allocate greatly increased resources to develop agricultural products that contribute to safe, ecological, sustainable agricultural production worldwide.
Leaking knapsacks, spray drift, and walking through sprayed vegetation lead to high exposure of sprayers and nearby workers and communities. “When I started handling the pesticides I experienced headaches. … When I used Gramoxone in particular my nose bled. I used to get severe pains on the left side of my stomach”. “After spraying, I had very bad headaches, felt nausea, giddiness and chest pains.” – Women sprayers on palm oil estates, Malaysia
The herbicide paraquat – a pesticide used to kill weeds – is sold by Syngenta in over 100 countries. It is extensively used on plantations of bananas, cocoa, coffee, cotton, palm oil, pineapple, rubber and sugar cane, as well as by small farmers. “Paraquat has been criticised for the adverse impacts on workers since the 1960s. The company’s new paraquat factory in China, and its intention to build up future growth on this old and hazardous pesticide, shows management has dismissed objections and concerns”, said Francois Meienberg of the Berne Declaration.
Interviews in March 2002 with women on Indonesian palm oil estates confirm the misery of routine pesticide exposure: blurred vision, breathing difficulties, skin damage and diarrhoea. They link these symptoms to paraquat, which they spray every second day. The product label indicates manufacture by PT Zeneca Agri Products Indonesia (now Syngenta). “Can Syngenta, the world’s biggest agrochemical company which prides itself on its principles and safety record, justify continued production of paraquat?” asked Barbara Dinham of PAN UK.
In Costa Rica sprayers on the banana plantations use the equivalent of 65 kg of pesticides per worker per year, and poisonings are rife. Between 1993 and 1996 a decrease of 40 per cent in paraquat injuries was observed following a ecolabelling programme: “the obvious reason is that less paraquat was used in 1996 than in 1993,” said Hernan Hermosilla Barrientos of Foro Emaus in Costa Rica.
Seven European and four developing countries have banned or severely restricted paraquat. In Sweden it has been prohibited since 1983, and the Swedish regulatory authority, KEMI, does not believe paraquat is suitable to use, even with the high standards in the country. “In addition to health hazards, regulators are concerned that the chemical is persistent and accumulates in soil. Studies indicate that paraquat has adverse effects on mammals, birds, fish and amphibians. In Sweden we believe that, for the environment and for health, the only safe use is no use,” said Göran Eklöf of SSNC.
CONTACT DETAILS:
Francois Meienberg, Berne Declaration +41 1 277 70 04/+41 79 478 91 94
Göran Eklöf, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation +46 8 702 65 00
Barbara Dinham, PAN UK +44 20 7274 8895
Hernan Hermosilla Barrientos, Foro Emaus (Costa Rica) +506 768 82 76,
foremaus@racsa.co.cr
Catharina Wesseling, IRET (contact in Switzerland) +41 1 277 70 04/+41
79 478 91 94
Jennifer Mourin, PAN AP +604 657 0271 / +604 656 0381 (panap@panap.po.my)
NOTES:
Paraquat: Syngenta’s controversial herbicide. A report by John Madeley
for Berne Declaration (Switzerland), Foro Emaus (Costa Rica), Pesticide
Action Network (PAN) Asia Pacific (Malaysia), PAN UK (UK) and Swedish Society
for Nature Conservation (Sweden), April 2002.
Poisoned and Silenced: A study of pesticide poisoning in the plantations. Tenaganita and PAN Asia and the Pacific, Malaysia, March 2002.
Paraquat in developing countries. Catharina Wesseling, Berna van
Wendel de Joode, Clemens Ruepert, Catalina León1, Patricia Monge, Hernán
Hermosilla, Timo Partanen, Central American Institute for Studies on Toxic
Substances (IRET), Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica, 2001. Int J
Occup Health July 24, 2001.
http://www.evb.ch/index.cfm?page_id=1296
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