Uproar
over Danish exports of methyl parathion
Danish National Television, the country's main
television station, broadcast a programme 1 May providing evidence of problems
caused by the OP pesticide methyl parathion exported by the Danish company,
Cheminova. Cheminova, which is owned by the University of Arhus, is now one of
the biggest manufacturers of this pesticide.
The programme-makers visited Guatemala and Nicaragua and
filmed extensive evidence of misuse, including careless aerial spraying,
application from horseback, mixing and application with no protective clothing,
and leaking back-pack spray equipment. Women on one estate had been ordered to
weed immediately after spraying, despite instructions that no-one should enter a
field for 24 hours at least after spraying methyl parathion. All the women
lost consciousness and had to be hospitalised.
The manager from Cheminova said. "This is every producer of
pesticides nightmare-seeing his products used the way we have seen in the TV-programme."
The reaction to the programme has been enormous in Denmark.
In a television debate with the company's manager, the Danish Minister of
Environment Svend Auken, said "you can not be the same human being in this
discussion after you have seen this TV-documentary. It is absolutely
shocking." (See page 20 for methyl parathion factsheet).
Pers. comm. Jakob Gottschau, Express journalistbureau, Copenhagen, and video.
Wide
variation in usage
Researchers at the University of Leiden in the
Netherlands have found there is a wide variation in pesticide use among farmers.
In January 1997, they interviewed 74 farmers in an area of potato, sugar beet
and winter wheat production.
For sugar beet, the amount of pesticides used varied between
3kg/ha and 9kg/ha. In cereals, the situation was similar, with a variation of 1
to 5 kg/ha. For potatoes, there was even greater difference, with a typical
variation between 15 and 30 kg/ha. One potato farmer used as much as 50kg/ha.
It is not clear why these discrepancies occur because the
farmers are producing similar crops, using similar techniques.
De Snoo, G.R., Variation of pesticide use among farmers: a starting point for environmental protection, paper presented at: International Symposium on Crop Protection, 6 May 1997, Gent, Belgium.
Fish
threat in Lake Victoria
Uganda may lose foreign exchange worth US $50
million from fish exports if the government sanctions the spraying of herbicides
to kill-off water hyacinth that is clogging up vast tracts of Lake Victoria.
Spraying is likely to hit demand for Nile perch products in Europe, and affect a
large part of the Ugandan fresh fish market of 220,000 tonnes (worth US $110
million per year).
The action has yet to be approved by parliament, although
President Museveni has given the go-ahead.
African Farming, January/February 1997.
[This
article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 36,
June 1997, page 19]