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Ending the toxic trail 

New international code on pesticide use adopted 

Pesticide use in developing countries is expanding, even though these countries already account for over 95 per cent of serious poisonings and fatalities. Some of the most acutely toxic chemicals produced are widely used with no protection by farmers and workers with no training and limited awareness of the hazards. 
    Recognising the importance of changing practices or reducing exposure, the governing body of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation adopted a new pesticide code when it met in Rome in November 2002. The revised International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides provides guidance to governments, regulators, traders and industry. 
    The Code is the globally accepted standard for pesticide management. ‘If all parties concerned applied the Code, many lives would be saved, environmental damage would be avoided and agricultural production would become more sustainable,’ said Gero Vaagt, Senior Officer, Pesticide Management. ‘Besides saving lives, applying the Code means avoiding toxic waste – millions of dollars for clean-up operations could be saved and spent on training, research and application of environmentally-friendly pest control measures.’
    The new guidelines should have been adopted at the FAO Biennial Conference of November 2001. Governments then failed to agree on issues of data protection and set up an expert group to find a solution. However the Council rejected the expert group recommendation. While the research-based agrochemical corporations wanted stronger wording to protect their data when registering pesticides, governments decided that this was the remit of the World Trade Organisation and dropped it from the Code.
    First adopted in 1985, the Code was amended in 1989 to include conditions relating to Prior Informed Consent (PIC), giving importing countries information about banned and severely restricted pesticides and the right to stop imports of certain hazardous pesticides. When PIC became the basis the Rotterdam Convention in 1998, the FAO took the initiative to consult widely with governments, industry and NGOs to bring the Code up to today’s standards.
    Implementation will require both political will and increased financial support. Often the only practical way to reduce poisonings is to restrict the availability of hazardous products, and provide better access to more sustainable and less toxic pest management strategies. The Code supports Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies that emphasise growing a healthy crop and encourage natural pest control mechanisms. It calls for an IPM ‘based on scientific and other strategies that promote increased participation of farmers (including women’s groups), extension agents and on-farm researchers.’ Other areas addressed in the revised Code include:

  • urging avoidance of hazardous of products (WHO classes Ia and Ib, and preferably class II), in developing countries 
  • explicit recognition of environmental risks: protection of biodiversity, minimizing the adverse effects of pesticides in water, soil, air and on non-target organisms 
  • stronger requirements for use of protective equipment for tropical areas, and for improved application technology
  • product stewardship strategies that address field level impacts
  • introduction of collection systems for empty pesticide containers

Importantly, for the first time, the Code calls on the food industry to help implement its recommendations. ‘It is now up to all sectors and interests to ensure food is grown safely and without harm to farmers and workers,’ said Barbara Dinham, Director of Pesticide Action Network UK. ‘Consumers need to become more aware of the conditions of food production, and play a part in reducing the use of hazardous products.’ 

15 reasons for implementing the improved code

1. Child workers in Ecuador tie pesticide-treated strips to banana plants without protection; children work while hazardous pesticides are applied by aerial spraying. One incident verified 15 children poisoned and suffering headaches, fever, dizziness, stomach aches, nausea, vomiting, trembling, itching, fatigue, and aching bones.
2. Egypt: more than 1.5 million girls and boys work as labourers in the agricultural sector. Pesticide exposure is common from working in fields during spraying or returning to work before a safe re-entry period has elapsed.
3. Cocoa production in West Africa engages 284,000 children (59 percent boys, 41 percent girls), of whom 153,000 apply pesticides, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
4. Brazil suffers 300,000 poisonings a year and 5000 deaths from agricultural pesticides. The annual cost in treatment and lost work is estimated at US$540 million.
5. The introduction of endosulfan for cotton production in Benin resulted in at least 61 deaths and 314 poisonings between 1999-2001.
6. The confirmed number of deaths in the peanut sector of Senegal reached 16 deaths in 2000 after exposure to a formulation of carbofuran, thiram and benomyl. The suspected toll is higher.
7. Banana workers in Costa Rica suffer hundreds of pesticide poisonings annually, primarily from paraquat.
8. A surveillance system in seven Central American counties recorded almost 6,000 pesticide poisonings in 1998. The total number of worker poisonings is estimated at 30,000.
9. Peru, December 1999. 24 children died at school from drinking milk inadvertently mixed with the extremely toxic insecticide parathion, produced by Bayer.
10. Leakages of the highly persistent POP pesticide dieldrin, stored in the Sahel region of Mali, have contaminated at least 14,000 tonnes of soil, and poisoned drinking water aquifers of the Tuareg, causing deaths. Thousands became ill before the source was identified.
11. Families in Durres, Albania live on site of former chemical plant that used to store pesticides, considered one of the five most contaminated ‘hot spots’ by UNEP.
12. Four family members in Chad died after eating pesticide contaminated salad and leaves, 1999.
13. Western Cape, South Africa. A study of 126 workers on fruit farms using paraquat confirmed chronic effects on lungs. 
14. Re-use of containers for domestic use by farm workers in South Africa is a key source of organophosphate poisoning. African women are more likely than men to use empty containers for domestic uses such as fetching water, keeping food and drinks.
15. On Malaysian oil palm plantations, pesticide sprayers, primarily women, suffer severe health effects. In particular paraquat is associated with skin rashes and sores, inflammation and loss of fingernails.

References
1. PAN UK, Why we need a new Code of Conduct Now, Briefing, October 2002. Examples set out in the box are fully referenced in the briefing, http://www.pan-uk.org/Publications/briefing/FAOcode.pdf

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 58, December 2002, page 22]
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