A coalition of international trade union
organisations and environmental NGOs has filed a lawsuit with the European Court
of First Instance challenging the European Commission’s decision last December
to grant EU-wide approval for the deadly herbicide paraquat(1).
The coalition argues that the Commission decision ignored
scientific evidence on the toxic effects of paraquat on humans and the
environment, and that the approval violates the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the European Union Treaty
(in particular the precautionary principle) and secondary EU law.
Agricultural workers’ unions and environmental groups have
campaigned for many years to ban the use of paraquat, which is responsible for a
large number of the tens of thousands of annual pesticide-related poisonings and
many deaths. Once absorbed through the skin or lungs or orally ingested, its
effects are irreversible. There is no known antidote to paraquat poisoning. A
potential link has been documented between paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s
disease. Agricultural workers are regularly exposed to this toxic substance
during handling and mixing, spraying and working in freshly-sprayed fields(2).
Paraquat is persistent and accumulates in the soil with
repeated applications. This long-term contamination and unacceptable risks to
wildlife populations are well documented in the scientific literature.
The lawsuit argues that all of this was ignored by the
Commission, whose decision to authorise paraquat came in response to lobbying by
the manufacturer Syngenta and the wider pesticides lobby in the main EU member
states. The decision was adopted in the face of opposition from environmental,
public health and trade union organizations (whose members are in the front line
of exposure), and was opposed by EU Member States where paraquat had previously
been banned (Austria, Denmark, Finland and Sweden).
The government of Sweden has launched an independent
challenge to the approval decision in the European Court of Justice.
‘Paraquat must be banned to protect the environment and
human health’, said John Hontelez, Secretary General of the European
Environmental Bureau. ‘The European Commission has ignored publicly available
scientific evidence of the hazards associated with paraquat and pushed through
its decision behind the closed doors of the Member States’ Committee meetings.
This can only lead to a loss of public confidence in how pesticides are approved
in the EU. That is why this lawsuit is necessary.’ The global consequences of
the EU paraquat approval followed quickly. Syngenta immediately made use of the
EU decision to mount a public relations and lobbying campaign in Malaysia to
reverse that country’s phased ban on paraquat. The paraquat lobby is also
lobbying hard in Central America, where paraquat use has been criticised.
1. The coalition is the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF), the IUF’s European regional organization EFFAT-IUF, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Pesticides Action Network (PAN) Europe, the Dutch Society for Nature and Environment and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC).
2. The effects include loss of finger and toenails, headaches, nausea, vomiting, nose bleeds and severe skin irritation (Wesseling C, Van Wendel de Joode B, Ruepert C, Leon C, Monge P, Hermosillo H, Partanen T Paraquat in Developing Countries, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, October/December 2001, 7:275-286).
For more information, contact Hans Muilerman,
Stichting Natuur en Milieu, e-mail: h.muilerman@snm.nl
Mikael Karlsson, President, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Mikael.Karlsson@snf.se
Stefan Scheuer, European Environmental Bureau, stefan.scheuer@eeb.org
Catherine Wattiez, Pesticides Action Network Europe, catherine.wattiez@skynet.be
Peter Rossman, International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel Restaurant,
Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations, peter.rossman@iuf.org
Arnd Spahn, European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agricultural and
Tourism sectors and Allied Branches (EFFAT), a.spahn@effat.org
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 63, March 2004, page 19]