The Pesticide Action Network UK has persistently denounced the impacts of pesticide usage on cotton since 1991. At that time, between $2 and $3 billion was spent on cotton pesticides worldwide. Of more than 300 million kilogrammes of pesticides used in the developing world each year one half was used on cotton.

Fifteen years of campaigning by PAN UK and others has produced some results. Alternatives to chemically-intensive cotton production have been successfully developed. IPM schemes around the world have shown that pesticide usage can easily be halved while increasing yields. The irresistible rise of organic cotton, now finding its way onto the mass market, proves that cotton can – and should – be produced sustainably, without the use of pesticides.

However, US$2 billion’s worth of chemicals is still sprayed on the world’s cotton crop every year, almost half of which is toxic enough to be classified as hazardous by the World Health Organisation. The associated health and environmental costs are immense. This new report, The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton, reveals that vomiting, paralysis, incontinence, coma, seizures and death are some of the many side effects still suffered by farmers and children in the developing world who are routinely exposed to cotton pesticides, many of which are banned or restricted in the West.

Among many recommendations, the report calls for a phase-out of the most toxic pesticides in cotton production, and increased support for more sustainable alternatives, such as IPM or organic cotton.

The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton is produced by the Environmental Justice Foundation, in collaboration with PAN UK, and can be downloaded from www.ejfoundation.org/cotton.