Stop the Poisonings! Stop Paraquat!

PAN AP pressured national governments and supported partners in campaigns targeting specific pesticides such as paraquat and endosulfan, and heavy pesticides users such as banana plantations.

Paraquat is among the most widely used pesticide for weed control. Its adverse health effects are recognised, and industrialised countries that allow paraquat use all recommend stringent precautions. But these conditions cannot be guaranteed in developing countries. The leading manufacturer, Syngenta, now shares the market with other companies, and all target sales in Asia and Latin America, where public interest groups have called for a phase out because of health concerns.

Syngenta is the only paraquat manufacturer and sells the pesticide globally under the brand name Gramoxone. It is extensively used on bananas, cocoa, coffee, cotton, palm oil, pineapple, rubber, and sugar cane - in plantations and small-scale farms. Paraquat is highly acutely toxic, with no known antidote. Less than one teaspoon, if ingested, is fatal. It is also blamed for causing severe acute and long term health problems such as severe dermatitis, kidney failure, respiratory failure, rapid heart rate, second degree burns, skin cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

Health effects from paraquat exposure:

The exposure of farmers and agricultural workers to paraquat, during mixing and spraying, has acute (immediate) toxic effects and chronic (long-term) effects on health. Acute health effects occur frequently among paraquat users and include eye injury, nosebleed, irritation and burns of skin or other parts of the body. The symptoms of acute poisoning are nausea, vomiting or pains, and difficulty in breathing may develop with a delay of two to three days. The exposure to relatively low doses of paraquat over a longer period of time may damage health. Chronic exposure to paraquat can affect the lungs, nerve system or brain, skin and reproduction (potential birth defects). In epidemiological studies the long-term exposure to low doses of paraquat was linked to small changes in the gas exchange of the lung and was associated with an increased risk for developing Parkinson's Disease (PD).

Due to these facts paraquat is part of the Dirty Dozen List. PAN International launched the Dirty Dozen campaign in 1985 to target a list of extremely hazardous pesticides for banning or stricter controls, and to advocate their replacement with safer and more sustainable pest control methods. In order to accelerate the phase-out of paraquat, several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from Asia (including PAN AP), America and Europe launched the “Stop paraquat” campaign in 2002.

This campaign, which urges Syngenta to stop paraquat production, has already achieved some remarkable results, Malaysia banned paraquat in August 2002 – one of the first Asian countries to do so and Chiquita decided to ban paraquat from all its banana plantations.

According to the National Poison Centre, the number of cases due to the herbicide paraquat has been rising. The paraquat poisoning cases, showing an overall increase in the number of cases reported between 2002 and 2008. A ban was placed on the herbicide in 2002 but was temporarily lifted in 2006, and paraquat poisoning cases have more than doubled since then.

In the Pesticide Board Meeting in Putrajaya, PAN AP pushed the Malaysian government to reinstate the ban on paraquat. PAN AP facilitated meetings among the survivors of Paraquat poisoning to articulate their issues and presented these to the authorities. The Malaysian government has deferred its decision pending results of a commissioned study on paraquat and its alternatives. Nonetheless, PAN AP continues to lobby for the ban and to work closely with rural women agricultural workers who are most affected by paraquat. PAN Germany produced a field guide on “How to Grow Crops without Paraquat” in contribution to the campaign in Asia and these are being distributed.

In Indonesia, the influence of Gita Pertiwi contributed to a plan to ban Paraquat in 2009 by the Agricultural Ministry. In Sri Lanka, restrictions are now in place and the Pesticide Registrar is planning to ban it by 2010.

Global Registration Status of Paraquat (Gramoxone)

Paraquat is registered and sold in around 100 developed and developing countries around the world, including key major agricultural markets with some of the most demanding regulatory systems such as USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.