PAN AP Appeals for Agricultural Workers, Peasants and Farmers
PRESS RELEASE
1 May 2009
In observance of 1st May, Labour Day, Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) reveals its initial findings on community monitoring of pesticide use and practices that indicate adverse impacts on agricultural workers, peasants and farmers, and appeals to governments of Asian developing countries to address the impacts of pesticides on workers’ health.
Around 25 million agricultural workers are being poisoned in developing countries according to the 1990 WHO World Health Statistics Quarterly. “However, such figures reflect only the most severe cases, and are likely to significantly underestimate unintentional pesticide poisonings, because they are based primarily on hospital registries.” says Dr. Meriel Watts, PAN Aotearoa New Zealand. She furthers, “Underreporting is endemic in all countries but especially in the poorer ones where few workers have access to medical personnel, and often symptoms are not recognised by either victims or medical personnel as resulting from pesticides.”
“The availability and unrelenting use of highly hazardous pesticides including WHO Class 1 pesticides by agricultural workers, peasants and farmers clearly shows how governments are more concerned with the industries making profit than the labourers’ rights to health and, safe working conditions and environment.” says Sarojeni V. Rengam, Executive Director of PAN AP. She adds, “The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’ s Code of Conduct has been in place since 1985 and it is really disturbing to find out that inappropriate incentives or gifts continue to be given out to encourage the purchase of pesticides, especially highly hazardous pesticides.”
PAN AP’s report entitled “Community Monitoring of Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) Implementation on Pesticide Use and Practices” is a compilation of studies implemented by eleven organisations in eight Asian countries – Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. 1306 respondents were interviewed and more than 118 retail stores were surveyed, with 55 human health incident reports gathered.
Based on the initial findings, PAN AP recommends the development of a global partnership to rapidly reduce and eliminate highly hazardous pesticides and for governments and industry to ensure that pesticides that require Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are not registered, sold or used in developing countries in which the conditions of use are such that these pesticides can not be used safely, in particular because of a lack of, or inadequacy in, or inability to purchase PPE.
The report indicates that:
1. Highly hazardous pesticides are being used at diverse sites throughout Asia. 51% of respondents from Thrissur, Kerala (India) have used methyl parathion (WHO Class 1a) and 36% of respondents from Cambodia have used pesticides containing monocrotophos (WHO Class 1) that is banned in the country.
2. Precautions taken, especially the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), are lacking and awareness of specific pesticides and hazards is low, putting users at risk. Manual backpack spraying and the use of bare hands in handling pesticides were observed in the study sites.
3. Knowledge and information is not reliably passed on to the user via labels. The survey of retail stores shows that their personnel are not consistently advising agricultural workers, peasants and farmers about the hazards of pesticides.
4. Pesticide advertisements and retail store practices were documented that are in violation of the Code of Conduct set by UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The agricultural shops of Wonosobo district (Indonesia) offer an annual prize if farmers buy more than Rp60,000 with the prizes of electronic home appliances, motorcycle and even a ticket for a couple to go to Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca).
The report and recommendations are based on the initial findings of the Community Monitoring and International Advocacy Project in Asia and will be presented at the Second Session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management in Geneva from 11th – 15th May 2009. It hopes to contribute in monitoring the progress towards SAICM’s overall objective that “by 2020, chemicals are used and produced in ways that lead to the minimization of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment.” Details of the full report can be found at http://www.panap. net/uploads/ media/monitorgre p.pdf.
