Transcript IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GLOBAL PLAN ACTION, SAICM

PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Workshop on Development of Legal and Institutional
Infrastructure Chemicals - (SAICM) Implementation,
Bangkok, 23-25 May, 2007
OUR VISION
“Our vision is a society that is truly
democratic, equal, just, culturally
diverse, and based on food
sovereignty, gender justice and
environmental sustainability.”
PAN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Regional Network
Represented in
• 15 countries in Asia and the
Pacific
• 110 network partners
• 300 participants
Pesticides are used in
conditions of poverty
• Many susceptible workers: pregnant women, very young / old
workers, unhealthy workers, low literacy rates
• Importance of PPE: Awareness? Availability? Affordability?
Wearability?
• No washing facilities in field; limited household washing facilities
Photo: Catherina Wesseling, Costa Rica
Photo: Francois Meienberg, Pakistan
Typical conditions of use
• Poor (no) spray equipment; nozzles cleared by blowing
• Many pesticide users know that pesticides are hazardous
(product stewardship) but no major breakthrough in
changing behavior and practices
• Registration of pesticides in developing countries:
shortage of regulators and inspectors; check data rather
than carry out risk evaluation
• Product quality, repackaging, adulteration, sales strategies
• Pesticides are valuable: No lockable storage facilities;
storage in house
• Poor product information: pesticides for one crop (e.g.
cotton) used on others (e.g. cowpea)
• Self medication – Clinics and hospitals remote; first aid
training limited
Mixing and Spraying of
Pesticides
Picture from Sumatra, Indonesia
Repackaged pesticides
•
Improper Disposal of Pesticide Containers
Community Monitoring
• PAN works to build stronger
linkages with affected
communities and people’s
movements to strengthen
their struggle
• CPAM - PAN’s community
monitoring methodologies
are pioneering a community
documentation, action and
organising. Tool for
community support and
action.
• Documenting and recording
of poisoning incidents has
increased
Victim of Pesticide
Poisoning that caused
Huge Lump on the Throat
Community Empowerment
Through Community Based
Pesticide Monitoring
Community Monitoring to enhance:
Increase level of information and
technical capacity on pesticides at
local level
Trained women and local leaders
Information gathering
Collaboration – community & health
groups, NGOs/CSOs and “scientists”
Monitoring and Collection of Data:
•Identification of pesticides problems
 Assist in building awareness farmers,
agricultural workers, rural women
 Feed into local/national interventions campaigns, policy, IPM/Sustainable
agriculture
National/International Level
Action
Community
monitoring
• Ban of paraquat in
Malaysia
• Ban of endosulfan in
Kerala, India
• Kamukaan pressure on
banana plantation and
alternative livelihoods
• Eloor community near a
DDT plant in Kerala
• Ongoing documentation
of pesticide problems in 8
countries in Asia and
more are being planned
Barren Village of Kamukaan, Philippines
Pesticide Sprayer With a
Knapsack Equipment
Case study: Paraquat: Threats to
health
•
Paraquat is highly acutely toxic & enters the body
mainly by swallowing, or through damaged skin, but
may also be inhaled
•
1 teaspoon of concentrated paraquat can result in
death
•
Death is by respiratory failure & may occur within a
few days after poisoning or as long as a month later
•
There is no antidote!
•
Paraquat damages the lungs, heart, kidneys, adrenal
glands, central nervous system, liver, muscles &
spleen, causing multi-organ failure
•
Severe acute & long-term health problems include
severe dermatitis, second degree burns, nosebleeds,
rapid heart rate, kidney failure, & respiratory failure
Some chronic effects identified include:
developmental & reproductive effects; links to skin
cancer & Parkinson’s disease
•
Problems in Malaysia
Mixing the Pesticides with the Bare
Hands
Women Sprayers in the Estates
•Women are the major workforce on plantations in Malaysia around 30,000 women workers
•They routinely mix, handle & spray pesticides, & are poisoned
by pesticides (mostly herbicides) they spray daily
•Women have suffered a myriad of serious acute & chronic
health effects
Community Based Pesticides Monitoring
 1999- 2001 - PAN
AP & Tenaganita
(Women’s Force)
work with women
plantation workers
on community
based pesticides
monitoring to
assess health
impacts
 “Poisoned and Silenced”
launched in 2001, identified
paraquat as a main offender in
palm oil plantations, &
recommendations made for it
to be banned along with all
WHO Class 1 pesticides
 Involvement of the
Malaysian National
Poisons Centre in the
report, & activities by
Tenaganita & PAN AP
 Malaysian Pesticide
Board also concerned
about the pesticide
Paraquat banned in
Malaysia in August 2002
 But since ban, Syngenta and
MPOA has undertaken various
activities to overturn the ban
 Malaysian Pesticides Board
stands firm to ban.
 The industry approaches &
appeals to the highest levels of
political leadership
Malaysian Ban Under Threat
•April 15, 2005 - Malaysian govt plan
to reconsider paraquat ban
•Agriculture & Agro-Based Industries
Ministry decides on review after
“presentations” made by smallholders & “key” industry players
•April 20, 2005 - PAN AP, Tenaganita
& over 20 women plantation workers
go to Malaysian Parliament to lobby
MPs & Press Conference held
•"We will struggle and continue our
fight to keep the ban on paraquat!”
states Nagamah, women plantation
workers leader
•Minister responds, decision on lifting
ban left to Pesticides board
•PAN AP launches world-wide appeal
to Malaysian Government to keep
paraquat ban
• A further extension of paraquat’s
use till 2007 is announced.
Case study: Endosulfan in Kerala
• In 1979, a farmer in Kasargod realised that
Mentally and Physically Challenged Children
endosulfan could have caused the deformed
Kasargod
limbs and stunted growth of his 3 calves and
alerted the village.
•The Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK)
in the 1970s had started aerial spraying of
pesticides particularly endosulfan to control
tea mosquito bugs.
•In 1994 KSSP undertook a study that showed
that disability rate of people in the area was
73% higher than overall disability rates for
the entire state
• In 1997, a local medical doctor found large Shruti was Born with Three Deformed Limbs
number of unusual diseases among his
patients and wrote to the Indian Medical
Association.
•As the health complaints mounted, a local
agricultural assistant found her son was
depressed and her daughter was suffering
hormonal problems and together with others
appealed before the local court for a stay on
aerial spray. The court issued a stay order.
•Thanal and SEEK separately undertook two
fact finding mission reported incidence of
similar diseases in the villages. This was
followed by a long-term monitoring of the
Kasargod: a long struggle for justice
• In 2000, the Government school also recorded in its internal report that
most students coming from the areas around the plantation were
observed to be mentally and physically deficient compared to students
coming from other areas.
• In October 2000, a local court ordered the permanent prohibition of use
of any insecticide by air in the Periya plantation area.
• CSE from New Delhi undertook laboratory analysis of blood, water and
other samples and the analysis showed the presence of endosulfan.
• Studies and counter studies – PCK had a private lab to analyze
samples but they did not find any elevated endosulfan levels
• The Kerala Agriculture University asked an expert committee to
investigate and found that even though there were problems related to
nervous system in some families that there is no evidence to show
endosulfan as the cause
• Kerala than lifted the ban in 2002
• A large-scale epidemiology study in the area started in 2001 by the
National Institute of Medical Research found “high prevalence of
nuero-behavioural disorders, congenital malformation in female
children and abnormalities related to the male reproductive system had
no other cause but the continuous aerial spraying of endosulfan.”
• 2003, endosulfan spraying was permanently stopped following the
directions of the Kerala High Court, based on the precautionary
principle.
PAN’s Policy Work in the UN
• Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent
(PIC) on Certain Hazardous Chemicals in
International Trade
• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic
Pollutants (POPs):
• International Code of Conduct on the distribution
and Use of pesticides
• Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety
• The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals
Management (SAICM)
Alternatives
Advancing Agroecological
strategies of agricultural
production, their success in
reducing health and environmental
harm while maintaining yields, and
related economic benefits
PAN focuses on:
•Rice and ecological agriculture
•Implementation of Farmer Field
Schools IPM
•Agroecological promotion in other
crops
•Commodity supply chains eg.
Palm oil (RSPO)
•Alternatives to pesticide in homes
Sustainable (Ecological)
Agriculture: successful and ensures
food security
Gita Pertiwi and Field outreach to
10,000 families in Indonesia
• 20,000 farmers practising LIESA
and 50,000 farmers involved in
“Save our Rice Campaign with
Thanal in India
•Alternative Agriculture network in
Thailand (AAN)
•SIBAT and SEARICE in the
Philippines
•SHISUK’s rice-fish cultivation a
model for poverty alleviation
Save Our Rice Campaign
• Five Pillars of Rice Wisdom
- Food sovereignty
- Safe Food
- Culture
- Biodiversity based Ecological
Agriculture
- Community Wisdom
Role of civil society
• Creating awareness
• Supporting local struggles
• Building capacity to participate and
asserting rights of people through:
- Strengthen local communities technical
capacities
- Providing technical support
- Assisting documentation and highlighting
the problems
- Alerting public and relevant agencies and
organisations
- Providing recommendations
- Watchdog role
• Providing alternatives where possible
BARRIERS to CSO participation:
THE LACK OF:
• Democratic spaces -- mechanisms to
ensure participation and consultation
• Political will to ensure participation
• Freedom of information
• Press Freedom
• Complex relationships with the
industry including political support to
chemical industry
• Accountability and
• Transparency (right to know)
• Confrontation
• Criminalisation –
In April, 1993, Hoechst slapped a law suit on Dr. Romy Quijano,
a toxicologist and a pesticides and human rights activist, for
criticising a Hoechst product, Thiodan (endosulfan).
• Legal suits –
• Madhumita Dutta ,an environmental activist - received legal
summons to appear before a court in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh
for publishing an investigation on acute pesticide poisoning in the
district. The case filed by the pesticide industry association, Crop
Care Federation.
Systematic synergies/collaboration
with other regional and international
networks
• IPEN (International POPs Elimination Network)
• GAIA
• PCFS – People’s Coalition on Food
Sovereignty
• APC – Asian Peasants Coalition
• CAWI – Coalition of Agricultural Workers
• Committee of Women Workers (CAW)
THANK YOU
www.panap.net