Success in Geneva

Delegates at the fifth meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee in Geneva have reached a decision that endosulfan is sufficiently dangerous to humans and the environment that global action is warranted.

India continued to fight a global ban on endosulfan, rejecting all attempts at consensus-building during the meetings. Once again, this lack of consensus led to a vote to decide endosulfan’s fate. The vast majority of the Committee members (including France, Burkina Faso, Republic of Korea, and Honduras) favoured endosulfan’s progression to the next stage in the review process, while India was the only member to vote against it.

The final decision was taken to adopt the risk profile drawn up for endosulfan, and develop a risk management evaluation. During this stage, more information will be gathered on the toxicity and eco-toxicity of endosulfan, for discussion at the next Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee meeting.

This is an important break-through for endosulfan, and means endosulfan has progressed one step closer to a global ban.

The proposal to ban endosulfan will now proceed to the next stage of the review process: the development of a ‘risk management evaluation’. This means that the Review Committee will have to consider submissions from parties and observers, assessing the range of options for endosulfan’s management and elimination, before they can make a recommendation to the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (COP).

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Pesticide moves closer to a global ban

EJF is part of the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN) and is pleased to share their press release from the Geneva meetings 16th October 2009

GENEVA ‐ After a heated debate, an international expert scientific panel concluded that the pesticide endosulfan requires global action to prevent further harms to human health and the environment(ref 1). The decision by the Stockholm Convention POPs Review Committee (POPRC) sets the stage for a global ban of the chemical under the treaty. The panel acknowledged that endosulfan is persistent in the environment, is transported though the air to the Polar regions where it bioaccumulates in the food chain, and is of such high toxicity that it is a threat to humans and wildlife.

“Endosulfan is poisonous and indefensible. This decision puts the world on notice that production and use of endosulfan must stop, “said Dr Meriel Watts of Pesticide Action Network. “For the sake of protecting their own people and the health of the planet, China, India, Israel, and South Korea should cease manufacturing this poison.”

India is the world’s largest remaining manufacturer of endosulfan and the government itself owns a major endosulfan factory. In what is now regarded as one of the world’s worse pesticide incidents, the aerial spraying of endosulfan on cashew nut plantations in Kerala, South India resulted in hundreds of deaths and chronic illnesses including birth defects of nearby villagers.

“Endosulfan not only kills people but contaminates our environment, our wildlife, human breast milk, women’s placentas, and even our newborns. It is clear that the time for this old, outmoded and dangerous pesticide is over,” said Dr Lloyd-Smith, Co-Chair, International POPs Elimination Network.

During the meeting, the POPRC committee member from India tried to delay and block the decision. In the final moments, India refused to agree to a consensus decision and forced a vote to be taken.

India was the only country to vote against the proposal to proceed with the evaluation.

Before the meeting Pesticide Action Network (PAN) and the International POPS Elimination Network (IPEN) expressed concern about allowing a country such as India with a clear conflict of interest to participate in decision making.

Endosulfan moves steadily to colder regions, contaminating the Arctic. “This decision is especially critical for the protection of the health of the Arctic indigenous peoples who are exposed to endosulfan through their traditional foods such as fish, marine mammals and seabird eggs. Given that endosulfan levels are not diminishing in the Arctic and are likely to increase this decision is all the more necessary and urgent”, said Pam Miller, biologist and Executive Director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics.

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