EJF wants to send out a big 'thank you' to all our supporters who took our online action on endosulfan - we are delighted to announce that Australia has now joined the rapidly growing list of countries to ban this hazardous agro-chemical.

12/10/10

Today, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) announced that it has cancelled the registration of the deadly pesticide endosulfan.

This means that all endosulfan products sold for use in Australia will be phased out over the next two years. By 2013, the use of endosulfan in any form in the country will be illegal.

This decision follows a recent study showing that the prolonged use of endosulfan is likely to lead to adverse environmental effects via spray drift and run-off.

It was concluded that these long term risks could not be mitigated through restrictions on use or variations to label instructions.

Surprisingly, risks to human health were not a factor in the APVMA decision. These have been the foremost concern for many other countries which have introduced bans, including the USA which concluded that endosulfan could not be used safely for the majority of its uses in the country.
 

The Stockholm Convention

Some of the new environmental data on which the APVMA's decision is based emerged following the recent nomination of endosulfan to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). This nomination focussed more attention on endosulfan and produced a large volume of new information on its environmental fate and effects.

If endosulfan is listed in the Convention then its manufacture and use will be restricted globally.

India is the only country to have consistently opposed the listing, which is more likely than not a case of vested self-interest. The Indian Government is owner and beneficiary of one of India's largest endosulfan manufacturers.
 

Help make a global ban a reality

For a global ban to become a reality we must take urgent action to push more countries to reassess the use of this deadly chemical capable of causing severe physical deformities and neurological disorders.

Read about the high price of endosulfan
being paid by ordinary people in EJF’s latest report End of the Road for Endosulfan.