Over the past 4 years, since our successful campaign to ban endosulfan from use in Cambodia, EJF has pressed for the global eradication of endosulfan, one of the world’s deadliest pesticides.

We have received a great response from EJF supporters like you who have written to the European Commission, urging them to take the lead in ensuring that endosulfan is banned from manufacture and use.

We are really delighted to announce that the European Union has now taken the bold and progressive step of proposing endosulfan as a chemical to be listed under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. If added to the Convention list, endosulfan will be subject to restrictions leading to its eradication from global use, a measure that will directly save countless lives and protect our global environment.

The EU proposal will be reviewed at a meeting of the Convention in Geneva (19-23 November), and we are urging supporters to write to the EU Commission to congratulate them on this positive move, and to encourage them to press for the strongest restrictive measures possible, which will result in the eradication of endosulfan in the near future, protecting rural communities and wildlife.

Endosulfan is a highly toxic, outdated chemical, the safe use of which cannot be guaranteed in many of the developing countries where it is still used. Worse still, endosulfan, like DDT, is an organochlorine and persists in the environment long after it has killed the target pests, leaving a deadly legacy for people and wildlife.

According to one farmer who observed birds and frogs dying following the consumption of insects sprayed with endosulfan:

“Fields smell awful two or three days after spraying because virtually every living thing has been killed and starts to rot”.

Governments should ban endolsulfan use immediately, and the international community should recognize the lethal long-term effects of this chemical by ensuring that it is included in the list of chemicals targeted for global elimination under the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants.

What is endosulfan?

Endosulfan is used primarily to kill insects and mites on crops including tea, coffee, cotton, fruits, vegetables, soya, rice and grains. Applied to cotton grown in 28 countries, endosulfan is one of the most widely-used cotton pesticides. In India, home to the world’s largest cotton farming community, over 3,000 tonnes is applied to crops annually.

Why is it a problem?

Endosulfan is acutely toxic and is readily absorbed by the stomach and lungs, and through the skin. Symptoms of acute exposure include central nervous system disorders such as dizziness, vomiting, diarrhoea, breathing difficulties, convulsions, and loss of consciousness. In extreme cases, death can result. The chemical has been linked to dozens of accidental deaths in the USA, Colombia, Benin, India, Malaysia, Sudan and the Philippines. Endosulfan may be the most important source of fatal poisoning in West Africa’s cotton farmers.


In Benin’s Borgou province, endosulfan poisoning caused many deaths during the 1999/2000 cotton season. Official records state that at least 37 people died and a further 36 became seriously ill, although an independent report estimated that nearly 70 people actually lost their lives.

Long term exposure to endosulfan has been linked to damage to kidneys, liver and developing foetuses. Scientific studies by the US EPA have led to endosulfan being cited “as a potential endocrine [hormone] disruptor.” This means that the chemical has the potential to interfere with normal hormone production and activity. Implications of this may include disruption of development, and promotion of certain types of cancer.

In Kerala, India, endosulfan has been linked to hundreds if deaths and disorders among cashew nut plantation workers and villagers. Aerial spraying over many years has led to shockingly high levels of endosulfan residues detected in blood and breast milk, and cancers and disorders of the reproductive and central nervous systems are very common.

“No other reasonable cause can explain the illnesses experienced by the people, except endosulfan” Romeo Quijano, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of the Philippines.

Endosulfan has harmful effects on aquatic systems and is highly toxic to fish, bees, birds and other wildlife. The effects can be swift and devastating. Farmers in Benin have observed frogs and birds dying after they eat insects in fields sprayed with endosulfan. Mass deaths of fish have been documented in five continents after endosulfan has run-off fields into streams and rivers.