Global action against weedkiller sharpens focus on future here

Agricultural authorities are considering a possible ban or tighter controls on the importation and use of paraquat, the highly toxic weedkiller known by the trade name Gramoxone – more than 40 years after concerns were first raised about its potential harm to human health, Barbados TODAY can reveal exclusively. The review follows a growing number of countries moving to phase out the chemical, with the American state of California the latest, amid studies increasingly associating it with Parkinson’s disease and other health problems. Paraquat has long been regarded as one of the world’s most hazardous pesticides. It was included in Pesticide Action Network International’s “Dirty Dozen” campaign, launched in 1985, which called for strict controls, bans and eventual elimination of 12 exceptionally dangerous pesticides. By the early 1990s, several countries had already banned or severely restricted paraquat because of its extreme acute toxicity and record of fatal poisonings.  Deputy Chief Agricultural Officer Michael James told Barbados TODAY on Thursday: “That is but one of the products under our radar that we are currently discussing. So, I can’t give you our policy on that just yet, because we haven’t come to a conclusion on that; but I can tell you that it is but one of the products we are currently looking at.”  He added: “There are a number of different countries that have looked to phase it out for a number of different reasons; and so, from the international agencies, from time to time, chemicals are submitted to us for us to have a review to determine if to continue using these particular products, or what should happen. That is but one of the products.” But the deputy chief agricultural officer explained that the country would first need to find an alternative to replace any banned chemical: “You can’t just stop certain products like that. You have to look at what alternatives exist for these products. So, as I said, all of this is currently being taken under consideration. There is a study linking it to Parkinson’s disease. There are also studies related to ingestion of it.”   The Pesticide Control Board, a Ministry of Agriculture watchdog, is to meet to decide the fate of the popular, fast-acting herbicide, Barbados TODAY has learned. Among the options facing the board will be whether to make paraquat available only to registered farmers, or “only to people that are registered to use it. There may be different options, but I can’t speak to it, because it is currently still under discussion.” Paraquat has been sold on the domestic market for decades, including under several other brand names besides Gramoxone. Chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS), James Paul, said any decision to prohibit the use of the chemical would have to remain with the experts. He insisted that farmers follow all safety guidelines in using the weedkiller. “We have to follow the science in terms of it. We have very strict safety guidelines in terms of chemicals in this country; and one of the things that we try to do is encourage farmers to abide by those safety guidelines and, by and large, I believe that they do,” the BAS chief told Barbados TODAY. “As to whether or not it should be banned, I do not know. It is used in food production; and on the other hand, it has to do with people adhering to the safety guidelines. I think that, by and large, what we recognise is that there are still many countries around the world that still use the product; even in the Caribbean, from which we import food, I know people use the product,” he said, while agreeing there would be a need to find an alternative if it is banned. “So, it is whether people who utilise the product are following those safety guidelines and regulations. That is where I think you might get a level of comfort from.” The action by California, the largest agricultural state in the US, highlights growing concern over the chemical’s health effects, even as American farmers describe it as an essential tool and continue to spray millions of pounds of it on crops each year. In March, following lawsuits from thousands of people who blame paraquat for their illnesses, agrochemical company Syngenta announced it would stop producing the chemical, leaving generic manufacturers to fill the void. A company spokesperson said the claims made in the lawsuits were meritless. In May, Vermont became the first state to ban paraquat. In June, two congresswomen from opposite ideological camps – Representative Chellie Pingree, Democrat of Maine, and Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida – introduced a bill to prohibit it in the US. For now, federal regulators have declined to act. Environmental advocates say this reflects how unwieldy US pesticide laws are, and how difficult it is to eliminate a chemical that some farmers say they cannot do without. Media coverage of paraquat’s widespread availability in Barbados in 1992 brought a swift response from its original developer, the former Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), which hailed the product as “the poor man’s hoe” – a fast-acting, non-selective herbicide. Paraquat was first synthesised in 1882 as methyl viologen, initially used as a chemical dye; its powerful weed-killing properties were identified in 1955 at ICI laboratories in Britain. ICI began industrial production in 1961 and marketed it internationally from 1962 as Gramoxone, widely used to control grasses and broadleaf weeds.  Paraquat quickly became one of the world’s most popular weedkillers. It works by disrupting photosynthesis and releasing free radicals to kill nearby cells. Within hours of applying it to weeds, farmers see them wilt and brown. But it inactivates immediately upon touching the soil.  But across the Caribbean, paraquat has had a more grim history outside of the grass verge or farm. The chemical became a significant means of intentional self-poisoning after its agricultural introduction in the 1970s, owing to its accessibility and exceptionally high lethality after ingesting only small quantities of the chemical.  Historical evidence records paraquat-related suicides in Suriname, Dominica, Jamaica and especially Trinidad and Tobago: in southern Trinidad in 1996, 39 of 48 recorded suicides (81.3 per cent) involved paraquat, while a 1996–97 forensic series found it responsible for 80 of 105 fatal acute poisonings. Amid this deadly track record, which also included accidental poisoning, ICI made adjustments to Gramoxone, changing its cola-like colour to a bilious green and adding an emetic to try to trigger vomiting after ingesting the chemical. Paraquat has been banned or severely restricted in more than 70 countries, including Britain and all 27 European Union nations. Following corporate restructuring, production passed from ICI to Zeneca in 1993 and then to Syngenta, formed from the merger of Novartis Agribusiness and Zeneca Agrochemicals in 2000. (EJ) The post Global action against weedkiller sharpens focus on future here appeared first on Barbados Today.