Greenpeace calls for ban on 327 heavily toxic pesticides

02-11-2008: Greenpeace published a list of 327 pesticides which according to a new study are particularly dangerous to health and the environment. A total of 1134 pesticides in use worldwide were examined on behalf of the environmental organisation by two independent experts who looked at them under 14 different aspects. 29 per cent were put on a 'blacklist of dangerous pesticides'. These included 168 pesticides permitted in the European Union. Greenpeace is calling on the EU to ban these most dangerous pesticides. Corporations must also now act and take them off the market immediately.

"In conventional agriculture highly hazardous pesticides are still sprayed on fruit, vegetables and grain on an alarming scale," says Greenpeace's toxics expert, Manfred Krautter. "Chemicals that can cause cancer, impair the ability to reproduce or damage hormonal and immune systems should not be in our food. The EU must also stop permitting substances which are harmful to the environment and threatening to bees or birds, and which contaminate groundwater. The legislation on approving pesticides now being discussed in Brussels must be improved accordingly."

Often there is a lack of publicly available data on the hazardousness of pesticides. Although the authors of the study drew on information from over 20 international data banks, 564 of the pesticidal agents investigated, or 50 per cent, could not be assessed on account of lack of data. Another 243 pesticides were classified as presenting a lesser hazard. Greenpeace on 31 January presented a study on the limits to pesticide analysis, in which it said that over half the pesticides known today cannot be detected by state laboratories. Greenpeace is also calling for such toxins to stop being used.