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Rome — FAO and WHO offer road map to deal with Highly Hazardous Pesticides . FAO and WHO have
released new guidelines aimed at reducing the damage done by pesticides
that pose especially high toxic risks to human health and the
environment.
Products with high
acute toxicity account for high numbers of immediate poisoning cases,
particularly in developing countries, while products with chronic
toxicity effects may cause cancer or developmental disorders among
growing children.
In industrialized
countries, such so-called "highly hazardous pesticides" may be no longer
permitted or subject to strict use limitations, yet they often remain
widely available in developing countries. Even hazardous products that
still are permitted in industrialised countries can cause severe
problems in the developing world, where use circumstances can be very
different.
Small-scale farmers
in developing countries in particular often do not have, or use, the
necessary protective gear and mostly use back-pack sprayers that pose
high risk of exposure.
Restriction on the
use of such highly hazardous products often prove hard to enforce,
leading to widespread use by untrained persons. High numbers of
poisoning cases, contaminated food and environmental damage can be the
result.
Focusing on the culprits
A relatively small
group of highly hazardous pesticides is often the cause of the majority
of poisoning cases. In many cases, these can be replaced by less
hazardous products or, even better integrated pest management (IPM)
approaches that aim at reducing reliance on pesticides.
The Guidelines
offer a road map to help countries identify and deal with highly
hazardous pesticides. This involves inventory taking, assessing risks
and actual needs, and then taking appropriate risk mitigation measures.
In many cases, this will be phasing out of the product, but in cases
where there are no good alternatives, other risk mitigation actions may
be considered.
The local conditions of use and feasibility of control measures should be an important factor in decision taking.
FAO has also
launched a Pesticide Registration Toolkit to assist governments in
conducting hazard and risk assessments as part of their national
pesticide approval process. This toolkit can also be used to re-assess
products that have been approved in the past, but are now identified as
highly hazardous.
Concerted global action
The push for
improved governance of pesticides accelerated last year when the SAICM
International Conference on Chemicals Management adopted a resolution
calling for concerted action to address HHPs. FAO and the World Health
Organization now provide the guidance to move forward on this.
Governments are
encouraged to use the new guidelines and the toolkit to review their
existing lists of approved pesticides in order to identify HHPs and take
the necessary measures to reduce the risks to users, consumers and the
environment. This also implies the strengthening of IPM as a recognized
pillar in the design of sustainable crop protection systems.
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