Home page > Environment > Chemicals and Pesticides > Pesticides > EU fails to ban dangerous pesticide (...)

Several environmental NGOs and trade unions have expressed their dissapointment with EU’s failure to ban dangerous pesticide ’paraquat’.

The EU failed late on Friday 3 October to ban Paraquat, one of the most dangerous and controversial herbicides in the world.

The EU Commission’s Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health did not exclude paraquat from the list of active substances authorised at EU level (Annex 1 of the Pesticides Authorisation Directive 91/414).

Paraquat use will now continue.

Workers and farmers around the world who are regularly exposed to the Paraquat pesticide experience serious problems with their health.

Its high toxicity and lack of antidote can lead to serious ill-health, and even death. Studies also indicate that paraquat has adverse effects on hares and birds, and may accumulate in soil.

For more information, contact:

- Friends of the Earth Europe

- Swedish Society for Nature Conservation

- European Environmental Bureau

- Pesticides Action Network Europe

- International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations

Last modified on February 6 2004.

Your feedback is valuable to us!

Was this article interesting and relevant for you? Do you have any comments?