UN calls on governments to protect farm workers from killer pesticides

With an estimated 1 million to 5 million cases of pesticide poisoning occurring every year, several thousand of them fatal and most of them in the developing world, United Nations agencies today called on national governments to better protect agricultural workers.

"There is a widespread awareness that farm workers are at particular risk when pesticides are used improperly or when accidents occur," Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Assistant Director-General Louise Fresco told a meeting of government representatives in Geneva.

In developed countries, the most hazardous pesticides are either banned or strictly controlled, and farm workers who handle them wear protective clothing and equipment. But this is not always the case in developing nations, which use only 25 per cent of global pesticide production but account for a staggering 99 per cent of the related deaths.

Too often workers lack appropriate equipment, or the climate is too hot and humid to wear protective clothing comfortably. Spraying equipment may leak, and because workers may not have easy access to washing facilities they often wear contaminated clothing throughout the day, eating and drinking with contaminated hands.

The Geneva meeting is considering adding eight new pesticides to the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade. The FAO and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) staff the Convention, which seeks to help developing countries more effectively manage hazardous chemicals and pesticides.

The pact prevents shipment of these chemicals - many of them linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems - into developing nations without explicit prior agreement, and enables Member States to alert each other to possible risks. Whenever a government anywhere in the world bans or restricts a chemical for health or environmental reasons, this is reported to all member countries.

"The Rotterdam Convention will play a major role in empowering governments to ensure that only those pesticides that they can safely manage enter the country and that pesticides which are not appropriate to local conditions and technologies are excluded," Ms. Fresco said.