PHA-Exchange> Fw: CMAI-- topica list> Request for Solidarity support - from Daisy

[jo]

I am forwarding an urgent alert from Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific
[PAN AP]

Joe Varghese
Policy Advocacy and Research Group
Christian Medical Association of India
A-3 Janakpuri
New Delhi 110 058
Phone - 91-11-5599991/2/3
Fax - 91-11-5598150
E-mail - jvarghese at cmai.org
Web - www.cmai.org

----- Original Message -----
From: Daisy Dharmaraj nee PAul <prepare at md4.vsnl.net.in>
To: Suriya David <koddka at yahoo.com>; Dr. Jayaprakash Muhijil
<jayaprakash at cmcvellore.ac.in>; Anuradha Wickremasinghe
<sffl at sri.lanka.net>; Benjamin Franklin <jfrederick at yahoo.com>; Jayaprakash,
JP <jpsabbithi at cmcvellore.ac.in>; vinohar <vinohar at cmcvellore.ac.in>; Pankaj
Mehta <pmehta at unicef.org>; Gift Norman <giftnorman at hotmail.com>; Sara
<s_bhattacharji at cmcvellore.ac.in>; johnny oommen <mercyj95 at yahoo.com>;
<kurian at bluewin.ch>; Mark Steinhoff <msteinho at jhsph.edu>; ciks
<ciks at vsnl.com>; cmai <cmai at topica.com>; tnvha <tnvha at md2.vsnl.net.in>
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 10:04 PM
Subject: CMAI-- topica list> Request for Solidarity support - from Daisy


Subject: URGENT Alert! Malaysia's Paraquat Ban Under Threat
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 06:41:31 -0600
From: Daisy
To: Malaysia's Paraquat Ban Under Threat


Dear Friends

Warm greetings!  I am presently writing to request your support on the
Paraquat/Syngenta campaign.

Please find below the URGENT Alert on "Malaysia's Paraquat Ban Under
Threat".

Paraquat is a dangerous pesticide, used in many countries despite WHO 's
classification.

In October last year  this pesticide was banned in Malaysia atfter a lot
of lobbying by the NGOs especially Pesticde Action Network Asia Pacific
(PAN AP).  Many had  sent email letters of support and encouragement to
the Director of the Pesticide Control Division at the Ministry of
Agriculture.    Since the decision, the Board has been inundated by
phone calls and appeals from industry (Syngenta in particular) and their
local cohorts to repeal the ban and phase out.  To date, the Malaysian
Pesticides Board has since held firm on the decision.

But it has recently come to our attention that industry has been
strongly lobbying the political leadership of the country, at the
highest echelons, to overturn this decision!

We need your help, to write letters of support and encouragement to the
Malaysian government, resolutely reiterating the need for the ban of
paraquat, and urging them to maintain the ban. Malaysian Government
especially values the impression of Asian NGOs , Doctors, Health
organisations  etc.


We strongly encourage you to compose the letters carrying your
insignias, logo and/or credentials. We recommend that the letters are
faxed to the offices of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, the Deputy Prime
Minister, and the Malaysian Minister of Agriculture.  Please remember to
also fax these to PAN AP office (604-657 7445) as we will use these in
our future discussions with our officials.

We would also sincerely appreciate it if you could mobilize among those
you feel would be best within your network to also send letters.



Thanks  for your help!

Daisy Dharmaraj

Member of Steering Council- PAN AP
------------------------------------

Brief  Background:

The Malaysian ban came after almost 17 years of effort by plantations
workers who have strengthened their struggle and call for safer working
environment and justice; as well as consistent work by regional and
local groups like PAN AP and Tenaganita (Women's Force).

On August 27th, 2002, the Pesticide Control Division of the Agriculture
Department issued a circular (endorsed by the Secretary of Malaysia's
Pesticides Control Board), stating that as of that date and with
immediate effect, new applications to register or re-register paraquat
would be rejected.  In addition, all applications currently under
process to register or re-register paraquat would be stopped. According
to the new ruling, all previously registered products-such as Syngenta's
Gramoxone-are to be phased out in stages.  In terms of advertisements,
all new applications to advertise will not be entertained, and all
applications currently under consideration for approval will be
stopped.  Presently, the board has not allowed any advertisements to
appear.

While the directive does not call on industry to recall stocks, or call
on retailers to stop sales immediately, it is a very significant
decision. Organized plantation workers, workers organizations, PAN AP,
our local partner Tenaganita (Women's Force) and other concerned groups
have welcomed and applauded this important decision by the Malaysian
government-the first country in Asia to do so.

The Threat!

Paraquat is the most important product of Syngenta, the worlds' biggest
agrochemical company. And unsurprisingly, the company had up till
recently been putting a lot of pressure on the Pesticides Board to
overturn this decision.  Just after the decision was made public, we
were informed that Syngenta Malaysia Ltd. representatives had made
visits to government officials about the ban. Articles then appeared in
our local papers supporting paraquat as "Safe to Use in Agriculture",
and calling for a repeal of the Ban and Phase Out.

But because the Board has held firm to the decision, we have learnt that
the industry has now approached the political leadership, at the highest
echelons, within the Malaysian government!

We need your Help NOW!

If industry succeeds with its approach to the leadership within the
government, there could very well be a repeal of the decision, and the
ban and phase out of paraquat could be lifted.

We must not let this happen!

Your help is urgently needed to write to the offices of the Prime
Minister of Malaysia, the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Malaysian
Minister of Agriculture. Please help us by writing a letter of support
and encouragement to the Malaysian government, resolutely reiterating
the need for the ban of paraquat, and strongly urging them to maintain
the ban.

We strongly encourage you to compose the letters carrying your
insignias, logo and/or credentials. We recommend that the letters are
faxed to the offices of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, the Deputy Prime
Minister, and the Malaysian Minister of Agriculture.

Please also cc. copies of your letters to PAN AP-this is very important,
as we will use these as proof of the Global Campaign and of global
support of the Paraquat Ban during our dialogue with Malaysian
government officials.

The contact details for the Malaysian officials are as follows:

Dato' Seri Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad
Prime Minister of Malaysia
Prime Minister's Office, Federal Government Administration Center
Bangunan Perdana Putra, 62502 Putrajaya, Malaysia
Fax: + 603 8888 3444

Dato' Seri Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi
Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
Deputy Prime Minister's Office, 4th Floor, West Wing,
Prime Minister's Department, 62502 Putrajaya, Malaysia.
Fax: +603 8888 3983

YB Datuk (Dr.) Effendi Norwawi
Minister of Agriculture Malaysia
The Ministry of Agriculture Malaysia, Wisma Tani,
Jalan Sultan Salahuddin, 50624 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Fax: + 603 2691 3758

I have included, as an example, the letter that PAN AP has sent to the
Prime Minister.

Sample of Letter sent by PAN AP:

Dato' Seri Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad
Prime Minister,
Prime Minister's Office,
Federal Government Administration Center
Bangunan Perdana Putra, 62502 Putrajaya
Malaysia

Fax: 603-88883444

Ms. Sarojeni V. Rengam
Executive Director
Pesticide Action Network
Asia and the Pacific

22nd   January, 2003

Your Excellency,

RE:  Decision by the Government of Malaysia to Ban Paraquat

Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) would like to
take this opportunity to sincerely thank and congratulate the Malaysian
Government for its groundbreaking decision to effectively ban and phase
out the production of paraquat in the country.

The decision taken on August 27th, 2002, via a circular from the
Pesticide Control Division of the Agriculture Department (and endorsed
by the Secretary of Malaysia's Pesticides Control Board), was a long
awaited one, but is nonetheless sincerely welcomed.

PAN AP as well as other local non-governmental organizations have been
involved in the campaign on this pesticide for over 17 years. Paraquat
is a known poison without an antidote, and has caused severe poisonings
in workers who use it.  The decision to ban this poison is in fact a
much needed move by the government to protect agricultural workers,
farmers and consumers, as well as the environment as a whole.

Paraquat has been widely used in plantations in this country for 40
years, and is known to cause a litany of problems for agricultural
workers, including severe illness and death. We hence applaud your
offices for taking such leadership to make Malaysia a pioneering country
in the region in its spearheading decision to phase out the use of this
controversial product.

Workers on estates are frequently employed as sprayers for six days a
week, ten months a year or more, and therefore have a high degree of
exposure to the chemical.  The greatest risk to workers of fatal and
serious accidents is during mixing and loading of spray equipment, where
contact with the chemical concentrate occurs.  Fatal accidents have also
been described due to prolonged contact with the diluted paraquat spray
during application. Conditions of use in many developing countries make
it difficult to follow label instructions and recommendations.

PAN AP and local workers rights organization, Tenaganita, in
collaboration with the Penang based  National Poisons Centre, undertook
a 2 year study to monitor pesticides use in the plantations. The study,
which was launched on March 21st 2002, was conducted in 17 plantations
in Selangor, Perak and Kedah, and focussed on pesticides sprayers on the
plantations-most of who were women.

The study noted that the major pesticide used in the plantations is
paraquat.  Poisoning due to paraquat is clearly demonstrated in the
surveys and interviews with workers, and indicated in the medical
examinations. The acute symptoms the women suffered included nosebleeds,
tearing of the eyes, contact dermatitis, skin irritation and sores, nail
discolouration, dropping of the nails, and abdominal ulcerations.

The easy and ready availability of paraquat has also made it one of the
main modes of suicide in the country, particularly since there is no
antidote.

Concerns over impacts of paraquat have been growing across the world.  A
study of 126 workers on fruit farms in the Western Cape area of South
Africa used a new test for measuring respiratory effects on the lungs of
workers with long-term exposure to paraquat.  The study, published in
'Occupational Environmental Medicine' in 1999, eliminated confounding
factors such as smoking history, alcohol consumption, age, weight, and
height. It found that the lung capacity of workers exposed to paraquat
was consistently 10-15 per cent lower than a reference population as
demonstrated by decreased arterial oxygen uptake during exercise.

In fact, such has been the concern over paraquat that six European
governments-namely Austria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Slovenia, and
Sweden-have enacted bans and restrictions on paraquat. The bans were
primarily due to acute toxicity, absence of antidote, health and
environmental concerns.  In other countries strict guidelines are
applied. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows
its purchase and use solely by certified applicators.  In Norway, the
government decided in 1993 not to accept an application for the renewed
registration of a paraquat product, Preeglone, due to its toxicity.  In
terms of developing countries, Kuwait has banned paraquat while
Indonesia, Korea (Republic) and Togo have enacted restrictions on its
use.

Paraquat is also a concern in terms of environmental health.  It has
been labelled a potential groundwater contaminant by the California
Department of Pesticide Regulation on the basis that it has the
potential to move into groundwater based on water solubility, ability to
bind to soils and its half-life.   The European Commission's Scientific
Committee of Plants said in December 2001 that a more detailed appraisal
"on the likely effects of paraquat on the rate of degradation of organic
matter in soil" should be provided.

In 1994, the Danish government imposed bans and severe restrictions on 7
pesticides, including paraquat, it considered a threat to health, the
environment or both.  The Danish decision to ban paraquat, enacted in
1995, was based on its persistence, and its toxicity to non-target
organisms.

In support of the Malaysian government' decision, we have called on all
manufacturers, especially the Swiss based Syngenta corporation-the
biggest manufacturer of the chemical-to follow the provisons in the
directive, as well as the spirit behind the directive i.e. to safeguard
the health and safety of workers, and the environment. We have also
asked that they recall all stocks of paraquat immediately.  We note that
in Switzerland paraquat has not been approved for use since December 31,
1989.

For your kind information, the Swiss Federal government has recently
taken further steps to do away with paraquat. In December 2002, it took
the step of proscribing that paraquat should be added to Annex III of
the Rotterdam Convention (on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for
Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade). The
Swiss Federal government has taken this step in an effort to protect
developing countries from harmful consequences of this highly toxic
pesticide.

It has come to our attention that industry has made appeals, and
undertaken attempts to persuade the Malaysian government to repeal the
decision to ban and phase out paraquat.  At the recent consultation
meeting organized on Jaunary 13, 2003 by the Pesticides Board of the
Department of Arigulture, we were asked to provide feedback on the ban
and phase out.  We reiterated our congratulations of the governments'
decision, and elaborated on the negative human and environmental health
impacts of this pesticide in light of claims of safety being made by the
producers.

We cannot stress enough how harmful paraquat is to human and
environmental health. Once again, we would like to express our deep felt
thanks and congratulations to the government on this decision. But if
possible, we would like to humbly urge the Malaysian government to
consider an immediate, outright ban on this hazardous product.

While this is indeed a great step for the country, paraquat is still a
problem elsewhere.  PAN AP is part of a global coalition that will
continue the campaign to ensure that paraquat is banned and withdrawn
worldwide.

PAN AP would like to offer our support and help to ensure that this
directive is fulfilled.

Yours Sincerely,
(signed)
Sarojeni V. Rengam
Executive Director

--
PAN - Asia and the Pacific
P.O. Box 1170, 10850 Penang, Malaysia
Tel: 604-6570271/6560381 Fax: 604-6577445
Web: www.poptel.org.uk/panap
     www.panap.net

--

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