More than 60 countries have banned endosulfan. The chemical has been linked to reproductive and developmental damage in animals and humans, and residues have been detected in breast milk and placentas. But the Federal Government's pesticides authority continued yesterday to maintain the chemical was safe for use on a wide range of crops.
In October, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, to which Australia is a signatory, will consider elevating endosulfan to the final stage of assessment, which if passed would trigger a gradual global ban.
Bayer CropScience has appeared to pre-empt the Stockholm convention. In an email to the German-based Coalition Against Bayer Dangers it said: "We plan to stop the sale of the substance endosulfan by the end of 2010 in all the countries where it is still legally available."
The email, signed by Bayer CropScience's head of investor relations, Judith Nestmann, said endosulfan would be replaced by alternatives "with a significantly better risk profile".
Despite this Australia’s pesticides authority's spokesman, Simon Cubit, reiterated the authority's stance that there were no human health issues associated with the use of endosulfan on Australian crops.
"We've got no scientific evidence that the way it is used in Australia is causing any problems," he said.
A spokeswoman for the National Toxics Network, Jo Immig, said: "Endosulfan is now banned in over 62 countries and it's high time Australia stopped trying to defend the indefensible."
The only way to end most uses of endosulfan is a coordinated campaign to revoke all US and international (Codex) tolerances governing endosulfan residues in food. Now that Bayer has decided to no longer fight to keep endosulfan on the market, the US EPA should initiate steps to revoke all tolerances in early 2011.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald,
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