Deadly chemical

In Europe, the herbicide paraquat has been prohibited since 2007, due to risks to humans and animals exposed to it.

But in the developing world, the weedkiller is still used widely, despite the fact that it is an acutely toxic chemical.

In the African country of Burkina Faso, one of the poorest in the world, paraquat has not been imported for five years, but is still being sold there in large quantities.

Some 80 percent of the population in this West African country works in the agricultural sector and demand is strong for herbicides and pesticides of all kinds.

Sylvain Ilboudo, a researcher at the Institute for Pharamacology and Toxicology at the University of Ougadougou, participated in a study on paraquat and said the chemical makes its way illegally into the country from neighboring nations such as Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria.

The study found that numerous farmers in Burkina Faso have been poisoned by using paraquat.

Investigators studied 650 farmers in three different regions in the country, finding that nearly half of them had suffered deleterious health effects due to chemicals used in agriculture, and 59 cases were very likely directly traceable to paraquat. Two people are thought to have died because of it.

"The study found that paraquat caused more problems than other herbicides," Ilboudo said.

'Watch' list

The Burkina government now wants paraquat placed on the global watch list of poisonous products established by the so-called Rotterdam Convention.

This is an agreement among 100 nations to track the worldwide trade in chemicals. The list does not impose bans, but according to the organization "fosters information-exchange mechanisms to help improve decision making about the trade of hazardous chemicals."

Right now, there are 40 chemical on the list, and among them, 29 pesticides.

Francois Meienberg of the organization "Berne Declaration" has campaigned against paraquat for years. At the beginning of April, he participated in a meeting of the technical committee of the Rotterdam Convention, which discussed the case of paraquat in Burkina Faso.

According to him, representatives of paraquat manufacturers have repeatedly tried to discredit Burkina Faso's application to have the weedkiller put on the list.

"Luckily their lobbying efforts didn't find any support with experts," he said. "Still, they are going fight in every country they can to allow this poison to continue to be sold."

'Important product'

Of the paraquat's manufacturers, the Swiss agrochemicals firm Syngenta, which sells the chemical under the name Gramoxone Super, refused a request for an interview.

In a written statement, the company said paraquat was an important product for millions of farmers around the world and that is why everything possible was being done to keep the pesticide on the market in as many countries as possible.

But Carina Weber of the "Pesticide Action Network" argues that the company is not likely to be acting in the interests of farmers.

"Millions are made from the sale of this pesticide and who's going to willingly give up that kind of money?" she said.

According to her, only strong public pressure is going to stop the widespread sale and use of the product.

The Rotterdam Convention will make a final decision whether paraquat will be added to its poison list in 2013. Right now, the technical committee has only made a recommendation for its inclusion.

Yet even the application is momentous, according to activist Francois Meienberg, since it is the first time that a developing country has requested to have a substance placed on the Rotterdam list. .

Author: Salamata Saenger (jam)
Editor: Jan-Philipp Scholz / Helle Jeppesen