Ban on dangerous pesticides is long overdue

South Africa’s townships have long experienced problems with massive pest infestations and the selling of pesticides on the streets and in informal markets.

Street pesticides are poisonous substances that are legally registered for agricultural uses but are decanted illegally into unlabelled beverage bottles or packets for home use. Or they might be illegally packaged pesticides imported into South Africa and not registered for use.

The dangers of these substances have been in the news lately with the deaths of children who were exposed to them. On November 21, the government announced that food-borne illnesses had been classified as a national disaster.

I started looking into the problem of street pesticides in several townships in Cape Town in 2008. Analysing unlabelled pesticides is difficult, but the laboratory managed to identify active ingredients from three highly hazardous classes: organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids. They were being sold by informal vendors who acquired them from agricultural co-operatives, garden shops and middlemen.

Since then I have presented evidence to the government that children were dying from ingestion of these pesticides.

It was only after national outrage was sparked by the deaths of six children in Naledi, Soweto, last month that this issue started to get the attention it has needed for nearly 20 years.

Government toxicology results found that the Naledi children had died from ingesting Terbufos, a highly toxic organophosphate pesticide, legally sold in South Africa for agricultural use.

A year ago, two forensic toxicologists and I published a paper showing that out of 50 children whose cause of death was examined with toxicological tests in one mortuary, 29 had died from Terbufos. Four others had died from the organophosphates methamidophos and diazinon.

Terbufos is classified by the World Health Organization as an extremely hazardous pesticide. It has been a restricted pesticide in South Africa since the end of last year. Yet, two days before the South African government classified the national disaster, colleagues and I did a quick review of the labels online for Terbufos products being sold in South Africa, and none of them said “restricted use pesticide”.

Several factors are involved in child deaths from street pesticides. Firstly, people living in informal areas must contend with high levels of pest infestations – rats, bed bugs, flies and cockroaches. Because commercially sold legal pesticides have been overused, many pests are developing resistance and so these products are less effective.

Because of their high toxicity, street pesticides are appealing. With no label or verbal warnings, people apply them not knowing how dangerous they are.

Children are particularly vulnerable as their bodies are still developing.

They are also small in relation to the potential exposure, touch a lot of surfaces and often have their hands in their mouths.

In South Africa, pesticides are regulated under an extremely old law, Act 36 of 1947. Act 36 enforcement officers are scarce and so the police have to step in to enforce the law.

Environmental health practitioners do a good job following up on the cases that are reported, but they lack capacity and resources.

To find out which pesticides are registered or restricted in South Africa, a member of the public has to pay to access a database run by the pesticide industry. Previously, the Department of Agriculture housed this database, but it no longer has the financial resources to maintain it.

To save children’s lives, access to these pesticides needs to be eliminated. Industry needs to fund the work of the government through higher taxes and fees.

All currently registered highly hazardous pesticides (about 35) ought to be banned, with no phase-out periods.

Other countries have shown that eliminating highly hazardous pesticides saves lives without jeopardising agricultural production. - www.theconversation.com

* Professor Rother is head of the Environmental Health Division at UCT

Cape Times