VAldemar Postanovicz was home after a day of tending his tobacco crop when his limbs seized up. “The entire right side of my body was paralyzed. I couldn’t feel my foot or my hand. My mouth turned to the right,” he says.
He feared it was a stroke. In fact, he was suffering from symptoms of acute pesticide poisoning. Postanovicz, 45, had absorbed Reglone, a powerful herbicide based on the chemical diquat. “It was only once in my life, but I felt so sick,” he says.
Postanovicz lives in Paraná, in the south of Brazil, the agricultural heart of the country. But its accidental poisoning can be traced more than 6,000 miles from South America to Britain, where it is likely the pesticide was made.
Data obtained under freedom of information laws by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s research unit, and the NGO Public Eye shows that, despite a ban on their use in Britain, diquat and other toxic pesticides are legal around the world are exported – with large volumes going to developing countries. to land.
Last year, 8,489 tonnes of chemicals banned on British farms due to health and environmental concerns were sent abroad, according to export data shared with the British government. Observer. Of that, 98% was made by the Chinese-owned, Swiss-based chemical company Syngenta.
The largest export was diquat, of which Brazil is one of the largest consumers in the world. The weedkiller, which is made in just a few factories around the world, including Sygenta’s factory in Huddersfield, is a close chemical cousin of paraquat, which has been banned in Britain since 2008 and is the subject of class action lawsuits in the US and Canada, where farmers claim it has caused them health problems, including Parkinson’s disease. Syngenta, which reported sales of £32.2 billion in 2023, disputes the claim, saying its products are safe when used as directed.
Diquat is generally considered less toxic than paraquat, but can still be extremely harmful: exposure can cause blindness, vomiting, irritation, convulsions, organ damage and even death. It has been banned on EU farms since 2019 and on UK farms since 2020, after experts concluded it posed a major risk to workers, local residents and birds. Yet a legal loophole allows Syngenta to continue making the weedkiller in British factories for export to countries with weaker regulations. Syngenta’s Diquat exports amounted to 5,123 tons in 2023, more than half of which went to Brazil.
In total, Britain exported pesticides containing ten banned chemicals to 18 countries last year, including products considered highly toxic to bees and those with a high potential for groundwater contamination.
The figures have led to calls for an end to the export of pesticides that are banned in Britain and described as exploitative and unethical by campaigners and health experts.
Syngenta rejected the accusation, saying: “It is not exploitative or unethical to supply products where the government and regulatory authorities of the importing country have given express permission for the import and directed the use of those products within the specific agricultural context of that country and regulated. country.”
A spokesperson said agricultural needs varied globally and exports of all products complied with all laws and global treaties. They said the company made “significant efforts” to ensure safe use of its products, including tamper-resistant bottles and closed transfer systems, and provided safety training to “hundreds of thousands of people” every year.
They said herbicides such as diquat were “essential tools” for farmers looking to increase productivity and implement low- or no-till practices, which help reduce carbon emissions – and that blocking access would create a market for counterfeit the hand worked.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said Britain went “beyond international standard” by requiring permission from importing countries, allowing them to make “informed decisions”. “This administration is committed to protecting human health and the environment from the risks of chemicals,” a spokesperson said.
But Dr Marcos Orellana, the UN special rapporteur on toxic substances and human rights, said the export of banned pesticides to developing countries was a form of “modern exploitation”.
He accused Britain of allowing the production for export of “dangerous pesticides that subject countless people exposed to them, especially poor workers in the fields of the global south” to “disease and severe suffering.” “It appears that for countries that produce and export banned pesticides, the lives and health of people in receiving countries are not as important as those of their own citizens,” he said.
Other countries, including France and Belgium, have already taken action to ban the export of banned pesticides. In October, six member states publicly supported an EU-wide ban on prohibited chemical exports. When asked whether Britain would follow suit, Defra did not respond. Siân Berry, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavillion, said: “It beggars belief that this is apparently happening legally.”
Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace, described the exports as “double standards”. He disputed Syngenta’s claim that diquat helped tackle climate change, saying the chemical – like paraquat – “touches the land and biodiversity… to produce staple crops for export”.
Research by the Pesticide Action Network has shown that this is the case alternatives to toxic pesticidesincluding living mulches, controlled grazing, mechanical weeding and thermal weeding, as well as alternative synthetic products. “This is intensive and unsustainable agriculture,” Parr said.
Back in Brazil, some experts are warning of public health concerns. Last year marked the first time that Britain’s exports of diquat exceeded those of paraquat, after the Brazilian government banned paraquat in 2020 over health fears. Since then, the use of diquat in the country has increased dramatically: from 1,400 tons in 2019 to 24,000 tons in 2022.
Data shows that as diquat use has increased, the number of accidental poisonings has increased. Between 2018 and 2021, the state of Paraná – one of the largest consumers of diquat – recorded one to three cases annually. According to data from Unearthed, this has increased to six in 2022 and to nine in 2023.
Marcelo de Souza Furtado of the Paraná health department, which tracks poisonings in the state, said the official figures reflect a “small part of reality”, with many cases going unreported due to lack of access to health care in remote areas or fear of retaliation from employers. .
But he said the pesticide problem was “major”. Last year, he first noticed that reports of diquat poisoning were overtaking paraquat. Of the 36 cases of diquat registered nationwide by the Brazilian Ministry of Health between 2018 and 2022, Syngenta’s product Reglone was mentioned in 83% of the cases.
“We are concerned,” Furtado said. “If it is already banned in other countries, that already shows that it has a very toxic effect.”
Syngenta recommends that those using its products wear personal protective equipment, including coveralls, boots, gloves, a cap, apron, goggles and respiratory protection. But in reality, Furtado says, many farmers were unaware of its importance – as heat and humidity make consistent use difficult.
Even for those wearing personal protective equipment, its use still carries risks. In one modeled scenario using tractor-mounted equipment, a 2014 evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority found that worker exposure to those wearing coveralls, gloves and boots can still exceed the maximum acceptable level by 350%.
As Postanovicz recovered from his exposure in 2021, he believes others need to know the dangers. “It is a very strong product. If it touches the tobacco plant, it kills it,” he said. When he used it, he said he wore protective pants, boots and gloves, but left out the visor. “When we breathe, it becomes blurry and we can’t see well,” he said. “It’s dangerous: we could trip and get hurt.”
He says his symptoms started after he finished work and showered. His vision became blurry, his right leg and arm went numb, and tremors shook his right hand. Even now, the smell of Reglone causes a visceral reaction. “I hate it,” he says. “I can sense if someone is using it far from here.”
Additional reporting: Naira Hofmeister