On December, 3 international community all over the world celebrates The International No Pesticides Use Day.

The International Pesticide Action Network in 1998 proclaimed the 3rd of December the International No Pesticides Use Day with the aim to draw public’s attention to solution of problems which appear as consequences of production and usage of hazardous chemicals, protect people and environment from negative influence of pesticides and to commemorate Bhopal catastrophe.

Bhopal disaster became the result and consequence of the accident at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal city, India during the night of December 2–3, 1984. Then the failure of safety systems caused a leak of 40 tons of methyl isocyanate (deadly gas), which was used in production process of popular at that time insecticide Sevin, was exhausted in to air. The territory of 40 square km with population over 500 thousand people was covered by cloud of toxic gas.

According to estimates of NGOs the number of people who died in the first period of the accident is over 8 thousand people, those who got chronic diseases — from 120 to 150 thousand people and those who died in post-accident period is from 15 to 20 thousand people.

On this day environmental protection organizations all over the world held activities and events to remind ofdanger ofaccumulation of toxic chemicals in environment, in particular pesticides which accumulate in environment,  bodies of humans and animals and cause hard diseases.

The motto of the International No Pesticides Use Day — «Pesticides — the dead end of civilization». According to the WHO annually there are over 2 mln poisonings by pesticides, in most cases caused by work with them. Some of them are considered to be hormonally active chemicals, which cause disorders of endocrine and immune systems. Action of others is associated with delayed mental development, reproductive problems and cancer. These pesticides are considered to be the main reason of “quiet catastrophe” (so the UN experts characterize the state of soils in Europe — (their reliance).

In Ukraine the problem of obsolete pesticides (OP) is very topical. Starting from the 70s of the 20th century it is connected mainly with accumulation of chemical plant protecting agents forbidden for usage and those chemical plant protecting agents which acquired the status of obsolete because of packaging damage, loss of labeling etc.

The UNENGO «МАМА-86» since 1999 has been actively working on solution of the obsolete pesticides problem on the territory of Ukraine. From May, 2008 to October, 2010 the UNENGO «МАМА86» in cooperation with Dutch NGO Millieukontakt International with financial support by МАТRА Programme of the Royal Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs performed international partnership project «Elimination of Acute Risks of Obsolete Pesticides in Ukraine». This project was aimed at prevention of risks of obsolete pesticides in Ukraine and elimination of acute risks of OP in two districts  of Kyiv oblast.

One of the main achievements of the Project became the conclusions for real quantity of OP on the country’s territory. Basing on the inventory data of OP in Borodianka and Makariv districts of Kyiv oblast, held in the framework of the Project accordingly to the international UN standards and the data of practical results of re-packaging of OP, carried out by departments of the Ministry of Environment Protection before transportation of OP for safe disposal abroad,since 2007 it can be concluded that the real quantity  of OP  in Ukraine at least twice exceeds the official data.

In order to reveal the real quantity of OP on Ukraine’s territory it is necessary to carry out general inventory of OP according to the international standards in the framework of the Instruction that was worked out in the framework of the Project, and that is to be approved by the Ministry of Environment Protection. This Instruction provides a visit of the Commission to the stockpiles (or their remnants) to reveal the quantity of OP and get information of actual expenditures for relevant works for re-packaging and removal of OP to the places of their safe disposal. Besides, in order to get the real information of OP accumulation on the territory of a village or a district, it is necessary to carry out the relevant work with local people and former specialists of collective farms and Soviet farms (kolkhoz and Sovkhoz) and to get information about unknown places of accumulation of OP, so called “cache poison”.

Besides, the absence of the National Plan of  Implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in Ukraine, second edition of which is pending approval since 2009, significantly decreases resource capacity of the country for the final solution of the OP problem.