April 15, 2014 — International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN), Greenwomen (Kazakhstan) and ЕсоAccord (Russia) organized the “Highly Hazardous Pesticides — Situation in EECCA” webinar. It was devoted to the analysis of the situation with highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) in EECCA countries namely Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

The webinar is a part of the informational course, which includes a series of online webinars dedicated to the promotion and implementation of the UN’s Millennium Development Goal — Toxic Free Future, to be achieved by the year 2020, in EECCA (Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia) region.

Participants were familiarized with the latest information from international meetings and organizations on the HHPs, and considered further steps on control of their trade and use in accordance with the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). 

The experts also shared research analysis on the situation with HHPs production, trade and use in their countries. The possibility of implementing a progressive ban of HHPs was discussed during the webinar as well as a priority of applying the ecosystem approach to control pests and plant diseases, various parasites, weeds, grain and grain products, wood, cotton, woolen and leather products pests, ectoparasites of domestic animals and carriers of dangerous human diseases (such as malaria and encephalitis) and animal diseases. Participants emphasized on the need of preparing a global list of HHPs at the UN level along with the regional list for EECCA countries.

Participants also noted that it’s important to develop comprehensive criteria which would allow defining HHPs in EECCA countries lists of pesticides permitted for use. The updated scientific data on the chronic effects of pesticides on human health, including the report of the WHO/UNEP (2012) on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) should be taken into account along with the WHO/FAO criteria.

Webinar participants also stressed the need for PSMS (Pesticide Stock Management System) implementation in the region. PSMS is an application that has been developed by the FAO to be used by countries to record and monitor their inventories of pesticides and their usage, in order to assist them in managing the most efficient usage. The application aims to help reduce the creation of obsolete pesticides and enable countries to plan strategies for responding more effectively to pest outbreaks.

For more information about the webinar and presentations please visit: http://www.ecoaccord.org/pop/webinar/

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Highly hazardous pesticides may have acute and/or chronic toxic effects, and pose particular risk to children. Their widespread use has caused health problems and fatalities in many parts of the world, often as a result of occupational exposure and accidental or intentional poisonings.

Available data is too limited to estimate the global health impacts of pesticides, however the global impact of self-poisoning (suicides) from preventable pesticide ingestion has however been estimated to amount to 186,000 deaths and 4,420,000 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in 2002.

Environmental contamination can also result in human exposure through consumption of residues of pesticides in food and, possibly, drinking water. While developed countries have systems already in place to register pesticides and control their trade and use, this is not always the case elsewhere.

A list of highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) was prepared by the International Action Network on Pesticides (Pesticide Action Network — PAN) in 2009.

A pesticide is considered highly hazardous if it meets one of the following characteristics used by PAN:

• High acute toxicity (including toxicity by inhalation) and/or
• Long-term toxic effects of chronic exposure (carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, disorders of the endocrine system) and/or
• High environmental concern due to widespread application, bioaccumulation or toxicity, and/or
• Known to cause a high incidence of severe or irreversible adverse effects on human health or the environment.

In November 2013, the list was updated and currently has 426 agents. While updating the list such additional criteria were used:

• Fatality if inhaled
• Probable/likely carcinogenicity
• Carcinogenicity
• Propensity for bioaccumulation
• High persistence in water or sediment
• High toxicity to bees

The International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management (2013) is a voluntary standard and point of reference for sound pesticide management practices. This is especially important as there are currently no legal instruments available to achieve a structured and clearly targeted global progressive ban of HHPs other than the Stockholm convention for Persistent Organic Pollutants which focuses only on a very small group of HHPs.

This PAN list of HHPs provides a basis for an action to implement the progressive ban of highly hazardous pesticides. Using the list countries can develop a plan of action that will include priorities, timeframes and concrete measures as well as existing alternatives.

Since January 1, 2008 Ukraine has operated a pesticide registration system in accordance with the requirements of CMU Resolution on November 21, 2007, № 1328.

MAMA-86 has analyzed the State Register of Pesticides and Agricultural Chemicals Allowed for Use in Ukraine for the presence of highly hazardous pesticides in accordance with the criteria defined for HHP’s at the FAO/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Management  in 2008.

32 HHPs out of 200 represented in the FAO/WHO list, are permitted for use in Ukraine. The widespread use of 2,4-D acid (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) derivatives — 65 agents! — is of the greatest concern. The danger of using it is connected with the fact that the production of chlorophenol based herbicides (first of all, derivatives of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acids and their esters) form dioxins as by-products. In the case of insufficient purification of the final product (herbicide) they get “into our table”.

Own production of HHPs in Ukraine is concentrated in 6 enterprises:

• Cherkassy Agrochemicals Factory Ltd., Cherkassy;
• Research and Production Enterprise Zarya
• Nertus Ltd., Kharkiv;
• SPE REOK, Kyiv;
• Victoria Ltd., Kyiv;
• Alfa Himhrup Ltd., Kyiv.

Ukraine imports HHPs from 23 countries (96 companies): Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Israel, India, Spain, Ireland, Italy, China (export leader!), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Liechtenstein, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, USA, France, and Switzerland.