New Zealand bans endosulfan insecticide
16 Dec, 2008 Athletic Turf NewsNEW ZEALAND — New Zealand's Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) says it will ban endosulfan, a neurotoxic organochlorine insecticide, effective immediately. Endosulfan, already banned in 55 countries including all the European Union countries, is an insecticide used on a wide range of fruit and vegetables and also on sports turf in New Zealand.
"We are delighted that ERMA has overturned its earlier ‘proposed' decision to keep using this pesticide" stated Dr Meriel Watts, co-ordinator of the Pesticide Action Network Aotearoa New Zealand. "It would have been deeply embarrassing for New Zealand to continue its use when the pesticide has entered the process for a global ban under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants."
Endosulfan has triggered international action because of its toxicity, persistence in the environment and its ability to accumulate up the food chain. In October the Review Committee of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) agreed that endosulfan meets the screening criteria for a POP, and is now undertaking a rigorous assessment preparatory to listing it for a global ban, alongside DDT and its other persistent organochlorine relatives.
Said Alison White of the Safe Food Campaign: "Endosulfan has been found in body fat, breast milk, placental tissue and umbilical cord blood, largely as a result of residues in food. We would also welcome an urgent reassessment of other hazardous pesticides still used in New Zealand, notably the herbicide 2,4-D and the organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos.”
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