NOT GREEN Banned pesticides are given the hard sell in Bangladesh, killing thousands each year.

Thousands of Bangladeshi workers are dying of pesticide poisoning each year, as a result of unsafe use of often banned products.

Meanwhile, safer, greener agricultural methods are ignored in the face of a sustained and richly-resourced promotional campaign by multinational pesticide producers.

An annual government health survey has found that pesticide-related poisoning may be responsible for several thousand deaths each year in Bangladesh. 

The 2009 Health Bulletin, released in December and based on health statistics from 2008, recorded 7,438 pesticide-related poisoning deaths at more than 400 hospitals nationwide amongst men and women aged 15-49.

“Considering the widespread illiteracy of our farmers, it should be made mandatory for pesticide producers and sellers to print pictures on pesticide containers showing how to use and dispose of them properly after use,” Mohammad Mahfuzullah, an environmental activist and executive director of the Centre for Sustainable Development (CFSD), told the UN’s IRIN news service.

Compounding the problem is the increasing pesticide consumption in the country, including many which are highly toxic.

According to the most recent government figures available, 37,712 tons of pesticides were sold in Bangladesh in 2007, an increase of 145.3 per cent on 2001.

Bangladesh’s 1985 Pesticide Rules outline stringent procedures for the registration, import, manufacture, sale, packaging and advertisement of pesticides.

But pesticide importers and traders pay scant attention to these regulations, experts say.

Illiterate farmers are also persuaded by unscrupulous traders and a plethora of incentive schemes to buy unregistered pesticide formulations that promise to protect crops against pest attacks and disease.

It means safer products and alternative greener, pesticide free approaches, like integrated pest management, don’t get a look in.

According to Pesticides Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP): “Pesticides prevail because a multi-billion dollar industry is behind them, exerting great influence on international standard setting bodies, national governments, and local communities.”

It adds: “The enormous influence that these chemical corporations wield, because of their economic power, is a major factor in why pesticides use persists in our agriculture in spite of the growing evidences of human poisonings and even deaths, devastating environmental contamination, and the evidences of greater yields which can be achieved when the chemicals are replaced by agroecological practices.”

In Bangladesh, suppliers continue to sell many chemical substances banned by the government, as well as chemical compounds such as aldrin and endrin, which are classified as “highly hazardous” by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Many pesticides are sold unlabelled or under false labels, and with no clear warnings or instructions to farmers.

CHAIN REACTION Climate change is putting jobs at risk in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, where much of the country’s population lives at sea level on the flood-prone alluvial plains of major rivers flowing from the Himalayas, a lengthy discourse about the impact of climate change can seem a little indulgent.

On 5 December, 240 Bangladeshi workers representing the country’s national union centres formed a “workers’ chain” in front of the National Press Club in the capital, Dhaka.

The Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE), which organised the event, said the unions wanted to draw attention to their concerns about “negative impacts of climate change in employment of livelihood of the working people at different vulnerable sectors.”

Unions want the Bangladesh government’s delegation to the Copenhagen climate change summit, which kicked off this week, to support inclusion in any agreement of a “just transition” clause proposed by global unions.

The government of Bangladesh said it will ask for at least 15 per cent of any money which rich countries pledge at Copenhagen to help developing nations cope with climate change.

Environment minister Hasan Mahmud said Bangladesh was entitled to a big share of the money because it was the country most vulnerable to climate change. He said 20 million Bangladeshis will be displaced if the sea rose by a metre.

The minister said that in addition to the millions who would be displaced by rising sea levels, many more would be affected if glaciers in the Himalayas melted due to global warming.

“The population of our one coastal district is bigger than the entire population of all island countries and in that consideration at least 15 per cent of any climate fund should come to us.”