Toxic pesticide banned in Jamaica

Use of endosulfan, an organochlorine insectide first registered in the 1950s, is being phased out in Jamaica. Michael Ramsay, Pesticide Control Authoritys (PCAs) registrar, said in a recent interview that the phase-out was a requirement of various international conventions to which Jamaica is a signatory. It is also based on the fact that endosulfan has been identified as a persistent organic pollutant.

"There are a couple of things that we are doing with pesticides, and endosulfan is one of them. We are being proactive and have decided to phase out its use early. The stocks (of endosulfan) now here in 2010 are to be used out and never (to be) imported again," Ramsay said.

The Rotterdam Convention, a multilateral treaty to promote shared responsibilities in relation to importation of hazardous chemicals, and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, are the two main conventions on dangerous chemical use to which Jamaica is a signatory.

"We are following the trend of other countries who have already informed the convention that they have banned endosulfan," Ramsay said.

Accumulates in the body

Endosulfan, the pesticide which is widely used in the local coffee industry, has long been considered dangerous for human and aquatic life and for the environment. It is a colourless solid that emerged as controversial because of reports of its acute toxicity, potential to bioaccumulate and its role as an endocrine disruptor.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicates: "Endosulfan is volatile, persistent, and has a high potential to bio-accumulate in aquatic and terrestrial organisms. A large body of scientific literature documents endosulfans medium- and long-range transport on a global scale and subsequent accumulation in nearly all environmental media. Through the process of global distillation, endosulfan is present in air, water, sediment, and biota thousands of miles from use areas."

People may be exposed to residues of endosulfan through food and drinking water and it may be found in human milk. The EPA, like Jamaicas PCA, is taking action to end all uses of the insecticide in the United States. The agency indicates that endosulfan poses unacceptable neurological and reproductive risks to farmworkers and wildlife and can persist in the environment.

Coffee farmers make changes

Ramsay said that endosulfan is only registered in Jamaica for use against the coffee berry borer, a beetle that feeds on coffee and can cause extensive damage to coffee crops, but said that, unfortunately, there were indications that it was being used on vegetables - another reason for its early phase out here.

As is expected, the news of the phase out of this dangerous and toxic chemical has hit the coffee industry hard, but the Coffee Industry Board (CIB) has indicated that it is in full support of the decision.

"The policy of the board is that we want to phase out endosulfan. Operationally, we have an integrated pest-management system that ought to replace the use of endosulfan. We are not happy with the progress, as we are distracted by other issues at this time," said Christopher Gentles, CIBs director general.

He explained that the integrated pest-management system includes cultural and other measures, with a scaled-down use of the chemical component. The cultural measures, which, Gentles said the coffee industry has been using for years, include stripping the coffee trees and burning berries from old crop which have fallen to the ground. He also explained that industry workers are being trained in the placement of traps for the berry borer. About 40,000 traps are available but only 12,000 have so far been distributed.

The chemical being used instead of endosulfan, Gentles explained, is four times more expensive than endosulfan and gives only a 70 per cent kill.

"So it is not as effective as endosulfan, so we require a variety of methods. It is an uphill battle, and a difficult sell to the farmer. But this is easy to understand from the farmers point of view, as there are escalating costs and declining income," said Gentles.