Pesticide Regulations Part-6 - Pesticide Prohibition Order & Managing Obsolete Pesticides

Pesticide Regulations Part-6

Pesticide Prohibition Order & Managing Obsolete Pesticides: 

Options before Policymakers

By:

Vijay SARDANA

Advocate, Delhi High Court

Techno-legal Expert on Agribusiness 

& Consumer Products Industries

& 

Priyanka Sardana, Advocate, Supreme Court of India

& 

Aastha Sardana, Researcher on Legal Matters

Government has issued draft prohibitory order for 27 pesticides. After representations from various stakeholders and case-to-case evaluation, the government may decide to declare which molecules to be declared as obsolete or may decide to phase out.

Phasing out is an essential part of the development and happens in every sector and in every country. Human life itself is a classic example of phasing out process. We all have to phase out someday and this will create space for a new and younger generation. With the development of new chemistry and better products, almost every developing country and economy in transition has stocks of obsolete pesticides. These pesticides may not have used in their current location or have become unusable for various reasons including regulatory changes.

Challenges due to Obsolete Pesticides:

By its chemical nature, even in normal practice, all pesticides are hazardous to some degree. If they are misused or overused can cause harm to human health and the environment. Obsolete pesticide stockpiles present additional hazards because they may include outdated chemicals that have been banned by regulatory actions because of their adverse toxic impact on health and environment or due to better and safe alternates or the pesticides may have deteriorated due to some reasons causing a particular danger to human beings and the environment.

Various factors may be responsible for the accumulation of obsolete pesticide stockpiles in many states or in many countries. These situation needs to be urgently addressed before these obsolete toxic products become a problem for society. Delays will aggravate current problems by incurring further deterioration of stocks, causing more harm to public health and the environment.

Dealing with Obsolete Pesticides:

Prevention of obsolete pesticide stockpiles is essential. It depends on the sensible collaborative efforts of governments, pesticide manufacturers and distributors, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), donors and end-users themselves. No single entity can solve the problem on its own.

Appropriately dealing with Obsolete:

Pesticides is costly, technically complex and specialized assistance may be needed. Obtaining such assistance can be a complex and lengthy process.  As a country, we have experienced the challenges in clean-up operations during the Bhopal gas leak case.

In some situations, while the policymakers of the country may be seeking and awaiting this technical assistance, much can be done to prepare for the eventual cleanup operation by taking correct decisions in advance while passing the pesticide prohibitory orders.

How to manage obsolete pesticides?

Any prohibitory order must also gauge the size of the problem. It should be part of the preparatory work should. It also considers various factors to stabilize the situation so that any further environmental contamination and health hazards from prohibitory pesticides are avoided.

A country that takes appropriate action before approaching external help demonstrates a commitment to solve the problem of obsolete pesticides and preventing their recurrence.

Capability Building to Manage Obsolete Pesticides:

Besides, taking appropriate action early will reduce the costs of cleanup operations and help to build capacity in the country for the management of pesticides and hazardous waste.

Various measures should to be considered before requesting external financial and technical assistance in disposing of obsolete pesticide stocks.

Protection of Human Health:

Removing obsolete pesticide stocks will protect human health. Pesticides in their normal state are harmful to human beings in various degrees. People exposed to pesticides may suffer short-term acute health effects such as nausea, headaches, sore eyes, skin rashes and dizziness.

In some cases, exposure to pesticides may cause cancer, reduced fertility, nerve or organ damage, unconsciousness and even death. Obsolete pesticides often include outdated chemicals, which are highly toxic.

Many of these chemicals are banned in many countries because of their toxicity, yet are still found in large quantities in numerous countries. Obsolete pesticides with time also deteriorate and may sometimes generate decomposition products that are even more toxic that the pesticide itself.

Handling and storage of obsolete pesticides:

Handling and storage of obsolete pesticides have no commercial value hence often lead to careless handing and weak storage controls.

Stockpiles of obsolete pesticides differ from the normal application of pesticides in agriculture or health care, mainly because large quantities of these hazardous chemicals are located in one place. Any leakages or damage caused to the stockpile could result in serious acute local contamination.

Many obsolete pesticides are also kept in unguarded stores or out in the open where children, adults and animals can easily and frequently come into contact with highly toxic chemicals.

Stockpiles of obsolete pesticides often include leaking containers that allow the pesticides to be dispersed in the environment with the result that people living and working nearby may be exposed to these pesticides and suffer consequent health problems.

The leaked pesticides may also get into drinking-water supplies from rivers, lakes or underground aquifers. People drinking this contaminated water will suffer adverse health effects.

Similarly, food-derived from crops or livestock that have been contaminated by pesticides may be toxic for consumers.

Pesticides in the environment can have adverse effects on wildlife through direct exposure to chemicals, or through indirect exposure in feed or water. Animals may become sick or die, and there may be deleterious effects on the natural environment.

The economic impact should be evaluated:

Obsolete pesticide stockpiles are an economic burden as well as a danger to health and the environment. The money spent on buying the original pesticides – which then become obsolete – is effectively wasted, and the opportunity of buying other potentially useful goods with that money is lost.

Furthermore, the storage of obsolete pesticides incurs a cost in terms of space that cannot be used for other more productive purposes. Where the pesticides are guarded or the effort is put into maintaining the stocks, for example by transferring pesticides from leaking drums to new containers, more costs are incurred.

Replacing obsolete pesticides with new products to control pests (both chemical and non-chemical) again uses funds that could have been used for other purposes had these obsolete pesticides have still been available for use.

What authorities should do before issuing prohibitory order?

Suggestion 1: Prohibitory orders must be based on merit & logic of science and transparency to prevent unnecessary litigations.

Suggestion 2: In most developed countries and in most democracies of the world, all documents, which are related to public health and environment protection, are in the public domain. This also allows experts working with civil society and citizens to give their views on these sensitive matters. This is vital to win public trust in public policy.

Suggestion 3: Each pesticide or molecule should be evaluated based on its own merit and should not be clubbed with other molecules while doing a safety assessment. This will ensure merit-based decision-making process.

Suggestion 4: Before issuing final prohibitory order, the time required for phasing out of the existing stocks should be properly calculated. The timeline should be based on the production data available with the regulators and the policymakers. If required, the physical audit of the licensed facilities can be undertaken. This will avoid stocks of prohibited pesticides in the system.

Suggestion 5: Phasing out timeline should be based on Shelf-life of the pesticides, available current stock of the raw materials for making pesticides. This should ensure that no banned product should be manufactured once existing raw material is exhausted. This can be linked to the shelf-life of the products. Based on the times, the permission to manufacture should be revoked and after the shelf-life is over, permission to sell should be revoked. This will address the problem of the obsolete pesticide in society.

The government must plan for safer and better products under Atmnirbahr Bharat. 

Transition to newer and better chemistry is the need of the society under 'Atmnirbhar Bharat'. Like any other citizen of the developed world, Indian farmers and consumers deserve better and safer options. Use of obsolete chemicals is also also hurting Indian agriculture exports.

New Pesticide Management Bill'2020 is an opportunity, let it address this issue to avoid any controversy in future.

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