EU’s Exported Banned Pesticides – To Other Countries

Our Environment’s Reality?

EU’s EXPORTED BANNED PESTICIDES – TO OTHER COUNTRIES

Public Eye investigations reveal for the first time the extent to which the European Union (EU) allows the export of certain pesticides even though it bans their use on its own fields.

Public Eye’s investigation shows that EU member countries approved the export of 81,615 tonnes of pesticides containing substances banned in European fields. They are banned because of the unacceptable risks that they pose to human health and the environment. The United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium and Spain account for more than 90 percent of these volumes.
Three quarters of the 85 importing countries are low- or middle-income countries (LMICs), where the use of such substances presents the highest risks. Brazil, Ukraine, Morocco, Mexico and South Africa are among the top ten importers of pesticides “Banned in Europe”.

A total of 41 banned pesticides were notified for export from the EU. The health or environmental risks associated with these substances are dramatic: death from inhalation, birth defects, reproductive or hormonal disorders, or cancer. These substances will also contaminate drinking water sources and poison ecosystems.

Ironically, the main export destinations for these banned products – the United States, Brazil, and Ukraine – are the very same countries that supply the EU with food. Like a boomerang, therefore, the banned pesticides can find their way back to European consumers via imported food grown with the outlaw toxin.