Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Dear Friends,

Sometimes we feel alone in our campaign but there are others out there  who are concerned about carbofuran and other pesticides. Here are some great links

African Answerman wrote a very detailed blog post about the history of Carbofuran in USA here

Here is part of what he wrote

“In California alone more than 77 workers were documented with serious Carbofuran illnesses.

FMC Corporation was the main producer of Carbofuran by 2002. It had either filed for most of the patents or bought them from other companies.

As more and more states independently began to restrict the chemical’s use, FMC looked abroad. Even after the EPA formally banned the product in 2008 and the Supreme Court denied FMC’s appeals in 2009, FMC could continue selling the deadly powder abroad.

It did this directly, but that was bad PR and risked further law suits simply from workers who would be packaging it in the U.S. So instead it licensed the product to a number of willing partners, including China’s Jiangsu Hopery Chemical Co., and that’s the company that continues to sell it to East Africa on license from FMC. In Kenya its main distributor is now Juanco Ltd.

In 2009 reports began to service in Kenya of the awful power of the pesticide, and more importantly, that it was available over-the-counter and was obviously not being used to kill aphids on soy beans. There is very little soy bean production in Kenya.

Children died. What was apparent was that the pesticide had been so successfully marketed in Kenya by Jiangsu, and was so relatively cheap, that small farmers were using it for everything possible, even when it was not particularly effective.

But the misuse of Carbofuran in Kenya drew world attention when Wildlife Direct reported that Maasai near the Mara were using Carbofuran to kill lions.”

The article got a very interesting responsefrom Dan Harms

“Worked with this chemical when I was with the department of Economic Entomology. It was used in the midwest as a granular pesticide applied to corn planting to control corn rootworm….a very toxic chemical for a very damaging pest. Very glad to see it off the market. It was developed as a response to pesticide tolerance in the corn rootworm populations, nothing else would work.

When working with this chemical we took special precautions, in the granular form it tends to be dusty, very toxic. It is a carbamate pesticide with a relatively short half life, the chance of residue on imported crops or food stuffs is very slight.

One of the major problems with carbamate poisons is that they, as cholinesterase inhibitors, build up in the human body. Compounds such as Furadan (carbofuran) are extremely dangerous and cause acute poisoning quickly (thus the lion death) but they also can cause long term damage if repeated exposure occurs. There is a medical test that can be done. If the body is allowed it can recover – so reports of long term damage although probably true are most likely due to negligance or ignoranc on the part of the damaged party. The stuff does carry a skull and cross-bones.”

Carbofuran sold in Africa carries a yellow box with an x in it – despite its toxicity there is no Skull and cross bones!