CARPIN Calls For Shift From Highly Hazardous Pesticide Use In Agriculture

The Caribbean Poison Information Network (CARPIN) is calling for a switch to more sustainable agricultural practices that do not rely heavily on the use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs).

HHPs in agriculture have been found to be hazardous and a shift from the use of these substances can enhance human health and the environment while simultaneously creating appreciable economic gains.

Speaking in an interview with JIS News, Poison Information Coordinator at CARPIN, Sherika Whitelocke-Ballingsingh, said that Jamaica has a strong legal framework and policy to control pesticide sale and use.

She argued, however, that the high number of HHPs registered in the island, including those banned in other countries, requires urgent action.

Mrs. Whitelocke-Ballingsingh informed that CARPIN has done a comparative review on registered pesticides in Jamaica with HHP classification, the results of which can be beneficial to both health and the environment.

“We are looking at the different avenues through which our population is exposed to toxicity through the use of pesticides in many different ways,” she said.

“We also looked at our local activities and the global trends in regard to pesticide usage and how best we can protect the Jamaican population,” she added.

Mrs. Whitelocke-Ballingsingh told JIS News that for the purpose of the study “we focused on pesticides that are being used in the agriculture industry, and that would be the insecticides, herbicides and the fungicides”.

She explained that agriculture was targeted, due to its potential to expose a mass population to toxins from pesticides and this can happen through the handlers, their families and persons living in close proximity, through the environment, and by way of the soil, water and food.

Mrs. Whitelocke-Ballingsingh said that one of the important things about the study is that it will provide a guidance report that can help to inform programmes and policies.

The published list from the Pesticides Control Authority as of January 2021, indicates that there are 458 pesticides that have been registered in Jamaica in 13 categories. These pesticides have been found to contain 66 active ingredients.

Mrs. Whitelocke-Ballingsingh informed that 224 of the products that are used in Jamaica belong to the three categories of pesticides with insecticide accounting for 50 per cent; herbicide, 23 per cent; and fungicide, 17 per cent.

The study also looked at health outcomes or the impact on health associated with these active ingredients.

“We found out that some of the active ingredients were banned in other countries, some were associated with varying health issues such as human carcinogen induced heritable mutation, reproductive toxicity and some are endocrine disruptors,” Mrs. Whitelocke-Ballingsingh told JIS News.

“We also looked at other research done in other countries in regard to agricultural workers who handle these pesticides and how it had impacted their health,” she added.