India blocks addition of endosulfan to trade watchilist. (10-31-08)
25,000 petition the EPA to ban endosulfan. (10-20-08)
PAN’s technical comment letter to the EPA. (10-20-08)
Endosulfan recommended for listing as a Persistent Organic Pollutant by Stockholm Convention Review Committee. (10-17-08)
PAN’s Drift Catcher finds endosulfan in air near a Florida elementary school. (9-23-08 Report)
Letter to EPA chief Stephen L. Johnson, demanding cancellation of all uses of endosulfan due to the insecticide's effects on prenatal and child development. (8-12-08)
Suit against EPA demanding withdrawal of endosulfan's U.S. registration. (7-24-08)
PAN International submits evidence to the Stockholm POPs Convention in support of the proposed global ban on endosulfan. (7-15-08)
Scientists, environmental advocates and Arctic tribes demand that EPA phase out endosulfan. (5-19-08 Press release; Env. Health letter; Scientists’ letter; Artic + Indigenous People’s letter)
Endosulfan is a dangerous and antiquated insecticide that communities around the world are working to eliminate.
Despite recent findings by the US EPA indicating that endosulfan cannot
-- by the agency’s own standards -- be used safely in the vast majority
of scenarios for which it is currently approved, the chemical remains
legal and widely used in the US, China and India. Farmworkers in these
and other countries face daily exposure in the fields, and endosulfan’s
reach does not end there. EPA data show that all of us are routinely
exposed to small amounts of endosulfan in the food we eat, with young
children receiving the largest doses. Air monitoring studies show that
people living, working, and going to school near fields where the
chemical is used are also exposed by breathing contaminated air as it drifts from application sites.
Endosulfan is a known endocrine disruptor, and low dose exposure while
in the womb is linked to male reproductive harm, autism, and birth
defects. High dose exposures are acutely toxic, resulting in headaches,
nausea and vomiting, seizures, and in extreme cases, unconsciousness
and death.
Like other persistent organic pollutants (POPs), endosulfan makes its
way to the Arctic, where it bioaccumulates in the fat of
animalsIndigenous peoples of the Arctic. Endosulfan and its main
breakdown product are also persistent environmental contaminants.
Waterways near application sites are threatened—for example, the EPA
has estimated that after a typical endosulfan application to tomatoes,
concentrations of endosulfan downstream can be up to 28 times higher
than the level that is fatal to the average freshwater fish. Once
released into the environment these residues can take years to degrade,
traveling many miles in the meanwhile. Like other persistent organic
pollutants (POPs), endosulfan makes its way to the Arctic, where it
bioaccumulates in the fat of animals and Indigenous peoples of the
Arctic.
International Status of Endosulfan
Momentum is building for a worldwide phaseout of endosulfan. The
European Union and over 20 other countries have already banned
endosulfan and the US EPA is reconsidering whether its use should be
permitted here.
The review committee of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic
Pollutants has agreed that endosulfan should be considered for addition
to the list of chemicals banned globally under the treaty.
Consideration of the chemical is expected to be a two-year scientific
review process, with a final decision by government representatives in
2011.
Endosulfan is also currently under consideration as an addition to
another international treaty, the Rotterdam Convention, which requires
government-to-government notification when dangerous pesticides and
other chemicals cross international borders.