Study Results: Companies Earn Billions of Dollars from Sales of Highly Hazardous Pesticides

(Patria) – The world's largest pesticide manufacturers earn billions of dollars annually from chemical agents that pose a high risk to human health and the environment.

Results of recently published research have shown that highly hazardous pesticides (so-called HHPs) are sold more in poorer countries – 59% of pesticides are sold in India, which is significantly more than the 11% of total sales in the United Kingdom.

Five companies dominate the pesticide market – Bayer, BASF, Syngenta, FMC, and Corteva. In 2018 alone, these five companies sold quantities of highly hazardous pesticides worth $4.8 billion, accounting for 36% of their total annual revenue. Bayer attempted to deny the research results, but did not provide 'accurate' information in the process, writes the British Guardian.

An analysis by the independent monitoring body 'Unearthed and Public Eye' shows that a quarter of the products sold contain pesticides that pose a health risk and are considered carcinogenic, while 10% are toxic to bees. 4% of the products sold contain chemicals that are acutely toxic to humans. The Guardian further writes that around 200,000 suicides are committed each year by pesticide poisoning, and almost all cases are recorded in developing countries.

The five largest manufacturers sell 27% of highly hazardous pesticides in rich countries, 45% in low- and middle-income countries, and around 65% in South Africa alone.

A 2018 global pesticide management study involving the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organization) points to 'various critical defects' in countries that should tighten rules and laws to 'minimize harmful effects on people and the environment'.

Baskut Tuncak, UN Special Rapporteur on harmful substances and human rights, claims that it is 'inappropriate for companies to generate such revenue in this day and age from highly hazardous pesticides'. He emphasized that 'the continued use of these products is unsustainable and causes multiple human rights violations worldwide'.