Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
A coalition of civil society organisations, academics and unions have sent a letter of demand to Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen to issue an immediate ban of Terbufos, the lethal chemical that has been implicated in the deaths of six children in Soweto — or face legal action.
The minister must outlaw other highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) with a fixed six months for implementation, the African Centre for Biodiversity said in the 16-page letter.
Steenhuisen also “must ensure that there are no delays or loopholes created in any new regulatory framework that allow the ongoing use of chemicals in violation of our constitutional rights to an environment that is not harmful to health”.
The coalition noted that government toxicology results found that the Naledi children died from ingesting Terbufos, adding: “The deaths of more than 20 children who have been exposed to HHPs have been in the news lately, but poisoning from street pesticides is not a new occurrence.”
The Naledi poisonings culminated in an investigation that determined that the Terbufos granules in the children’s stomachs killed them. “Since then, the government has conflated these pesticide poisonings with food-borne/food safety-related issues and has scapegoated spaza shops,” the group said.
The signatories called on Steenhuisen to indicate his willingness to undertake the steps set out in their letter within 21 days of the date of receipt, “failing which we reserve our rights to bring legal action to compel the minister to take these steps”.
“Failure to do so will result in a constitutional violation of the right to life and an environment not harmful to health with particularly devastating consequences for children. We trust that it will not be necessary for us to approach the courts to compel the minister to honour, rather than continue to violate, his constitutional obligations,” they added.
The letter of was addressed to Steenhuisen on behalf of the Women on Farms Project, the Commercial Stevedoring, the Agricultural and Allied Workers Union, groundWork, Friends of the Earth SA, Khanyisa/Kouga Workers Forum Trust for Community Outreach and Education as well as academic experts in the field: Leslie London, Andrea Rother and Cindy Stephens.
Highly hazardous
The EU has banned 57 of the 192 HHPs registered in South Africa because of their health and environmental risks, rights violations and harm to the health of farm workers and their families.
The risks posed by HHPs was flagged in 2006 when the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Council requested specific attention for HHP risk reduction, including consideration of progressive bans. In 2016 the FAO and the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued specific guidelines to help countries address HHPs, including criteria for identification, steps of risk reduction and elements of an action plan to reduce the risks.
In South Africa, the pesticide management policy of 2010 took up the issue of reducing pesticides and banning or phasing out those that are particularly dangerous. According to the letter, since the 2010 policy was published, only 12 chemicals had been banned or restricted.
In April 2022, the registrar promised to phase out 116 HHPs by June 2024. Ultimately, only 28 were identified for phasing out and the registrar published a derogation procedure for companies to apply to continue using these 28 under special circumstances.
“Moving at this glacial space means that, on average, South Africa has taken regulatory action on less than one pesticide a year since the policy was published,” the letter said.
“Given the abundance of evidence regarding HHPs and South Africa’s commitment to complying with shifts in global environmental governance, we do not believe this to be sufficiently compliant with its policy direction.”
Extremely hazardous
Terbufos is classified by the WHO as an extremely hazardous class 1a organophosphate pesticide and cholinesterase inhibitor. “Terbufos has neurotoxic effects and is particularly dangerous to children and adolescents. It may be fatal if ingested, inhaled or had contact with the skin.”
It has been banned for use in the EU since 2009, “although some countries in the EU apply double standards” and continue to allow the production and export of Terbufos, especially to developing countries.
Terbufos has been banned in the Southern African Development Community by Angola, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, the Seychelles, Tanzania and Zambia. Botswana’s ban came into effect on 1 December, while Zimbabwe no longer imports the chemical.
It is recognised and listed by the Rotterdam Convention as a hazardous chemical requiring prior informed consent from parties to the convention. This means that as of 21 July 2024, South Africa, as a party to the convention, had to consent to importing it.
Terbufos has been a “restricted pesticide” — considered to have a higher potential to harm public health, the environment, wildlife and crops compared to other pesticides — in South Africa since the end of 2023.
It is widely available and can be bought in spaza shops and through street traders as a “street pesticide” – for domestic use in townships and informal settlements to control rats.
The coalition’s letter noted how two days before the government declared a national disaster, environmental health researchers at the University of Cape Town did a quick review of the labels online for Terbufos products being sold in South Africa. None indicated evidence of “restricted-use pesticide”, as required by law.
“In any event, we contend that no amount of traceability and labelling will make a substance designed to kill safe and there is no ideal real-life situation where these toxins can be deployed safely,” it said.
Pest infestations
Street pesticides are poisonous substances that are legally registered for agricultural use but are decanted illegally into unlabelled beverage bottles or packets for home use. “Or, they might be illegally packaged pesticides imported into the country and not registered for use. Typically, they are acquired from agricultural cooperatives, garden shops and hardware stores.”
Several research papers have been published, and evidence presented to the government, that children are dying from the ingestion of pesticides, including organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids. This “points to the reality that access to HHPs is a major problem” in the country.
In 2023, experts published a paper showing that in one Cape Town mortuary, out of 50 children whose cause of death was suspected to be due to pesticides and for whom toxicological tests were conducted, 29 had died from Terbufos poisoning.
Four others had died from the organophosphates, methamidophos and diazinon. Of these deaths, 42.6% were children under five years and 40.7% were adolescents between 15 and 18.
“We also found that in South Africa, before the Naledi tragedy, access to comprehensive and quick toxicological results for pesticide deaths was limited. Pesticide mortuary data are not sought by those regulating agricultural pesticides when evaluating evidence in decision-making on pesticides.”
Government laboratories are stretched and cannot quickly test the cause of these deaths. “This means we do not have a true picture of how many deaths have been linked to pesticides. It could well be in the thousands.”
There is increasing evidence that children surviving organophosphate poisoning suffer significant adverse neuro-developmental impacts that will be lifelong.
Child deaths
Several factors are involved in child deaths from street pesticides. “First, people living in informal areas must contend with high levels of pest infestations — rats, bed bugs, flies and cockroaches.”
As commercially sold legal pesticides have been overused, “many pests are developing resistance and so these products are less effective”.
This means that there is a market for killing pests with cheap and effective products. “Because of their high toxicity, street pesticides are appealing as there is money to be made for informal vendors who sell them.”
“Parents think they are protecting their families and food sources from pests when buying street pesticides. With no label or verbal warnings, people apply them not knowing how dangerous they are … Children touch a lot of surfaces, and often have their hands in their mouths, and with their small body size, a small quantity of an HHP can cause severe illness or death,” the letter pointed out.
Another organophosphate pesticide, Chlorpyrifos, was banned for domestic use in 2010 and for agricultural use on 7 October this year. The WHO categorises Chlorpyrifos as a moderately hazardous class I pesticide. It is “irrational” for the minister to allow a more toxic organophosphate, Terbufos, to continue to be unbanned, the coalition argued.
The banning of Terbufos and HHPs is the “most reasonable” and only measure that will stem the unlawful distribution of these substances and the exposure of farm workers and dwellers, children and the public to them.
The coalition added: “The president has stated that the first intervention is to get hazardous pesticides off the street … This will not be possible without the banning of Terbufos and all other HHPs, as the banning of a single chemical will just result in it being replaced by another equally toxic chemical if such is legally available for sale in South Africa.”