WHO on endosulfan ban: We're not yet ready to make call

MANILA, Philippines - Despite a clamor for government to impose a ban on endosulfan, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said that the agency is not yet ready to support the move. “There is a global move to ban endosulfan but we are not at this stage (ready) to make that call," said Dr. Raman Velayudhan, acting WHO country representative. “It’s needed in some industries," he added. The call for a ban on the pesticide has been revived amid fears of contamination from the endosulfan cargo of the MV Princess of the Stars which capsized off Sibuyan Island in the central Philippines on June 21 at the height of typhoon “Frank". The 10 metric ton shipment was owned by Del Monte Philippines Inc., one of the two biggest pineapple producers in the country. On Thursday, members of various citizens’ groups on staged a protest and asked the government to ban endosulfan in the Philippines, saying that it was like a ticking “toxic time bomb." Environmental activists dressed themselves as “lethal monsters" while others wore toxic masks and carried a huge mock bomb, representing endosulfan and the many grave threats it poses on humans and the environment, as they demonstrated outside the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA) office in Quezon City. Some of the groups which participated were the Pesticide Action Network-Philippines and the International POPs Elimination Network, which have been campaigning for a global ban on endosulfan. Considered highly acutely toxic, endosulfan is banned in the European Union and several other countries. It was also banned in the Philippines in 1993, but the FPA allowed its restricted use in 1995 to control a disease that threatened the country's pineapple export industry. The Manila-based groups were joined by a representative of the Sibuyan Island Sentinels League for Environment, Inc. (Sibuyan ISLE), the lone environmental group in the area, in calling for decisive steps versus possible chemical devastation of the famed Sibuyan Island. While the Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday said laboratory tests on water samples taken at the accident site were found negative for endosulfan, the protesters said the government and the industry should still “switch to ecological, non-chemical pest control practices in agriculture for the health and safety of our farmers, workers, consumers and the whole environment." For his part, Velaydhan said that urine and blood samples taken from the 68 divers involved in the search and retrieval operations in the M/V Princess of the Stars will be sent to Malaysia for biochemical testing. Aside from Malaysia, Velayudhan said they are also looking at Indonesia and New Zealand to do the laboratory tests on samples taken from the divers. Government had earlier banned fishing in the area where the ship capsized after it was learned that the ship had 10 metric tons of endosulfan on board. Bayer Crop Science Philippines, a division of drug manufacturer Bayer AG earlier said they have ceased from producing the endosulfan because of its toxicity. - GMANews.TV