The Council of Agriculture had scheduled a full ban on the use of paraquat that was to take effect on Feb. 1, but in a last-minute announcement, it postponed the ban for a year, saying that its policy of eliminating the highly toxic herbicide remains unchanged.
Banning paraquat would protect human lives and reduce the number of suicides, but there is concern that if the ban keeps getting pushed back, it will continue to cause more than 200 deaths per year, bringing everlasting grief to families and causing great losses to farming villages and society at large.
Hopefully, the council will ban paraquat as scheduled next year and suggest complementary measures, including the promotion of alternative pesticides and helping farmers recycle paraquat.
From 2003 to 2017, more than 2,600 people in Taiwan — one every two days — died of paraquat poisoning. The number peaked in 2017 with 227 deaths. Had paraquat been banned earlier, many innocent lives could have been saved.
It is not the only defoliant, and many alternative pesticides are much safer. The council is developing an alternative way to defoliate red bean plants before harvesting, which farmers would receive a subsidy for using.
It is easy to see how the ban would reduce suicides: Paraquat is far more toxic than other herbicides and ingesting even a small amount could cause a painful death. Other pesticides have lower toxicity and people who ingest them could be cured after receiving medical treatment.
Some people think that the government should tighten regulations on paraquat to license its use rather than banning it, but this will not prevent people from using it to commit suicide. Of the people who attempted to end their lives by ingesting paraquat, 60 percent used what was stored in their home. Only an outright ban could prevent the use of paraquat as a suicide method.
A tragic lesson can be learned from Malaysia, where the government prohibited the use of paraquat in 2005 and 2006, but then lifted the ban on limited use, allowing farmers to continue to stock the herbicide.
The number of people who died from paraquat poisoning soared from 34 in 2006 to 187 in 2015, Malaysian National Poison Center data showed.
From 2013 to 2017, Changhua County had the highest number of deaths by paraquat at 126, followed by 89 in Yunlin and Pingtung counties. The highest proportion of paraquat deaths in relation to all suicides was recorded in Taitung and Hualien counties, where it was the cause of one in five to six suicides. High proportions were also found in Yilan, Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi, where it accounted for one in seven to eight suicides.
A ban on paraquat is expected to have the most positive effect in these counties. The sooner paraquat is recalled, the quicker the nation will see a reduction in suicides.
Local health and agricultural bureaus should collaborate to intensify the promotion of the ban and help farmers return paraquat to vendors or to local farmers’ associations for handling. They could also cooperate with local environmental protection bureaus to provide farmers with incentives to encourage them to return paraquat containers.
For example, the Yilan County Environmental Protection Bureau holds an annual competition for pesticide bottle returns and offers prize money to encourage farmers, farmers’ associations and vendors to join the effort. Environmental protection bureaus could also provide bottle cleaning guidance and publicize information about recycling sites.
The central government should work to improve the Methods and Facilities Standards for the Storage, Clearance and Disposal of Waste Containers (廢容器回收貯存清除處理方法及設施標準), which only stipulates the methods for recycling waste pesticide containers, but not pesticides.
To achieve its promise of halving pesticide use by 2027, the council could consider working with the Environmental Protection Administration to establish a mechanism for managing pesticide recycling. Local environmental protection bureaus could coordinate with pesticide businesses and farmers’ associations to recycle bottles and their contents at the same time.
About 400 to 500 people die from pesticide poisoning every year, of whom 40 percent used paraquat. To create a safer and healthier living environment in disadvantaged farming villages, people should show concern for the issue and monitor the timely implementation of the government’s ban and subsidies.
Chang Shu-sen is an associate professor at the College of Public Health at National Taiwan University. Chen Ying-yeh is director of psychiatry at Taipei City Hospital’s Songde Branch and an adjunct professor at National Yang-Ming University.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
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