A Public Eye Report – April 2019 Highly hazardous profits How Syngenta makes billions by selling toxic pesticides Executive Summary 3 1 Highly hazardous pesticides: a “major public health concern” 7 1.1 – The shifting geography of pesticide poisonings 8 1.2 – Reducing risks by phasing out the most toxic pesticides 10 1.3 – Highly hazardous pesticides – A contested definition 13 2 Syngenta – Making profits with highly hazardous pesticides 15 2.1 – A multibillion dollar market 16 2.2 – Lower incomes, higher toxicities 16 2.3 – Syngenta’s highly hazardous growth market 18 3 Brazil’s pesticide problem 21 3.1 – The world’s largest market for toxic pesticides 22 3.2 – Diving into Brazil’s contaminated drinking water 24 3.3 – The chronic health impacts of pesticides in Brazil 30 4 Conclusion and recommendations 33 Annexes 36 Endnotes 51 IMPRINT Highly hazardous profits. How Syngenta makes billions by selling toxic pesticides. A Public Eye Report, April 2019, 56 pages | Authors Laurent Gaberell and Carla Hoinkes | Editing Mary Louise Rapaud | Contributors Timo Kollbrunner, Christa Luginbühl and Géraldine Viret | Acknowledgments Fernando Bejarano, Medha Chandra, Peter Clausing, Susan Haffmans, Emily Marquez, Lars Neumeister, Fran Paula, Javier Souza, Murilo Souza, Baskut Tuncak, Alan Tygel and Meriel Watts | Publisher Raphaël de Riedmatten | Layout Karin Hutter, karinhutter.com | Cover picture © Fábio Erdos PUBLIC EYE Avenue Charles-Dickens 4, CH-1006 Lausanne | Phone +41 (0)21 620 03 03 Fax +41 (0)21 620 03 00 | [email protected] | www.publiceye.ch | CP 10-10813-5 A Public Eye Report | April 2019 3 Executive Summary Research by Public Eye reveals that the most dangerous pesticides, known as “highly hazardous”, are used heavily in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), despite being – for the most part – banned in Switzerland and the European Union (EU). Public Eye’s in-depth probe into the opaque world of highly haz- ardous pesticides also reveals that the Swiss agrochemical giant, Syngenta, is one of the main responsible for the flood of such products into LMICs. This conclusion is based on our analysis of exclusive industry data, which lifts the lid on a ticking time bomb that dramatically endangers human health and the environ- ment. Our investigation in Brazil, the world’s largest user of pesticides, shows that millions are exposed to pesticides that present significant hazards to human health – including through drinking water. Scientists fear this could trigger an epi- demic of chronic diseases. The time has come to put an end to this dirty business. 4 HIGHLY HAZARDOUS PROFITS – How Syngenta makes billions by selling toxic pesticides Approximately three million tonnes of pesticides are applied that about 1.2 million tonnes of highly hazardous pesticides are worldwide every year, an amount that has been constantly in- used in these countries every year, representing a huge market creasing over the past three decades, especially in LMICs, which – some USD 13 billion. now account for over half of pesticide use. Concerns over the health impacts of pesticides are escalating. While farmers and rural residents are exposed most frequently and directly, resi- WARNING: HIGHLY HAZARDOUS BUSINESS MODEL dues of pesticides are found everywhere: in our food, our drink- ing water, in the rain and in the air. In short, no one remains Syngenta presents itself as an agricultural company that helps untouched by pesticide exposure. to feed the planet while protecting biodiversity and keeping farmers safe. The company’s public ambition is to be at the fore- front of the transition towards a more sustainable agriculture. EXPOSURE TO PESTICIDES: A TICKING TIME BOMB Our research reveals a very different reality: selling highly haz- ardous pesticides is at the core of Syngenta’s business model. Pesticides are poisons, designed to kill living organisms such as About one third of Syngenta’s pesticide portfolio – and half of pests and weeds. By their very nature, they can also affect hu- its best sellers – consists of substances listed as “highly hazard- mans and other non-target organisms. UN experts have recent- ous” by PAN. ly warned that pesticides have a “catastrophic impact” on the Based on exclusive data from Phillips McDougall, the lead- environment, human health and society as a whole, including an ing agribusiness intelligence company, Public Eye estimates estimated 25 million cases of acute poisoning resulting in that Basel-based Syngenta made some USD 3.9 billion by selling 220,000 deaths a year. They have expressed “grave concern” over highly hazardous pesticides in 2017 – over 40% of its pesticide the impact of chronic exposure to pesticides, including cancer, sales that year, with a volume of about 400,000 tonnes. About Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, hormone disruption, de- two thirds of those sales were made in LMICs. Brazil is the velopmental disorders, sterility and neurological health effects. company’s largest market, but it also sells its toxic pesticides in Argentina, China, Paraguay, Mexico, India, Vietnam, Philip- pines, Ecuador, Colombia, Kenya and Ghana, among others. Pesticides have a “catastrophic impact” on the environment, human health and SCANDALOUS DOUBLE STANDARDS society as a whole, including an estimated While the company boasts of providing “world-class science 25 million cases of acute poisoning resulting and innovative crop solutions” to farmers around the globe, the in 220,000 deaths a year. facts do not match the rhetoric. Since 2000, Syngenta has devel- oped only eight new molecules. Some of its toxic blockbusters – such as highly controversial paraquat, atrazine, lambda-cyha- It is now widely accepted that in order to reduce risks, pesti- lothrin or glyphosate – have been on the market for decades. cides that are acknowledged to present particularly high levels Fifty-one of the 120 pesticide active ingredients in Syngenta’s of acute or chronic hazards to health or the environment – the portfolio are not authorized for use in its home country, Swit- “highly hazardous pesticides” (HHPs) – must be taken off the zerland; sixteen of them were banned because of their impact market. This represents a paradigm shift from decades of think- on human health and the environment. But Syngenta continues ing that all risks associated with pesticides can be well-managed selling them in lower income countries, where standards are of- and reduced to an acceptable level, for example through training ten weaker and less strictly enforced. programmes promoting so-called ‘safe use'. In other words the old risk management approach is now seen as not sufficient when pesticides are intrinsically highly hazardous. However, de- Our research reveals that spite progress in recognising the dangers of HHPs, very little is known about the extent of their use and the companies behind selling highly hazardous pesticides this dirty business. is at the core of For this reason, Public Eye investigated the opaque business Syngenta’s business model. of highly hazardous pesticides over several months. Based on exclusive industry data and using the list of highly hazardous pesticides developed by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), our report shines a light on the massive use of these dangerous Confronted with our findings, Syngenta said it does not substances in LMICs, and the central role played by Swiss- agree with the list that PAN has developed. The company indi- based agrochemical giant, Syngenta, in promoting their use. cated its support for regulating pesticides based on risks not Most – though not all – highly hazardous pesticides are no hazards, and stressed that it complies with all of the regulatory longer authorized for use in Switzerland and the EU. The situa- and safety standards of the countries where its products are tion is completely different in LMICs: our research suggests registered for sale. A Public Eye Report | April 2019 5 “Even more complete portfolio”: Syngenta advert in Rio Verde, Goiás, Brazil. | © Fábio Erdos/Panos Fernando Bejarano from PAN Mexico does not share that reached USD 1.6 billion in 2017. Our analysis indicates that view. He said: “Companies such as Syngenta have chosen to pro- most of that total comes from the sale of pesticides listed by mote profit over people and take advantage of weaker regulations PAN as “highly hazardous”, which in 2017 amounted to about in lower income countries to increase their sales.” And he stressed 100,000 tonnes at a market value we estimate at USD 1 billion. that people living in low and middle income countries “are pay- ing the price, in terms of health and environmental impacts”. In order to better understand the consequences for people in POISON IN THE WATER lower income countries, we decided to go to Brazil, the largest user of toxic pesticides and Syngenta’s largest growth market. “There is probably not a single citizen in this country without a certain level of pesticide exposure”, says Ada Cristina Pontes Aguiar, medical doctor and researcher at the Federal University BRAZIL, SYNGENTA’S LARGEST MARKET FOR of Ceará in Brazil. Our dive into Brazilian’s drinking water con- TOXIC PESTICIDES firms this assessment. Through a freedom of information re- quest, Public Eye accessed a government database of drinking Over the last two decades, Brazil has become an agricultural su- water monitoring from 2014–2017. perpower. The country is now the world’s second largest global Pesticide residues were found in 86% of drinking water sam- supplier of food and agricultural products, and the main export- ples tested. A total of 454 Brazilian municipalities, with a popu- er of soy, coffee, sugarcane and tobacco. Pesticide use has sky- lation of 33 million, detected pesticide residues in their drinking rocketed in Brazil over the last thirty years, and the country is water above the legal limits at least once during the four-year now the largest user worldwide, with some 540,000 tonnes of period.