Non-governmental organisations in seven countries, including Malaysia, today called for a worldwide ban on pesticides in conjunction with the 18th anniversary of the Bhopal tragedy.

Today is the 'No Pesticides Use Day' launched in1988 by a regional group known as the Pesticide Action Network, Asia and the Pacific (PAN-AP) to commemorate the tragedy four years earlier.

On Dec 3, 1984, thousands of people were killed when a lethal cloud of methyl isocyanate (an extremely toxic chemical used to produce Sevin a potent pesticide at the time) leaked from a manufacturing plant owned by Union Carbide Corporation in Bhopal, India.

NGOs around the globe said the incident exposed the negligence and culpability of transnational corporations.

The United States-based Union Carbide eventually paid US$470 million in compensation for the victims in 1989.

In a press statement yesterday, PAN-AP said it has organised several activities to increase public awareness about the dangers of pesticides.

Paraquat ban

In Malaysia, labour rights organisation Tenaganita will organise a programme on Dec 8 to call for a total and immediate global ban on pesticides, especially paraquat.

More than 400 plantation workers and farmers are expected to attend the event which will be held at Hotel Mutiara, Klang.

Earlier this year, Tenaganita and PAN-AP launched a book, Poisoned and silenced a study of pesticide poisoning in the plantations .

The NGOs had argued that the use of pesticides, particularly paraquat, in plantations exposed workers to various health hazards.

The campaign was a success here when the Malaysian government decided finally to ban the pesticide in August.

Various programmes were also planned and organised for India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

In India this year, NGOs had among others called for the worldwide ban on the insecticide, endosulfan.

They said the aerial spraying of this insecticide in the plantations of Kasargod in Kerala had resulted in tragic deaths and many people suffering.

Meanwhile, New Zealand's chapter of Pesticide Action Network will issue a press release calling for a ban on the aerial spraying of a chemical mixture to eradicate the Painted Apple Moth in Auckland to protect the pine plantations in the area.

PAN claimed the pesticide called, Foray 48B, consists of unknown mixture of chemicals which the New Zealand government insisted as safe but refused to reveal the contents of it.