The regime’s slogan to return happiness to the people has proven empty once again. Despite public demands for a ban, the military government has decided to allow paraquat, a highly toxic weed killer, to wreak havoc on public health and the environment.
This is unacceptable and must be reversed.
No, the military government cannot pass the buck to the Industry Ministry’s Hazardous Substance Committee which issued the controversial decision last week, nor the Department of Agriculture under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives for being a staunch advocate for farm chemical giants.
It’s an open secret that many bureaucrats’ loyalty is not to the taxpayers who pay their salaries but to big business which makes them rich. The government is as guilty for turning a blind eye.
Toxic farm chemicals have become a serious national threat to public health and the environment, particularly paraquat, the popular weed killer better known under its trade name Gramoxone.
Farmers in close contact with this highly hazardous herbicide are not the only ones affected. Paraquat poisons waterways, soil and farm produce. It also enters the food chain, making fish and other riverine animals dangerous for consumption.
The result is a spike in cancer, diabetes, respiratory problems, high blood pressure and neurological damage, including Parkinson’s disease, not to mention acute poisoning and deaths from suicide.
High levels of paraquat in farmers’ blood have become common and getting ever more serious. Even newborns cannot escape; paraquat residues have also been found in umbilical cords.
Is that not enough for a ban?
We’re talking about a crime against people and the environment here. The government’s duty is to stop it. Allowing the bureaucrats with suspicious links with farm chemical giants to run the show in favour of big business is a big time failure of the regime's duty.
Apart from paraquat, the Hazardous Substance Committee also refuses to ban the glyphosate weed killer, better known under its trade name Roundup, and the chlorpyrifos insecticide. But paraquat gets the most public attention because it is more deadly and it alone amounts to 20% of all imported farm chemicals.
The committee’s reasoning against a ban is ridiculously weak. Despite a tremendous amount of research here and abroad, it insists there is still not sufficient scientific evidence confirming it to be a health hazard.
Excuse me. If it’s safe, why have 53 countries around the world including China and EU nations banned paraquat? Thailand’s neighbours, including Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, have also banned its use.
Is Thailand wiser for not banning paraquat?
For the record, Thailand, just a small country, is the world’s fifth biggest user of farm chemicals, according to the World Bank. The majority of them are already banned in Western countries.
That, plus the nearly global ban on paraquat has turned Thailand into a major market the farm chemical giants cannot afford to lose.
Not enough scientific evidence on health hazards for the ban? This is a slap on the face of the Public Health Ministry which has presented comprehensive research showing the links between paraquat and various illnesses.
Do agricultural officials know better than doctors and health researchers? Who should the government listen to in matters concerning public health?
In Nan, the use of paraquat to kill weeds on massive corn plantations on mountains is probably the highest in the country. Apart from destroying the forests to enrich agro-giants’ feed businesses, the plantations’ extensive use of paraquat seriously contaminates both surface and underground water.
When research in Nan shows that all bottled water made from underground water is undrinkable, should not the government be alarmed?
When it is not, does it say anything about the rulers’ indifference toward the ruled?
The committee’s reason for opting to “strictly” regulate the use of paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos is also farcical. The country is awash with poisonous farm chemicals precisely because the authorities concerned are negligent. If they couldn’t regulate their use before, why can they do it now?
People are upset. Policies should be made based on solid information and a firm intention to protect the public good. The paraquat saga shows otherwise.
Last year, the Steering Committee on the Problems from Hazardous Farm Chemicals issued a ban order for the paraquat weed killer and chlorpyrifos insecticide while imposing strict controls on Roundup. The committee comprised high-level officials from the Public Health Ministry, the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, the Industry Ministry, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The matter should have ended there. Yet, the Department of Agriculture put up a fierce fight. The government could have intervened to protect public health and the environment, but that did not happen. Inaction then was seen as the government’s implicit support for big business which explains the eventual verdict in favour of chemical farm giants.
People are already upset with the regime’s other scandals: The luxury watches, the tycoon’s poaching, the slaughter of the black leopard, the Doi Suthep housing project, the violent evictions of the forest poor, the crackdown on freedom of expression.
Like it or not, the support for paraquat is yet further evidence of the regime’s disregard for the people. It reveals the cold indifference of the powerful to the sick and dying, the dangerously contaminated foods, the rising public health costs shouldered by the citizenry — all to support the farm chemicals industry.
Next week, civic groups will march to petition the prime minister to overturn the paraquat support policy. It will take place on June 5, World Environment Day. His answer is an easy guess.
They also plan to take the matter to the Administrative Court for alleged conflicts of interest among the Hazardous Substance Committee members.
Meanwhile, the environment will continue to be poisoned, and you and me and the whole Thai populace will have to consume food and drink bathed in toxic chemicals.
As for the government’s policy to make Thailand the “Kitchen of the World”, who will buy it when other neighbouring countries offer cleaner, safer foods?
Four years after military rule began, public discontent is rising. Reform promises remain empty and corruption in the bureaucracy remains as lively as ever, if not more so.
In the general election next year — if it’s ever held — all the untackled scandals, including the paraquat controversy, will return to haunt the military government with a vengeance. Although the political game has already been fixed to prolong the current regime’s power, the voters’ power will prevail when there is no trust left.
Sanitsuda Ekachai is former editorial pages editor, Bangkok Post.