The Illegal Trade in Chemicals

of the public health sector in African countries (van den Berg, Manuweera and Konradsen 2017). According to experts, DDT is still illegally sold at markets in many Central Asian and Eastern European countries. Grassroots sources report that a DDT product named Dust is widely available to consumers in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Paraquat is a highly controversial weed killer that persists in the environment, and is frequently implicated in poisoning (Public Eye, PAN UK and PANAP 2017). Classified as moderately hazardous by WHO, paraquat is banned in many countries including European Union member States, China, South Korea, Togo, Laos, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. France and many other European countries banned the use of paraquat, but a study analysing data from a poison control centre implicates paraquat in severe poisoning in France (Kervegant et al. 2013). China restricted paraquat for domestic use, but allows paraquat production for export (People´s Republic of China, Ministry of Agriculture 2012). The neighbouring country of Laos imports all of its pesticides including paraquat from China, Thailand and to some extent from Vietnam (PANAP 2013). Zimbabwe decided to restrict paraquat, but the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos – a grassroots organization – reports (2018) that poachers are using paraquat and cyanide to kill animals (Public Eye, PAN UK and PANAP 2017). Endosulfan is a persistent organic pollutant that is present all around the world (PANAP 2008). A moderately hazardous chemical in the WHO classification, endosulfan is another highly debated pesticide banned under the Stockholm Convention in 2009, and domestically by 107 countries (PAN International 2017). In the early 1980s, endosulfan was voluntarily withdrawn from the market and replaced by pyrethroids in cotton production inWest Africa. After a decade, the cotton bollworm developed resistance to pyrethroids, and endosulfan was reintroduced. Although, endosulfan was domestically banned in nine of the West African countries it is still reportedly available and used in farming in the region

(PAN Africa and IPEN 2009). Research on dermal toxicity risks and ecological impacts confirms the persistent use of endosulfan in this region (Jepson et al. 2014). Fumigants are volatile, poisonous substances used to kill insects, nematodes, and other animals or plants that damage stored foods or seeds, and are widely used in all countries. According to recent reports the main buyers of fumigants are pest control operators and fumigation companies (MarketsAndMarkets 2019). In many cases the work of these operators lacks the transparency necessary to deter the illegal trade in spurious and substandard fumigants. In many ASGM operations, the mercury that operators use to extract gold from ore comes through trade that violates national or international laws on the import, marketing or use of mercury. While the implementation of the Montreal Protocol – an international treaty regulating ozone depleting substances – has beenhailed as amajor success, the sale of these substances in illegal markets presents a challenge to the full achievement of the strategy to phase them out (UNODC 2013). Fake fuels are products that contain substances in addition to or different from what an authorized seller represents, and the sale of such products is a growing form of illicit trade (TRACIT 2018). In some cases, fuel of a certain type that is less valuable is sold as a fuel that is more valuable. This is achieved, for example, when the marker (e.g. green dye) for fuel for agricultural uses is removed, making the fuel resemble the more valuable fuel that is used for common automobiles. Such “laundering” undermines air pollution regulations that allow the less valuable, and more polluting, fuel only for a narrow set of uses. Illegal fuel laundering plants are reported to dump or abandon toxic contaminated sludge – the hazardous chemical residue generated in the laundering process (BBC News 2006).

The Illegal Trade in Chemicals

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