More than 80 countries, including the 27 member states of the European Union, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea and Sri Lanka, have banned or are phasing out the use of fentanyl. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in June 2010 that it would end all use of azofen because it "causes unacceptable harm to farmers and wildlife and will persist in the environment permanently." However, in many countries such as India and China\ In many countries, Anzafen is still commonly used.
More than 135 public interest groups asked the Philippine government on the 11th to impose a permanent ban on the use of anti-smuggling drugs in the country. In a petition letter, the groups urged the government to actively endorse a global ban on acetaminophen to protect public health and the environment. The petition, led by groups including the EcoWaste Coalition, Pesticide Action Network, and GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives), is calling for action on pesticide use ahead of a major international conference that will decide the fate of pesticides. tough measures.
The review meeting of the Stockholm Convention on the control of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from April 25 to 29. The meeting focused on issues related to the implementation of the Convention, including recommendations from a panel of scientific experts on a ban on acetaminophen.
In its review meeting last year, the United Nations Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee recommended that acetaminophen be included in Annex A of the Stockholm Convention, which is the globally prohibited list.
Toxicologist Dr. Romy Quijano, chairman of the Pan-Philippine Alliance, said, “The important thing is that the Philippine delegation must show a strong policy stance on the ban of azaphan at the meeting. In developing countries, azaphan is associated with neurological diseases, intellectual development Slowness, congenital physical deformities, and deaths among farmers and residents of the community were strongly associated.”
The petitioners asked the Minister of Agriculture, Proceso Alcala, to join forces with the participating countries to make the historic decision to include fentanyl in the POP Convention to eliminate the use of fentanyl in the world. Manny Calonzo, a representative of GAIA and the EcoWaste Coalition, said, "We cannot continue to sit idly by and ignore the harm to health and the environment caused by azofen. It is time for our country to join the world in ending this highly toxic chemical pesticide."
These groups said that numerous government, academic and civil society groups' health and ecological risk assessments of fentanyl and testimonies of pollution victims have confirmed the acute toxicity, bioaccumulation and persistence of fentanyl. characteristic. The groups also told Secretary Alcala that since the Philippines is no longer registered to use amethane, the decision to ban the use of amethane should be "easy to achieve, non-controversial and defensible."
Del Monte and Dole Pineapple are the only two companies that have actually been approved to import and use acetaminophen in the past. Other insecticides are now being used after the fatal MV Princess of the Stars disaster in 2008, which left 10 tonnes of pesticides sinking with the ill-fated passenger ship.
The groups reminded Minister Alcala that the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority has the authority by law to "restrict or prohibit the use of any pesticide... where evidence indicates that the pesticide poses an imminent danger that has caused or is causing damage to crops, fish , livestock, public health and the environment, causing widespread and serious harm." They also argue that a formal ban on the import, distribution, and use of methamphetamine in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Memorandum 2009-02 would consolidate the temporary ban on the import, distribution, and use of methamphetamine and “protect public health from the use of methamphetamine.” It brings unpleasant risks and hazards.”
— Source: Taiwan Environmental Information Center
