Pesticide Action Network (PAN) is frequently asked for information on pesticides that have been banned by various countries. A Consolidated List of Pesticide Bans has been developed by Dr. Meriel Watts to identify which pesticides have been banned by particular countries, because there appears to be no other comprehensive compilation of such information.
The List, which is maintained by Dr. Watts on behalf of PAN Asia and the Pacific (PANAP) and PAN International, is now available for the first time in the form of an interactive map.
The Consolidated List also shows whether the banned chemicals are regarded as Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs). It does not include those banned pesticides regarded as being obsolete according to the 2009 WHO Recommended Classification of Pesticides by Hazard. It also does not include severe restrictions; entries are for complete bans only.
Sources of information
Maintaining the Consolidated List is an ongoing exercise that involves drawing together information on pesticides that have been banned in various countries. The List is far from complete as many countries do not publish lists of their nationally banned pesticides, nor notify them to the secretariat of the Rotterdam Convention. An updated version of the list is published by PAN International approximately every year, depending on availability of new information.
The primary source of information used is an official list or regulatory action published by a government agency, where available. A secondary source is the Database of Final Regulatory Action maintained by the secretariat for the Rotterdam Convention. A third source is answers to Questionnaires issued by SAICM Regional Coordinating Groups. If none of these sources are available, some other sources have been used such as direct communication with authorities and FAO reports.
A source of new information in the current edition of the List is the Rotterdam Convention’s Import Responses Database. Pesticides listed in this database as having “No consent to import” have been added to the Consolidated List of Bans, because Article 10.9 of the Rotterdam Convention states that if a country makes a decision not to consent to import of a chemical it shall also prohibit import of the chemical from any other source and domestic production for use. Although this may not be a ban established by regulatory action, in practice it should act as a ban. As a result of this change, a number of countries have been added to the Consolidated List (see below).
There is occasionally a lack of consistency between the various sources of information. In such situations, the official government list is taken as the principal source and the Rotterdam Convention database as a secondary source.
An overview of bans
At time of publication of the current, 4th Edition of the Consolidated List (2019), information on banned pesticides was available for 150 countries.
One or more of these countries have banned a total of 366 pesticide active ingredients or groups of actives regarded as still ‘currently in use’ in the global market (i.e. not obsolete).
The countries with the most known bans are the EU and the UK (60 banned plus 229 specifically ‘not approved’ pesticides which are Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) and/or banned by another country). Second is Brazil (81), then Saudi Arabia (72), Cambodia (58), India (51), and China (47).
The map version of the List can be searched by any of the 27 EU member states as well; France and Sweden have each banned one pesticide in addition to the EU list of bans. The map version does not include the 229 EU “not approved” pesticides mentioned above.
For details on updates included in this version of the List, see the background section of the Consolidated List of Bans document.
Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to ensure the information contained in this List is correct, but inevitably there will be errors, simply because for some countries there are conflicting lists of bans.
If any country official notices errors relating to their bans, please inform PANAP at panap@panap.net with the subject line Consolidated List of Bans. Additionally, PANAP would welcome any information from countries not yet included in the list, or where the list is only partial.
The Consolidated List of Bans is available for download at: www.pan-international.org
Note: This overview was excerpted from the Background section of the Consolidated List, prepared by Dr Meriel Watts, PANAP on behalf of PAN International.