‘My right side was paralysed, I was so sick’: the pesticide poisonings in Brazil that lead back to the UK | Pesticides

Valdemar Postanovicz was at home after a day tending to his tobacco crop when his limbs seized up. “All of the right side of my body was paralysed. I couldn’t feel my foot and my hand. My mouth twisted to the right,” he says.

He feared it was a stroke. In fact, he was suffering ­symptoms of acute ­pesticide poisoning. Postanovicz, 45, had absorbed Reglone, a powerful herbicide based on the chemical diquat. “It was only one time in my life, but I felt so sick,” he says.

Postanovicz lives in Paraná, southern Brazil – the country’s agricultural heartland. But his accidental poisoning can be traced more than 6,000 miles from South America to Britain, where there is a high chance the pesticide was made.

Records obtained under freedom of information laws by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative unit, and the NGO Public Eye reveal that despite a ban on their use in the UK, diquat and other toxic pesticides are being legally exported around the world – with large volumes going to developing countries.

Last year, 8,489 tonnes of chemicals banned on British farms due to health and environmental concerns were sent abroad, according to export data shared with the Observer. Of those, 98% were made by the Chinese-owned, Swiss-headquartered chemical company Syngenta.

The biggest export was diquat – of which Brazil is one of the world’s leading consumers. The weedkiller, made at only a few factories around the world, including Sygenta’s plant in Huddersfield, is a close chemical cousin of paraquat, which has been banned in Britain since 2008 and is the subject of class action lawsuits in the US and Canada, where farmers allege it left them suffering health problems including Parkinson’s. Syngenta, which reported £32.2bn of sales in 2023, disputes the claim and says its products are safe when used according to instructions.

Diquat is generally considered less toxic than paraquat, but can still be extremely harmful: exposure can lead to blindness, vomiting, irritation, convulsions, organ damage and even death. It has been banned on EU farms since 2019 and British farms since 2020, after experts concluded it posed a high risk to workers, people living nearby and birds. Yet a legal loophole allows Syngenta to keep making the weedkiller in UK factories, for export to countries with weaker regulations. Diquat exports by Syngenta reached 5,123 tonnes in 2023, more than half of that to Brazil.

In total, the UK exported pesticides containing 10 banned chemicals to 18 countries last year, including products considered highly toxic to bees and those with high potential for groundwater contamination.

The figures have prompted calls for an end to exports of pesticides banned in Britain, which campaigners and health experts described as exploitative and unethical.

Syngenta rejected the allegation, saying: “It is neither exploitative or unethical to provide products where the government and regulatory agencies of the importing country have provided express permission for the import and have directed and regulated use of those products within the specific agricultural context of that country.”

A spokesperson said agricultural needs differed worldwide and that exports of all products were in line with all laws and global treaties. They said the company put “considerable effort” into ensuring safe use of its products, including tamper-proof bottles and closed transfer systems, and that every year it gave safety training to “hundreds of thousands of people”.

They said herbicides like diquat were “essential tools”’ for farmers wanting to boost productivity and implement low or no-till practices, which help reduce carbon emissions – and that blocking access encouraged a counterfeit market.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the UK went “beyond the international standard” by requiring consent from importing countries, enabling them to make “informed decisions”. “This government is committed to protecting human health and the environment from the risks posed by chemicals,” a spokesperson said.

But Dr Marcos Orellana, the UN special rapporteur on toxics and human rights, said exporting banned pesticides to the developing world was a form of “modern-day exploitation”.

He accused the UK of allowing the production for export of “hazardous pesticides that subject countless people who are exposed to them, mainly poor workers in the fields of the global south” to “illness and grave suffering”. “It seems that for countries that produce and export banned pesticides, the life and health of people in recipient countries is not as important as their own citizens,” he said.

Other countries, including France and Belgium, have already taken action to prohibit the export of banned pesticides. In October, six member states publicly backed an EU-wide prohibition on banned chemical exports. Asked whether the UK would follow suit, Defra did not respond. Siân Berry, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavillion, said: “It’s beyond belief that this is apparently happening lawfully.”

Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace, described the exports as “double standards”. He disputed Syngenta’s claim that diquat was helping tackle climate change, saying the chemical – like paraquat – “hammers the land and biodiversity … to produce commodity crops for export”.

Research by the Pesticide Action Network has found there are alternatives to toxic pesticides, including living mulches, controlled grazing, mechanical weeding and thermal weeding, as well as alternative synthetic products. “This is intensive, not sustainable, agriculture,” Parr said.

Back in Brazil, some experts are warning of public health concerns. Last year was the first that diquat exports from Britain exceeded those of paraquat, after Brazil’s government banned paraquat in 2020 over health fears. Since then, the country’s use of diquat has surged – from 1,400 tonnes in 2019 to 24,000 tonnes in 2022.

Data suggests that as diquat usage has increased, accidental poisonings have risen. Between 2018 and 2021, the state of Paraná – one of the biggest consumers of diquat – recorded one to three cases annually. This jumped to six in 2022 and to nine in 2023, according to data obtained by Unearthed.

Marcelo de Souza Furtado from the Paraná health department, who tracks poisonings in the state, said the official numbers reflected a “small parcel of reality”, with many cases unreported due to lack of access to healthcare in remote areas or fear of reprisals from employers.

But he said the pesticides problem was “big”. He first noticed last year that notifications of diquat poisoning were overtaking paraquat. Of the 36 diquat cases recorded nationally by Brazil’s health ministry between 2018 and 2022, Syngenta’s product Reglone was cited in 83% of cases.

“We’re worried,” Furtado said. “If it’s already been banned in other countries, then that already shows that it has a very toxic effect.”

Syngenta recommends that those using its products wear PPE, including coveralls, boots, gloves, a cap, an apron, goggles, and respiratory protection. But in reality, Furtado said many farmers were not aware of its importance – with heat and humidity making consistent use difficult.

Even for those wearing PPE, usage still carries risks. In one modelled scenario using tractor-mounted equipment, a 2014 European Food Safety Authority review found that worker exposure for those wearing coveralls, gloves and boots could still exceed the maximum acceptable level by 350%.

While Postanovicz recovered from his exposure in 2021, he believes ­others should know the dangers. “It is a really strong product. If it touches the tobacco plant, it kills it,” he said. When he used it he says he wore protective trousers, boots, and gloves, but omitted the visor. “When we breathe it blurs and we can’t see correctly,” he said. “It is dangerous: we can stumble and get hurt.”

He says his symptoms began after he had finished work and showered. His vision blurred, his right leg and arm went numb, and tremors shook his right hand. Even now, the smell of Reglone triggers a visceral reaction. “I hate it,” he says. “I can feel if someone is using it far from here.”

Additional reporting: Naira Hofmeister