Is the ban on paraquat really happening?

LETTER | On March 18,  the Minister of Agriculture announced that paraquat would be banned from Jan 1, 2020, in Malaysia. While this is good news to us, the healthcare personnel, there will always be other stakeholders who will lobby to reverse the ban. 

This reversal has happened before in our country. The sale of paraquat was banned from the year 2002 to 2006. Statistics show that there was a marked increase in the number of calls to the poison centre on paraquat poisoning after the ban was lifted.

The proponents for paraquat being available would argue that the human impact is minimal. We, the doctors in Malaysia, feel there is significant suffering and deaths due to paraquat as we are ones seeing patients who are admitted for paraquat poisoning. 

It affects the young and all races. Most took it at the spur of the moment. Statistics show that the patients were of Indian ethnicity (72.2%) followed by Chinese (13.9%) and Malay (10.1%) meaning all races were involved. 

The median age of the patients was 30 years old – when they are most productive and impulsive. Most exposures were suicidal in intention (69.6%) – this means a substantial number (30.4%) was due to accidental and occupational exposure in nature.

We, the members of the medical profession and office bearers of professional medical organisations, fully support the honourable minister’s move. But as Jan 1, 2020, looms, we are concerned that there is no further news about the ban as to the following:

a. What happens to the existing paraquat in the market after Jan 1, 2020?

b. Insufficient dissemination of detailed information in the media of alternatives to paraquat in the form of other safer compounds and biological methods to contain unwanted vegetation.

c. Insufficient information in the media on how the paraquat ban would be enforced.

The above is issued by the College of Physicians, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia and endorsed by 31 medical associations.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.