Eliminating Hazardous Pesticides

Many hazardous pesticides are used around the world, resulting in serious health problems, significant environmental damage, and impacts on soil and wildlife that threaten sustainable farming. The term highly hazardous pesticide (HHP) is used to describe acutely toxic pesticides and pesticides that cause serious health effects, including cancers, nervous system disorders, reproductive problems, immune system effects, and endocrine system disruption. For more than a decade, IPEN and the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) have led calls for an international cooperation to phase out the use of HHPs.

In 2023, IPEN welcomed decisions by the Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC) and UNEA calling for a global phase-out of HHPs by 2035 and forming a Global Alliance on HHPs.

Some countries that have banned certain harmful pesticides continue to allow these pesticides to be produced for export, mostly to low- and middle-income countries, putting people in the receiving countries at risk. IPEN works to expose and end these double standards in the production and use of hazardous pesticides. 

IPEN advocates for agroecology, the science of organic farming, to replace toxic pesticides and to promote safer, sustainable food production. Working through the Stockholm Convention, the GFC, and by working for national pesticide regulations around the world, IPEN promotes a healthier, toxics-free food supply and safer farming for workers, farmers, and rural communities.