The Global Threat from Highly Hazardous Pesticides

Eliminating HHPs to Promote Safer Food and Farming

This report provides an overview on the global spread and dangers of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs), which have long been a target for international phase-out through the Stockholm Convention and have garnered renewed focus through the 2023 resolution to establish a Global Alliance on Highly Hazardous Pesticides. HHPs have a wide range of toxic health and environmental impacts including cancer, impaired neurodevelopment in children, reproductive health effects, and endocrine disruption, among others.

Building on work done by IPEN and its partners since 2017 covering 83 projects in 43 Low- and Middle-Income Countries, the report provides background information on HHPs, identifies safe alternatives already available, and provides a deeper dive into four specific pesticides:

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, DDT
Sufluramid
Chlorpyrifos
Glyphosate

IPEN supports efforts under the Stockholm Convention to remove acceptable purposes for DDT and sulfluramid and for a strong listing decision for the pesticide chlorpyrifos. Furthermore, IPEN supports calls for regulatory controls on glyphosate, the world’s most widely used pesticide.

Read the full report below.