Stop poisoning wildlife campaign hits a mark
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 30 2008 | By: admin
The press have been very interested in the concerns raised about carbofurans in Kenya. This article appeared in the Kenyan newspapers today and based on interviews, we expect more in coming days. 
Furadan demystified!
Category: Poisoning wildlife | Date: Apr 17 2008 | By: admin
The more I learn about the poisoning of wildlife the more shocked I become. I have been learning about the poison Furadan. So, what is Furadan? Furadan is the marketed name for carbofuran and is used to control insects in a wide variety of field crops, including potatoes, maize and soybeans. It is a systemic insecticide, which means that the plant absorbs it through the roots, and distributes it throughout its organs where concentrations are attained that are deadly to insect. Carbofuran can also kill insects on contact.
Have you ever seen such an ugly molecule?
Carbofuran has one of the highest acute toxicities to humans of any insecticide widely used on field crops. A quarter teaspoon can be fatal! Applications of this chemical should be in closed systems where it makes not contact with the skin. However, in Africa it is widely available in powder form and is applied by lay people mostly peasant farmers by hand resulting in much direct exposure to the chemical. The chemicals toxicity is due to its activity as a cholinesterase inhibitor (it is thus considered a neurotoxic pesticide). Read this story about a lady who watched the aerial application of carbofuran and see how it may have destroyed her life.
Though intended for insect and soil pests, carbofurans like Furadan is highly toxic to mammals and birds and has been used purposely to target predators and birds in Africa, USA and UK. A single grain will kill a bird and birds usually eat numerous grains of it mistaking it for seeds. They die after a short painful reaction. Before it was banned by United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1991, granular carbofuran caused millions of bird deaths per year in USA. No wonder there is a huge controversy over the possible reversal of the ban on use of Furadan in USA.
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