- It is difficult to imagine present-day agriculture without them, but the use of chemical substances is always a risk.
- Pesticides are the best regulated compounds on the market, but their incorrect and frequent application can lead to unsafe food and can further cause health problems.
- Safe food laws are ideal on paper, but as with the rest, the problem is in their implementation.
- Very often, agricultural products produced in the Balkan countries are returned from EU markets due to the increased presence of pesticides, but no one knows where they end up when they return home.
What are pesticides?
“The earth covers the mistakes in medicine, but in agriculture the earth reveals the mistakes – that is our guiding principle.”
Still strongly shaken by the most recent case of tragedy in which a family lunch was cooked using pesticide methomyl, this is how our conversation with Professor Stanislava Lazarevska from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food began. She works at the Department of Entomology and her specialty are insects. Our focus of interest were pesticides and food safety, and there, the professor says, there is a lot to talk about.
Pesticides are compounds that serve to suppress biologically harmful organisms in agriculture, forestry, communal hygiene, medicine and veterinary medicine. They apply to pests that humans have identified as a problem. Pesticides are used when we establish that an organism, which we have declared harmful, is present on a crop.
Although there are other ways to treat pests, the fastest and most effective way is with pesticides. It is hard to imagine modern agriculture without them. But the use of chemical substances is always a risk, says Lazarevska.
“Using pesticides is like walking on a wire. Both good and bad are part of a single whole”, the professor points out.
“Can they cause trouble?” Yes. Because pesticides are poisons. The basis is that they cause death of living organisms. These are chemical compounds that suppress pests, but under the condition that they are harmful. They are by no means applied voluntarily. They can cause acute poisonings, but they can also cause passive, chronic poisonings in humans”, says Lazarevska.
Pesticides are compounds that are the best regulated on the market, but improper and frequent application can lead to unsafe food and further cause chronic changes in people, act on the nervous, respiratory, endocrine system… They have been proven to be harmful as chemicals.
“Everyone is equally at risk from pesticides. Those who produce them, those who apply them are the most endangered, but the entire population that consumes food can be also endangered by pesticides”, adds Professor Lazarevska.
Laws on safe food are ideal on paper, but as with the rest, the problem with these well-written and harmonized laws is difficult implementation.
Proper implementation of the Law on Phytopharmacy and the Law on Plant Protection will mean a significant change in the work of people who use pesticides.
“The current practice is that anyone can go and buy everything. Great dangers arise from there. We do not know who is spraying, how much is spraying, why he/ she is spraying. Pesticides are applied strictly for their intended purpose”, says Lazarevska and points out – if you spray more often, the bitterness of the pesticide increases, in the product itself, the very crop you are protecting. Alternatively, inappropriate active substances that are not allowed for a particular crop may be used, and this is considered an unsafe product. You may not comply with the time period from the last application to the harvest, which the experts call carenza.
“The new Law stipulates that anyone who uses a pesticide, walks in an agricultural pharmacy and buys a pesticide, whether it’s an insecticide, a fungicide, whatever, must have a phytopharmacy license. This means that he/ she has an education in that field, that he/she has passed exams, that he/ she is familiar, that he/ she has passed the test for phytopharmacy and based on that he/ she has received a license that is valid for five years. After five years, he must again renew his knowledge and continue to apply the new knowledge, because the biggest mistakes arise from ignorance, not from knowledge”, explains Lazarevska.
People use pesticides to solve some other problem, without realizing what consequences they will leave for the environment and for themselves. The Law stipulates that anyone who applies pesticides, who is a consultant or a distributor in this area, should be more knowledgeable. This means that people who do not have a phytopharmacy license will not be able to buy pesticides.
Extract from the Law
Article 41
Organizing training
(1) Professional user, advisers and distributors have the right and obligation to basic training and knowledge renewal in the field of phytopharmacy, phytomedicine and the sustainable use of phytopharmaceutical products (hereinafter: phytopharmacy) for each category and type of training separately, and on the basis of a plan and program for trainings, adopted by the Minister of agriculture, forestry and water management.
(2) After conducting the training from paragraph (1) of this article, the phytopharmacy exam for professional users is organized by the organizers of the training from paragraph (4) of this Article, while for advisers and distributors it is organized by the Phytosanitary Administration.
(3) The training for professional users, advisors and distributors consists of two parts: professional part and case study.
(4) Professional training for professional users will be implemented by public secondary agricultural and food schools, while the training for distributors and advisers will be carried out by the public higher education and scientific institutions in the field of agriculture and food after a previously concluded agreement with the Ministry.
(5) For the implementation of training of the professional users, the Minister of agriculture, forestry and water management will determine the public secondary agricultural and food schools where the trainings from Paragraph (2) of this Article will be held in accordance with the territorial organization, while advisers and distributors choose by themselves in which of the public higher education and scientific institutions in the field of agriculture and food, they will attend training.
(6) After the completed training for professional users, distributors and advisors take an exam in both parts (professional and case study) and receive a confirmation of passed exam for a professional user of phytopharmaceutical products, that is, an ID and license for passed exam for phytopharmacy for an advisor and distributor.
(7) Each professional user, distributor or advisor can take the test up to three times a year.
End of the extract
The Law on Phytopharmacy requires that anyone who applies pesticides, who is a consultant or distributor in this area, be more knowledgeable.
The application of the pesticide does not necessarily cause a problem at the primary level only, it can cause a problem during transportation, in warehouses, in markets where they are stored and marketed.
Balkan standards are not the same as European ones
Recently, Croatian authorities found residues of formethanate in peppers imported from Macedonia. It spread in the media of both countries, with the explanation that the peppers are not compliant with the European standards.
Professor Lazarevska says that this insecticide is not banned, the mistake is that an active substance was used that is not allowed for that crop, for peppers, and that it was probably used even after the carenza period, when it must not be used, because if they found residues that means that this preparation was used immediately before harvesting.
“There were statements, there were posts on social media that it is not dangerous, those peppers that were returned to us from Croatia are not dangerous, because in one pepper there is an insignificant, small amount of concentration of the poison. And that’s good, that is true if we eat one pepper, right? But we will not eat one pepper, we will eat, let’s say 10, here I, for example, love peppers, I will eat 10. There is not the same amount in one pepper and in 10, right? In one there is one quantity, in 10 it is multiplied by 10. I may even be speculating, but in one pepper there may be less, but in another, when sprayed, there may be a higher concentration. If we buy 40 kilograms of peppers and make traditional ajvar, we make 20 jars of ajvar, we and our children will eat from that ajvar all winter.” Chibishev explains.
However, if the Law is complied with and pesticides are purchased only by those who hold a license, then there will be an accurate record of who bought it from where and what, it will be known what was sprayed and where the problem is, and thus it will be possible to destroy only the product which is improperly treated.
“If you hold a license, it means that you will be registered in the pharmacy what you bought, for what purpose, to ensure the traceability of these toxic compounds. For example, if poisoning occurs, to know where the critical point was”, says Lazarevska.
The laws are in line with the European ones and the doors to the European market are open, but you can’t get out if you don’t comply with food safety standards.
Who sprays how much, what they spray and why they spray is a matter that should be controlled by the inspection. The agricultural inspection controls the application of preparations in primary agricultural production, the food inspection controls whether the residues are below the maximum permitted levels or above the maximum permitted levels.
“The State Inspectorate for Agriculture works to control the sale and import of all pesticides in our country, in agricultural pharmacies, in importers. We have regular and extraordinary controls, which are according to our monitoring and work plan” says the director of the State Inspectorate for Agriculture, Jane Stankoski.
Doctor Chibishev reacts to the poor communication of the inspectors with the public. He says that no one has heard what happened to these peppers from Croatia, whether they were destroyed, where and whether they were also on our market. Chibishev says that the lack of institutional information leaves room for spread of disinformation, fear and doubt, which is not good when it comes to food safety.
However, Professor Lazarevska says that there is no inspection that can control everything. There is no inspection that will say that every tomato, every pepper is safe. According to her, the most important thing is that the people who produce them, when they go to the market, guarantee the safety of the products they sell. People involved in food production must know the rules of the game.
The use of pesticides in Macedonia is regulated by the Law on Phytopharmacy, which is fully harmonized with the most recent European regulations. This area – plant protection or phytosanitary system was among the first that started with harmonization with the European law. In 2005, the Law on Plant Health was adopted, in 2007 it was harmonized with the European law. In 2020, this issue has been updated with the latest regulations.
Such “mistakes” do not only happen to Macedonia. In mid-August, a shipment of peaches from Serbia was turned back from the Croatian border due to high levels of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, banned in the European Union back in 2019. In Serbia, it has been banned since 2021, but the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management there has announced that, after consultation with the expert public, it has made a decision to grant permission for limited and controlled use of plant protection products based on chlorpyrifos, exclusively for treatment of sugar beet, but that any unauthorized use of this type of preparation for other crops is prohibited by law and is strictly punishable.
A day later, the Ministry confirmed the presence of chlorpyrifos in the peaches, that the entire shipment would be destroyed “in a safe manner” and that the exporter would be responsible.
Balkan products are often returned from EU markets precisely because of pesticides
In July, a shipment of peaches was also returned from the border with Slovenia due to the presence of same pesticide. The public situation escalated so much that the Ministry had to deny that Serbia was banned from exporting its fruit after several shipments were returned from EU borders.
“The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management informs the public that there are falsehoods and disinformation and requests everyone not to panic and mislead the citizens. At the same time, Serbia, like everyone else, carries out sampling at the border crossings, and this year alone, out of 9,000 shipments that arrived at the border of Serbia, 37 shipments we returned due to non-compliance, it is said in the statement published on 2 September.
Sometime after that, a shipment of 18 tons of cucumbers was seized at the border with Slovenia. On the same day, the Ministry of Agriculture announced that it was waiting for the results of the superanalysis of the said shipment. There is still no additional information about this case.
The latest data show that two more shipments from Serbia were stopped in October – on 18 October a shipment of frozen blackberries from Serbia was stopped at the border with Slovenia, because of illegal quantity of the fugicide iprodione. On 25 October a shipment of nutritional supplements, which allegedly contained illegal ingredients, was also stopped at the border with Croatia.
Katarina Krinulović, executive director of SECPA (Association for Sustainable Agriculture and Plant Protection in Serbia), points out for our portal that the shipments can be returned after analyzes that showed the presence of residues of certain pesticides in an amount above the maximum allowed concentration (MDK), which occurs if the registered pesticide was not applied in accordance with the instructions for use (for example, the withdrawal period was not observed, the appropriate dose was not applied, etc.) or it was applied to crops that were not covered by the registration; as well as if an unregistered pesticide was used.
“From a professional point of view, there is no room for political decisions that are not corroborated by the relevant results of laboratory analyses, but you may get a different answer from someone who looks at this situation from a different perspective. This is supported by the fact that even in previous years there were individual shipments that were returned due to the presence of pesticide residues in an amount above the MDK, and there was no media publicity about that, so the recent trending articles in the media on this topic may be motivated by other reasons which goes beyond the area of the expert aspect”, Krinulović points out.
On the European Rapid Alert System in Food Trade (RASFF) portal one can find that since the beginning of 2023, a total of five shipments from Serbia have been returned from the border due to the illegal level of pesticide residues, and that six shipments represent a “very small part” of the total annual number of shipments exported to the EU.
In Albania, one set of rules apply to garden products for export to the EU, and other rules apply to domestic products
To the west of us, in Albania, the problems are the same. Albania’s food security challenges arose as the country transitioned from a centrally planned socialist economy to a market-oriented economy. Three major land reforms that took place during this transition resulted in one of the most fragmented land structures ever seen in Central and Eastern Europe. With this reform, around 400,000 farms were born, most of them between 1 and 2 hectares in size. With this, agriculture has become the basis for the livelihood of many families in Albania.
However, local researchers claim that this branch lacks the necessary knowledge of important farm management skills, such as food safety, or is not even able to obtain help from institutions tasked with disseminating protocols for safe agricultural practices. There is no real oversight by institutional bodies and no accountability for small farmers who do not follow good agricultural practices. This is especially the case for the use of pesticides in the country. Domestic products are based on informality, their origin cannot be traced, and the means of their production are unknown.
But what makes the case of Albania specific is that for the horticultural products that are intended for export, especially for the EU markets, one rules apply, and for the domestic ones other rules apply.
In 2018, a study was conducted on the presence of pesticide residues in food samples from the EU and domestic samples. Out of a total of 91,015 samples, only 4.5% had MRL17 above the required levels. Just a year before, that percentage was 4.1%. In comparison, according to the results of the National Food Authority of Albania using a small statistical sample of pesticide levels in the period from June 2021 to April 2022, more than 20% of the tested garden products contain MRL12 that is above the allowed percentage. Although the sample sizes between these two groups are very different, these percentages are still indicative.
Subsequent monitoring studies showed that 1 out of 6 pesticides in Albania in the period 2018-2020 contained chemicals not mentioned in the label. They are later found to be circulating in the domestic market. Furthermore, local media published information that as many as 1.3 tons and 1,271 liters of expired pesticides were stopped by Albanian customs in the period from 2017 to 2020, not all of which were safely removed from the country. Also, in the last 5 years, three shipments of several tons of unregistered pesticides and fertilizers from Germany and Greece have been stopped at customs. This shows that unregistered, and even expired, pesticides are found in Albania, which for the most part has no way to control and regulate their import and subsequent use, as officially stated by the National Environment Agency (AKM).
On the other hand, EU countries have strict food safety control measures, which often see Albanian exports returned for safety reasons or in some cases destroyed, as was the case with 4.6 tons of tomatoes exported to Greece in 2018. The worst assumption is that these products are returned to Albanian consumers.
Farmers are neither informed nor educated
Currently, there is not a single fully certified laboratory in Albania that is capable of conducting the required number of reliable laboratory analyzes for pesticide MRLs. The closest to this is the laboratory at the Institute of Food Safety and Veterinary Medicine (ISUV), which claims to have testing standards that are in line with EU standards, but has been heavily criticized for its limited capacity to carry out an adequate number of tests.
However, what is a big problem in the three countries is the lack of information and education for farmers.
Krinulović clarifies that agricultural producers are required to follow the latest trends and use pesticides that are allowed and in a manner indicated on the label and instructions for use, that is, approved by registration.
“The largest number of our farmers are aware that the correct use of pesticides (observing all instructions for dosage, shelf life and crops on which a specific pesticide can be used) is important for the quality of their agricultural products and the related opportunities for their placing on the market, regardless of whether it is the Serbian or the EU market”, she says.
She also adds that it should not be excluded that individuals who do not have sufficient knowledge and do not follow the information regarding the use of pesticides, make mistakes that result in the appearance of illegal amounts of pesticide residues in their agricultural products, leading to returns and destruction of shipments of such products.
Experts from the Institute of Agriculture and Vegetables from Novi Sad and the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry of the Republic of Serbia, for the purpose of the “Ana and Vlade Divac” Foundation, conducted in Serbia in 2021 a survey of users of plant protection products (SZB – pesticides used against harmful organisms and pests that cause diseases, affect the life processes of plants, preserve plant products, destroy, prevent the growth of unwanted plants or their parts) for the knowledge of the regulations and the behavior related to the use of these products. And the results are as follows:
- Insufficient knowledge of regulations and insufficient training for effective and safe application of SZB;
- SZBs are largely not implemented in accordance with regulations;
- There is a high risk to human health and the environment;
- It is necessary to introduce a system of permanent training, periodic knowledge checks and certification of SZB users;
- It is necessary to introduce a system to control the correct functioning of the devices used for application of SZB; and
- Knowledge and compliance with legal regulations and records are mandatory for application.
The survey shows that only 27.4 percent of respondents know the Law on Plant Protection Products. But on the other hand, as many as 85.7 percent apply SZB according to the instructions. A high 75.7 percent of respondents keep records of the types and quantities of PPE they store and use, but only 15.6 percent of users keep it in a separate room for this purpose.
Research in Serbia shows insufficient knowledge of regulations and insufficient training for effective and safe application of pesticides
When using pesticides, only 21.3 percent of respondents use full personal protective equipment, of which the most in Vojvodina (33.6 percent), and the least in the south of Serbia (4.6 percent).
“Even 24.2% of respondents do not rinse the packaging, and of the total number of respondents who rinse the packaging, 35.1% apply triple rinsing, disposing of the packaging in municipal waste, 37.4 are destroyed by burning, 3.3 percent throw it in the field, and only 9.3 percent of the users throw it in a special place until it is picked up by the company that collects this packaging, the research states.
However, there are also those (about six percent) who bought SZB illegally, and as the main reasons for using it, they indicated greater trust (56.6 percent), favorable price (25.3 percent) and recommendation (13.1 percent).
Increased number of cases of headaches, insomnia and nausea
Clinical toxicologist Andon Chibishev says that in the office, but more and more often on the street, he is stopped with questions related to food safety. And he, as a doctor, says that he is concerned about the many cases of increased concentration of pesticides found in agricultural products.
“Many people complain of frequent headaches, insomnia, nausea, urges to vomit… and when they come to us for an examination and complain, I wonder if it’s from the polluted ambient air, if it’s symptoms from ingesting small amounts of toxins that cause certain problems, however, they are not serious in the beginning, they are not acute!”, says Dr. Chibishev.
He points out that if this happens for a prolonged period of time, it could mean serious problems because the ingested small amount can lead to certain disturbances in the work of certain organs and organ systems.
The most recent case involving the use, most likely of the methomyl insecticide, from which two members of a Skopje family died, once again confirmed the weak control of the sale and use of poisons in the country.
What happens after ingesting methomyl into the body?
The poison has an affinity for one of the enzymes in the human body, acetyl cholinesterase. That enzyme is broken down by one of the nerve impulse carriers in the peripheral and central nervous system, which is called acetylcholine. If the enzyme that is broken down by acetylcholine is blocked, which is toxic to the human body in increased concentration and accumulates on nerve endings, then self-poisoning or endogenous acetylcholine poisoning occurs.
Such poisoning leads to a series of disorders of many vital functions in the human organism: eyesight, impaired excretion of secretions and excretes in the body, blockage of the heart’s work and reduced frequency, and blockage of the breathing center in the central nervous system. Combined with increased secretions, it leads to filling of the chest or airways with secretions that make breathing impossible. Thus, obstructed breathing, along with blocking the heart, leads to death in a very short period of time.
The methomyl insecticide comes from the group of carbomates and organophosphorus pesticides, which are the most dangerous, because the poison is very quickly absorbed or withdrawn and is then circulated in the body. The development of the clinical condition depends on the organism individually, on age, gender, whether the person has previously eaten or is hungry. The peak of clinical symptoms occurs in a maximum of two hours, and if you do not react in time, if you do not receive professional help, it ends fatally.
However, one does not die from every ingestion of a pesticide, say Doctor Chibishev and Professor Lazarevska. Permissible active intakes of residues or daily reference acute dose that can be ingested every day, throughout a lifetime, without making changes to health, are calculated. Dangerous are those amounts of pesticides that will be found in food, and are above the maximum allowed.
In Europe, there is a campaign against the sale of illegal pesticides
Dangerous pesticides are the most common choice when animals are deliberately poisoned. In addition to dogs, in Serbia, in populated areas, birds and other predators are particularly attacked, which people poison using pesticides prohibited by law, such as furadan, which is relatively easy to obtain.
The illegal sale of banned pesticides exists despite the bans, for example the Society for Protection and Study of Stories of Serbia (DZPPS) discovered and reported sale of the dangerous poison Furadan at the fair in Senta! The person who sold it was arrested, and three canisters with five liters of this dangerous poison were found with him.
According to the DZPPS, the amount of furadan seized is enough to kill about 15,000 adults – a calculation based on the known lethal dose of about 15 mg per kg of body weight, and the weight of an average adult is taken to be 70 kg.
In Europe, there is a campaign against the sale of illegal pesticides. For years, Europol has been implementing the “Silver Axe” operation in cooperation with the competent authorities of all EU member states and other countries. Within that action, a total of 2,040 tons of illegal and counterfeit pesticides were seized in the first four months of 2023 alone, and a total of 6,961 tons in the past eight years.
Unfortunately, the Balkans are not part of that system, which includes all members of the European Union and five countries outside the EU: Australia, Brazil, Ukraine, Great Britain and the United States. The only example of the three countries covered by this analysis where there is such a campaign is Serbia, which is implemented by the Association for Sustainable Agriculture and Plant Protection in Serbia.
In such a situation, the Balkan countries are left to the knowledge and conscience of the food producers. The former is, unfortunately, significantly lacking.
This content was created by the Institute for Communication Studies.
Journalists: Katerina Topalova-Dejanovska (Macedonia), Dalibor Stupar (Autonomy, Serbia), Gjon Rakipi, Jerina Rakipi (Tirana Times, Albania)
Photographer and photo: Sladjan Milosevski
Editor: David Milosevski
