When it is perhaps banned in the EU and the US, the spread seems to continue in illegal trade and by imported vegetables and the contamination of water.
Furthermore, the public are still exposed to this highly toxic organophosphate through imported foods from countries where it is still legal to use. The control and alert-system is not working.
Illegal use of pesticides and antibiotics poses a threat to public health and the environment in general. They are dangerous for all people and animals. By using the special possibilities in the regulation for access to environmental data and combining the investigation in several countries, a collaborative team of journalists from Denmark, Slovenia, Poland and the UK tries now to get much more of the pattern uncovered.
This is the second project of a new cross-border team of journalists on pesticides. The results of the first project are available here. By conducting the second part of their research the journalists have decided to continue their focus on chlorpyrifos and now also to investigate the dark trade of pesticides and antibiotics. The cross-border team expanded the group with journalists from Norway and Belgium during their work in the first phase of the project. In this next phase they also expanded the group with journalists from Germany to get a more permanent relation to the UK as well.
© Photo image: Knack
The Cross-border investigation into illegal trade in pesticides is led by Investigative Reporting Denmark and made in collaboration with journalists from Knack in Belgium, Newsweek in Poland, Ostro in Slovenia, OCCRP, IRPI in Italy, De Groene Amsterdammer in The Netherlands, Bayerischer Rundfunk (ARD) in Germany and The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting in US. The investigation is supported by Journalismfund and Reporters in the field/Robert Bosch Stiftung.
