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13-year-old Mythali from Tamil Nadu in India helps her father pick flowers in the field before school
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmi / DER SPIEGEL
On the day before the harvest festival, 14-year-old Sabita Krishnan thinks of flowers when she wakes up.
She nudges her father, Krishnan Isaac, who is sleeping next to her on the floor in her two-bedroom house, and then walks into the kitchen to see her mother, who is already awake.
You have a quick cup of tea and get to work.
The earlier the family picks the jasmine buds from their flower fields, the sooner the father can sell them at the market in the next town.
Just before the harvest festival, the flowers are worth the most.
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Myhtali, Sriram and Sabita pick jasmine
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmi / DER SPIEGEL
Dozens of families are already in the fields in Thalavedu, a village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
They hunch over, their eyes and fingers scanning the bushes for buds that are about to bloom.
Sabita waves to her friends and classmates, who are also picking flowers.
The state of Tamil Nadu is the largest flower producer in India.
The jasmine flowers that Sabita and her family grow are used for garlands and decorations for festivals and places of worship.
And many women wear jasmine in their braided hair when dressing up.
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“Jasmine is like gold to us.
It pays my children's school, it feeds my family.
If we could grow it without risking our health, that would be ideal, ”says Rose Govindasamy
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmi / DER SPIEGEL
Like every child in her village, Sabita has been working in her family's fields since she was six or seven years old.
In India, under 14s are legally allowed to help their parents with work before and after school if it takes place at home.
Almost 70 percent of the world's child labor is unpaid family labor.
Sabita picks flowers for a few hours in the morning before class.
She likes to do it, she says.
Except on the days when pesticides are sprayed.
“My eyes sting from the fumes, I feel dizzy and sick, and I am very tired.
My fingers still burn even after I've washed them, ”says Sabita.
Some days she feels so sick that she cannot go to school.
Her neighbors, 13-year-old Bharat Ravi and 11-year-old Narendran Gangadharan, say that they sometimes get rash all over their bodies after working in the freshly sprayed fields.
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A farmer sprays pesticides in Tamil Nadu - without any protection.
According to NGOs, poverty, illiteracy and the tropical climate often prevent farmers from wearing protective suits.
Almost all pesticide poisoning therefore occurs in developing countries
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmi / DER SPIEGEL
On the evening before the most important harvest of the year, Sabita's father sprayed the fields with a fungicide against the rust-colored mildew and with insecticides that protect the jasmine flowers from vermin.
Arabian jasmine in particular, the most popular and lucrative genus, is prone to insects with its round flowers.
“We can't grow jasmine without pesticides.
The flowers have to be perfect, otherwise the dealers won't buy them, ”says Gangadharan K, a neighbor of Sabita's family.
Pesticides account for more than 80 percent of its costs, he reports.
Among the pesticides that the people in Sabita's village use are products from European agrochemical companies that have long been banned in Europe for environmental and health reasons.
According to their own statements, the farmers spray, among other things, the drugs Antracol, Jump and Sunrice from the German chemical company Bayer and Pegasus and Alika from the Swiss company Syngenta, which are banned in the EU.
Vendors in the pesticide stores confirm that.
Farmers say Syngentas Alika is the "most effective" insecticide.
"But after I use it, it feels like the skin is on fire all over my body," says the farmer Rose Govindasamy, who is named after his father's favorite flower.
Families in the region have been planting flowers for generations.
An investigation by the international pesticide action network (PAN) also found Syngenta's agent Gramoxone with the highly toxic active ingredient paraquat in the flower villages.
Paraquat is so toxic that just one swallow can be fatal.
It has been banned in the EU since 2007, and in Switzerland since 1989. Highly toxic pesticides can increase the risk of diseases such as cancer and Parkinson's, change the genetic makeup and are held responsible for the global decline in biodiversity.
There is no direct evidence that the acute symptoms of intoxication reported by the farming families can be traced back to Bayer and Syngenta products.
A doctor's visit is too expensive for most families; there are no medical reports.
But many people in the region report such damage.
You have got used to the itching and smear yourself with coconut oil for relief.
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This shop in Arkkonam, Tamil Nadu State, India sells pesticides that are banned in Europe
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmi / DER SPIEGEL
Confronted with the reports from Tamil Nadu, Bayer wants to provide clarification on site.
The conditions are not compatible with Bayer's values and efforts to ensure the safe use of its products, said a company spokesman.
A Syngenta spokeswoman said they had no evidence of any adverse health effects associated with proper use.
Both Bayer and Syngenta see no moral dilemma in selling products that are not approved in Europe in India and other countries.
Each region has different agricultural needs and as long as an active ingredient is approved in at least one OECD country, the pesticides are exported, according to a spokesman for Bayer.
In developing countries, the company would only market crop protection products "that meet the regulatory requirements of a majority of relevant international approval authorities."
And: "If we think it makes sense, we will voluntarily withdraw products from the market."
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The herbicide Sunrise is on the shelf in Arkkonam, India, but is banned in Europe
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmi / DER SPIEGEL
It is common practice to export pesticides that are not approved in the EU.
In total, local chemical companies exported more than 81,000 tons of pesticides banned in the EU in 2018, according to a study by Greenpeace UK 'research unit Unearthed and the Swiss organization Public Eye.
A large part of the toxic exports go to India, Ukraine, Brazil, Japan and Russia.
Environmental and human rights organizations criticize the exports.
"If pesticides are not approved in the EU, it is often for weighty reasons that indicate a risk or a hazard for humans and the environment," says Jan Priegnitz, chemicals expert at the Federal Environment Agency.
The reasons are certainly transferable to other continents.
But: "When exporting highly dangerous pesticides, the previously applied scientific assessment standard suddenly no longer plays a role," says Priegnitz.
Marcos Orellana, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Toxic Substances, puts it more drastically.
People are being "poisoned for profit," he says.
Orellana and his predecessors in office have been calling for international rules that restrict the sale of dangerous pesticides around the world for years.
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"After two hours everything swelled up": Sabita and her father Krishnan Isaac with the device with which the pesticides are sprayed
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmi / DER SPIEGEL
Indeed, something is slowly happening.
As of this year, Switzerland has banned the export of five of the most dangerous pesticides.
In France, an export ban on pesticides not approved in the EU is to apply from 2022.
In contrast, the German government apparently sees no need for action so far.
The current regulation under the Rotterdam Agreement, according to which third countries must expressly consent to the import of toxic substances in advance, is sufficient, according to a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
According to a study by Unearthed and Public Eye, the five large chemical groups Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, Corteva and FMC control about two thirds of the pesticide market, which is worth almost 60 billion dollars a year.
UN Special Rapporteur Orellana therefore sees the EU, where three of the five agricultural giants are based, responsible for enacting stricter laws.
And after the EU didn't want to hear about an export ban for a long time, it is now giving in.
As part of the Green Deal, the European Commission announced in October that "dangerous substances banned in the EU should not be manufactured for export".
However, there are no concrete legislative proposals yet, according to an EU spokeswoman.
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Selling flowers in Tamil Nadu
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmi / DER SPIEGEL
But even with an EU ban, the farming families in India would not be automatically protected.
Because companies could continue to produce and sell their pesticides outside of Europe.
Both Bayer and Syngenta have manufacturing facilities in India.
That is why part of the EU strategy is to convince third countries to stop using toxic pesticides, said the EU spokeswoman.
Croplife International, the industry lobbying organization, sees no reason for an export ban.
The member companies have already stopped selling "highly acutely toxic" products.
In addition, the chemical companies would train farmers in the correct use of pesticides and provide protective equipment.
According to Bayer's own statement, over the past few years it has trained more than a million farmers every year "in the safe use of pesticides."
But this is not always the case.
Munisamy K, Bayer representative and salesman in a pesticide store in Arakkonam, a town near the flower villages, calls himself a plant doctor.
The farmers come to him with rotted buds or withered leaves and he then prescribes the appropriate "medicine".
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Munisamy K, Bayer representative and salesman in a pesticide shop in Arakkonam, a town near the Flower Villages, says: "Yes, some are very strong, but I always insist that the farmers wear protective clothing."
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmi / DER SPIEGEL
"We only sell government-approved pesticides and have stopped selling all problematic products," says Munisamy.
"Yes, some are very strong, but I always insist that the farmers wear protective clothing."
Some pesticides are sold with a mask and rubber gloves.
Krishnan Isaac, Sabita's father, reports that he always wore a mask when spraying the pesticide Alika, but it did not help.
His skin had turned red anyway and "after two hours everything swelled up".
Others don't put on a mask because it's too hot.
Only Rose Govindasamy wears a scooter helmet and gloves when spraying.
“I don't care if other people make fun of me.
I want to live long for my children, «says the 38-year-old.
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Flower shop in Arkkonam: Without the pesticides, the jasmine flowers could not keep up with the perfectly grown flowers of their neighbors in the market, says Rose Govindasamy
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmi / DER SPIEGEL
The Indian government decided in 2016 to ban a number of highly toxic insecticides;
Families as well as human rights and environmental groups had put pressure on the government after an increasing number of farmers killed themselves with pesticides.
But the bill has not yet been passed.
Critics blame the industry lobby for the delay.
Meanwhile, the farming families see no way of leaving out the pesticides. »Jasmine is like gold to us.
It pays my children's school, it feeds my family.
If we could grow it without risking our health, that would be ideal, ”says Rose Govindasamy.
But without the pesticides, they couldn't keep up with the perfectly grown jasmine flowers of their neighbors in the market.
As long as it stays that way, the itchy rashes, the throbbing headache, the reddened eyes and the exhaustion will be part of everyday life for 14-year-old Sabita.
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