Bill would ban pesticides and reassess the use of glyphosate
Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Brazil Landless Movement)
September 14, 2012
http://www.mst.org.br/Projeto-de-Lei-pretende-banir-diversos-agrotoxicos-ereavaliar-o-uso-do-glifosato
[Article in Portuguese; rough English translation by GMWatch below]

Mr Paulo Teixeira (PT-SP [Workers' Party]) has introduced a bill proposing a ban on several pesticides and a reassessment of the use of glyphosate in agriculture.

The PL 4412/12 is intended to complement the sector legislation, especially the Law 7.802/89, which does not cover all products in use that are potentially dangerous.

Check out PL 4412/12

"The law already prohibits numerous carcinogens or representing other types of risk, but some gaps still remain in this legislation, allowing products extremely harmful to human health and the environment still to be used in Brazil. We need to correct this distortion," argues Teixeira.

Some active ingredients listed in the project are already banned in the European Union and many other countries but still used in Brazil. "We can not serve as a waste bin for poisons that have been banned in many countries. The Brazilian population can not be a guinea pig and a victim of these products," criticizes Teixeira.

The text of the bill, which will be discussed in various committees before being put to the vote in Parliament, proposes a ban on products containing substances such as abamectin, acephate, carbofuran, phorate, phosmet, lactofem, methamidophos, monocrotophos, paraquat, methyl parathion, thiram, and others. Also banned would be any products containing chemical substances included in the group of organochlorines, which are already banned, but still being used in agriculture.

Glyphosate

The project also proposes reassessing the use of glyphosate, the main ingredient of the herbicide Roundup, from the multinational Monsanto. In recent years, this chemical has been undergoing a process of progressive bans in several countries.

The project has the support of entities that comprise the Permanent Campaign Against Pesticides and for Life, which has released the documentary "The poison is on the table," the filmmaker Silvio Tendler.