Question 1

Selected Pesticide
Aluminium Phosphide
Accessing the pesticide if it fulfil the HHP criteria
To access whether the Aluminium Phosphide meets the the HHP criterion, the following
where done;
A. Using the FAO tool kit recommended link , the European commission chemical data
base was assessed to check the classification of Aluminium Phosphide and the following
were obtained
o Acute Toxicity 2 H300 which means it is Fatal if swallowed
o Acute toxicity 1-H330 which means it is Fatal if inhaled
o Aquatic Acute 1-H400 which means it’s very toxic to aquatic environment
B. I also searched the material safety data sheet for Aluminium Phosphide from Arysta Life
Science the main supplier of the chemical to Zambia so that I can get the LD50 Rat oral of
the product which I found to be 8.7. Using the excel spread sheet in the tool kit i
generated the WHO classification using LD50 Rat oral of 8.7 and the results indicated
that the product falls under class 1b which means the pesticide is highly Hazardous
Aluminium Phosphide was assessed as an HHP in Zambia as it met criterion 1 and 8 of the
JMPM as described above
I was able to find the help I needed in the tool kit to classify the pesticide I chose whether it was
a HHP or not.
The excel spreadsheet and the recommended links were very helpful
I was un able to find the LD50 Rat oral for Aluminium Phosphide using the Tool kit.

Question 2
The pesticide is widely used by small scale and commercial farmers to protect their stored
grains

Currently there is no feasible alternative to replace the Aluminium Phosphide

The tool kit was very helpful on how to work on the needs assessment.
The advice provided in the tool kit under Effective risk reduction measures for HHP were
very helpful in making a decision concerning the HHP in question
Alternatives to different HHP were not provided in the tool kit and had to rely on data
from other sources

Question 3
As earlier stated the pesticide is used by both commercial and small scale farmers for
controlling pest in stored grains. The distribution of the pesticide is not restricted and can
easily be bought even from the small agro dealers. For small scale farmers they usually luck
the technical no how on how to safe guard themselves from harmful chemicals mainly due to
low literacy level and lack of economic muscle to buy the needed PPE.
Due to its acute toxicity when shallowed or inhaled, the pesticide is being misused as a suicide
poison
For large scale farmers there is also a challenge of not enforcing the use of PPE despite and
using a trained staff to carry out the fumigation. All these factors poses a serious health risk
to the end users

Aluminium Phosphide cannot be completely done away with as there are no viable
alternative in the country to replace it at the moment. In addition despite it being highly toxic
when shallowed or inhaled, the pesticide is not carcinogenic, mutagenic or reproductive
toxic. The following should be done to reduce the exposure of the pesticide on the community

 The pesticide should be sold to only registered persons or companies

 Inter grated pest management should be used to reduce the use of the product
 Regulatory authorities such as ZEMA to increase their enforcement to ensure that
the licensing conditioned are abided to by all the licensed companies