Endosulfan is an insecticide which has been widely used in Australia for over 30 years. The agricultural industry and State agricultural authorities advise that endosulfan is extremely important to agriculture, and for some crop/pest situations there are no alternatives at all or none which work as well.
A simple ban of endosulfan could lead to other problems. This is because endosulfan has relatively low toxicity to many species of beneficial insects, mites and spiders (that is, ones which prey upon or parasitise damaging insect pests). Other chemicals, necessarily substituted for endosulfan, would kill beneficial insects leading to population explosions of damaging pests which in turn would require more frequent sprays of harsher chemicals than if endosulfan had been used in the first place.
In addition, because endosulfan is from a different chemical class than almost all other available insecticides, its use is very important for slowing the development of insecticide resistance to the other chemicals. Loss of endosulfan would, therefore, also lead to more insecticide use due to increasing resistance among insect pests. The net result is greater overall danger to agricultural workers and to the environment.
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