A senior UN health official yesterday called on China to tighten controls on the use of pesticides in a bid to cut the suicide rate in rural areas.

Addressing the 39th Session of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR) yesterday, Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s representative in China, said pesticides, which are widely used in the agriculture sector, pose a serious health threat.

China is second only to the United States in producing pesticide.

More than 280,000 people in China commit suicide every year. Some 60 percent of them, about 168,000 people, use pesticides to poison themselves, Bekedam said.

"If you analyze what people actually take, pesticides are a major killer," he said in a speech.

"Many people are just seeking attention, but if they take pesticides, that is the end of it."

Bekedam said an easy way to bring down the suicide rate would be to ensure that pesticides were not readily accessible in the home.

He said the WHO had discussed with the ministries of health and agriculture the possibility of having pesticides stored centrally within each village. The room could then have double locks with the keys held by separate people.

"If a person needs pesticides for their crops, they can get them from the central store and return any they do not use. They should not be allowed to keep them at home," he said.

"That would mean that no one in a desperate state of mind could get access to pesticides."

Chen Zongmao, an academic from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said China had banned the use and production of some lethal pesticides in an effort to reduce suicides and residues.

Also, Fan Xiaojian, vice-minister of agriculture, said China must upgrade the quality of its agricultural products to meet tightening international standards and avoid huge losses.

"Despite the progress made in recent years, China still lags far behind the standards of the WTO and those of developed countries," Fan said.

"The country must do far more research into pesticide residues, which is highly relevant to food safety, he said.

The country has suffered huge losses due to the enhanced requirements for maximum residue limits in countries like Japan and those of the European Union. China's trade in agri-products was more than US$60 billion last year, with nearly half that amount coming from exports, Fan said.

As this year's host for the annual CCPR, an international committee dealing with pesticide residues in food and animal feed, Fan said China hoped to learn from other countries.

(China Daily May 8, 2007)