Eco Hvar

KILLING INSECTS, DESTROYING PARADISE

If someone filled a spray can with potentially deadly poisons and went round spraying people at random, everyone, including the police, would react to put a stop to it.

KILLING INSECTS, DESTROYING PARADISE

Yet in Croatia, every summer highly poisonous insecticides are sprayed on a massive scale in 'fogging' actions around the country, from road vehicles and aeroplanes, with scant regard to people's safety. This is done as a 'health measure' aimed at preventing diseases spread by certain mosquitoes, in accordance with the Health Ministry's Law on Protecting the Population from Infectious Diseases (Zakon o zaštiti pučantsva od zaraznih bolesti).

How dangerous are the poisons used? Answer: very. Most of the insecticides carry high risks for human health. Some can harm animals. All are harmful to aquatic life. Of course, all insecticides are dangerous for pollinators, including bees and other invaluable insects.

Check out the possible adverse effects of pesticides used for the Insect Suppression Programme:

AMPLAT, active ingredients: Cypermethrin and Tetramethrin, with Piperonyl Butoxide.

Amplat Safety Data Sheet 07/01/2020, warnings: in humans, suspected carcinogen; can cause organ damage; harmful if inhaled; harmful if swallowed; in the environment: highly poisonous to marine life, with long-lasting effects.

Cypermethrin possible adverse effects: in humans, classified as a possible carcinogen; can be fatal; can cause organ damage, skin numbness or burning, respiratory irritation, loss of bladder control, vomiting, loss of co-ordination, coma, seizures; probable reproduction/developmental toxin; in animals: very toxic to cats; in the environment: highly damaging to bees, earthworms, aquatic insects and fish; very toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects; toxic to a lesser degree to birds. Note: Cypermethrin was approved for use in the EU (01/02/2022 - 31/01/2029) on condition that it is not used when plants of any kind are in flower because of its high toxicity for bees (legislation 24/11/2021).

Tetramethrin possible adverse effects: in humans, potential human carcinogen; can cause dizziness, breathing difficulties, coughing, eye irritation, gastrointestinal upset, blisters and skin rashes; in the environment, extremely toxic to bees and aquatic organisms, including fish and aquatic invertebrates.

Piperonyl Butoxide possible adverse effects: in humans, may cause birth defects, including holoprosencephaly (HPE); may delay mental development in infants; animal studies show possible damage, including tumours, in mice and rats; in the environment, very toxic to aquatic life, with long-lasting effects.

- Amplat used in the Općina Crnac, June 2023.

CIPEX 10E - active ingredient: Cypermethrin (see above)

- Cipex 10E used on Hvar around Jelsa, Stari Grad and Hvar Town (2017, 2018, 2019, 2021) Note: Cipex 10E no longer approved by the Ministry of Health in the 2022 and 2024 listings.

CYMINA ULTRA - active ingredients: Cypermethrin and Tetramethrin (see above)

Cymina Ultra Safety Data Sheet 2020: in humans, can be fatal if inhaled and swallowed; suspected carcinogen; can cause organ damage; causes serious eye damage; can cause drowsiness or dizziness; in the environment, very toxic to aquatic life, with long-lasting effects.

- Cymina Ultra used on Brač around Supetar 26/08/2024; in the Općina Slavonski Šamac for hot and cold fogging actions, July 2024

CYPERBASE - active ingredients: Cypermethrin and Tetramethrin, with Piperonyl Butoxide (see above)

- Cyperbase used around the Općina Lipovljani, June 2024; Općina Sibinj, July 2024, Općina Slavonski Šamac for hot and cold fogging actions, July 2024

CYTROL 10/4 ULV - active ingredient: Cypermethrin with Piperonyl Butoxide (see above)

Cytrol 10/4 ULV Safety Data Sheet 09/10/2019: in humans, can be fatal if inhaled and swallowed; can cause drowsiness or dizziness; in the environment, very toxic to aquatic life, with long-lasting effects.

- Cytrol 10/4 ULV used in Grad Valpova, June 2024, Ivanić Grad June, 2024, Općina Crnac, June 2023.

NEOPITROID ALFA - active ingredient: Alpha-Cypermethrin (Alphamethrin)

Alpha-Cypermethrin possible adverse effects: in humans, possible carcinogen; can cause organ damage, respiratory irritation, irreversible eye damage; in the environment, highly toxic to fish, most aquatic organisms and honeybees; extremely toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects; toxic to earthworms; serious water pollutant.

- Neopitroid Alfa used on Hvar, used around Jelsa, June 2022, 2021. Note: Neopitroid Alfa not approved on the Ministry of Health listings, 2022, 2024.

NEOPITROID PREMIUM - active ingredients d-Trans Allethrin (Esbiothrin) and Permethrin with Piperonyl Butoxide (see above).

Neopitroid Premium Safety Data Sheet 2017: in humans, can be fatal if inhaled and swallowed; harmful if inhaled or swallowed; skin irritant; skin allergen; causes severe eye problems; in the environment, extremely toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects.

d-Trans Allethrin (Esbiothrin) possible adverse effects: in humans, harmful if swallowed or inhaled; in the environment, very toxic to aquatic life, with long-lasting effects; toxic to honey-bees and earthworms; moderately toxic to birds.
Permethrin possible adverse effects: in humans, classified as a potential carcinogen; linked to Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma; can cause neurological damage, also problems in the immune and endocrine systems; in animals, poisonous to cats, also other animals; in the environment, highly toxic to bees, sea organisms, fish.

- Neopitroid Premium used around Jelsa, June 2023; by air over the green belt around Lovas, Opatovac, Mikluševci, Tompojevci, Bokšić, Čakovci, June 2021; Velika Gorica, Velika Mlaka and Gradići, June 2021; by air over Općina Bilja, the periphery of Kopački rit and Osijek June 2019; on Hvar, Općina Sućuraj 2018; by air over Općina Gunja, Vrbanja, Drenovci, June 2014.

Note: 2024, d-Trans Allethrin not approved at EU level, Neopitroid Premium not approved on the Ministry of Health listing.

NEOPITROID PREMIUM PLUS - active ingredients Permethrin (see above) and Prallethrin with Piperonyl Butoxide (see above)

Neopitroid Premium Plus Safety Data Sheet 07/03/2022: in humans, can be fatal if swallowed, inhaled; harmful if swallowed; poisonous if inhaled; can cause allergic reactions in skin; causes severe eye injury or irritation; in the environment, very toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects.

Prallethrin possible adverse effects: in humans, highly damaging to human health, can be fatal; damaging to the environment.

- Neopitroid Premium Plus used on Hvar around Jelsa, August 2023; Sveta Nedjelja, June 2024; by air over Općina Šodolovci, June 2023; Općina Crnac June 2023.

PERMEX 22E - active ingredients Pemethrin and Tetramethrin ((see above)

Permex 22E Safety Data Sheet 2017: in humans, harmful by inhalation and if swallowed; irritating to respiratory system and skin; risk of serious damage to eyes; may cause sensitisation by skin contact; vapours may cause drowsiness and dizziness; in the environment, very toxic to aquatic organisms, may cause long-term adverse effects in the aquatic environment.

- Permex 22E used on Hvar around Jelsa, Stari Grad and Hvar Town, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

Our rights are being denied

The Insect Suppression Programme in its current form contravenes several of our human rights:

1. The right to know. "EU citizens should have access to information about chemicals to which they may be exposed, in order to allow them to make informed decisions about their use of chemicals." (Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 Introduction. clause 117)

2. The Precautionary Principle. "The precautionary principle is an approach to risk management, where, if it is possible that a given policy or action might cause harm to the public or the environment and if there is still no scientific agreement on the issue, the policy or action in question should not be carried out."

3. The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, according to the Resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council, 2021.

Reactions to an unacceptably risky 'health programme'?

Spraying dangerous poisons around the country and over the population is a strange way to promote public health, is it not? In the main, people, especially visitors, are unaware of the summertime spraying with its health risks and collateral damage. Official warnings are totally inadequate, the possible adverse effects of the poisons are not publicized. Some people are under the illusion that the fogging actions are a necessary measure for controlling mosquitoes alone and carry no risks for humans and the environment. The Insect Suppression Programme is inappropriate, ineffective and harmful. Increasingly, people are becoming aware of this, especially those who can see the reduction of biodiversity in their environment, beekeepers who have lost their bees, and asthmatics who have been dowsed directly with poison. But what can one do to stop it?

Who is responsible?

Ultimate responsibility for the Programme lies with the Ministry of Health. Responsibility for its implementation is delegated to the Croatian Public Health Institute, and passed on in turn to the Regional Public Health Institutes, local authorities and finally to registered commercial companies. So far, over many years, the responsible authorities have refused to respond to warnings that the Insect Suppression Programme in its present form needs to be stopped.

Conclusion: There is no doubt that the current practices of insect suppression with poisons should be halted as a matter of urgency! We call on all the responsible parties to review the Programme and to create acceptable measures for protecting public health.

Vivian Grisogono MA(Oxon)

President, Eco Hvar, September 2024

For more detailed information, see our website: www.eco-hvar.com:

Especially the following articles:

Poisoning Paradise - A Wake-Up Call

About the Insect Suppression Programme

Insecticide, raticide, pesticide: unwinnable wars

Pesticides and their adverse effects

 

back to top
You are here: Home poisons be aware KILLING INSECTS, DESTROYING PARADISE

Eco Environment News feeds

  • ‘My ideas are a little revolutionary’: ecologist Suzanne Simard on intelligent forests, the climate and her critics

    Her research popularised the idea of the wood wide web, but the scientific backlash was brutal. As the author of The Mother Tree returns to the forest in a new book, she discusses her battle to reimagine our relationship with nature

    In 2018, the ecologist and writer Suzanne Simard was conducting research in the forested Caribou Mountains of western Canada when a thunderstorm rolled in. She was with her two teenage daughters and her close friend and colleague, Jean Roach. They saw flashes of lightning, heard a loud rumble and then they smelled smoke. They were forced to run the half kilometre back to Simard’s truck as the trees behind them caught alight and the air grew thick. As they ran, animals burst out of the forest: a deer, a rabbit, a grey wolf. They reached the truck with no time to spare, all four of them covered in soot and dirt. Overhead, helicopters began circling the orange-black air, dropping water on the flames below.

    Wildfires have become an ever bigger problem in Canada. The 2018 wildfires were the biggest in British Columbia’s history, but this record was broken in 2021, and then again in 2023, when fires consumed an area three times the size of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and the smoke travelled as far as New York City. The cause is not only global heating, which has brought hotter, dryer summers, but also the changing makeup of the forest. When logging companies clear forest, they replant it with fast-growing conifer species, but these trees are much more flammable than Canada’s diverse, native forest.

    Continue reading...

  • Create hedgehog havens – and seven other ways to help our prickly friends

    Hedgehogs’ habitat is shrinking, they’re vulnerable to cars, and pesticides are affecting their food supply. Here’s how we can help them pull through

    With stumpy, speedy legs, questing snouts and a fierce quiver of needles, hedgehogs are enchantingly strange, like fantasy creatures from a medieval bestiary. “It’s the nation’s favourite wild animal – every time there’s a vote or a poll, the hedgehog wins,” says ecologist Hugh Warwick, AKA “Hedgehog Hugh”, author of the Cull of the Wild and hedgehog champion.

    Continue reading...

  • Mining made this US tribal area a toxic wasteland. This Indigenous nation brought it back to life

    The Quapaw Nation is the only US Native community to carry out a cleanup of one of the country’s worst sites of environmental contamination

    They call this land the Laue. In the late 1800s, part of these 200 acres of grassland inside the Quapaw Nation were allotted to tribal citizen Charley Quapaw Blackhawk. After forcing dozens of tribes into Indian territory before the civil war, the US government then parceled out reservations and property to individual members. It was part of the government’s attempt to “civilize” Native Americans by turning them into private, not communal,landholders and yeoman farmers in the model of Thomas Jefferson’s ideal citizen.

    Yet, for the last century, little grew on the Laue. Half of it was buried beneath towering mounds of toxic rock known as chat piles. The waste rock, laced with chemicals, was left after miners extracted millions of tons of lead and zinc from the Tri-State Mining District, where the valuable ores stretched across Kansas, Missouri and Oklahomabetween 1891 and the 1970s. By 1983, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had designated 40 sq miles that include nearly all the Quapaw Nation as the Tar Creek Superfund site, joining the EPA’s list of the most contaminated places in the country. Informally called a “megasite”, Tar Creek remains one of the largest and most complex environmental disasters in the country.

    Continue reading...

  • Some top US lobbying firms are working both sides of the Pfas issue at the same time

    Review from non-profit finds range of scenarios of firms simultaneously lobbying for and against Pfas regulations

    Some top US lobbying firms are simultaneously working both sides of the Pfas “forever chemicals” issue, raising serious conflict of interest questions and concerns that their activity is slowing states’ efforts to rein in the public health threat.

    The review of six states’ lobbying records conducted by the non-profit F-Minus found a range of scenarios in which firms lobbied both sides. Most common Pfas are linked to cancer. The lobbying firm Holland & Knight works for the American Chemistry Council, which represents the nation’s largest Pfas makers, and aggressively opposes most regulations. Simultaneously, Holland & Knight lobbies for the American Cancer Society.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Drinking from a fetid pond’: superbug-creating genes found in UK’s largest lake

    Exclusive: Lough Neagh, which supplies drinking water for 40% of NI, contains genes resistant to last-resort antibiotics

    Genes capable of creating antibiotic-resistant superbugs have been detected in the UK’s largest lake, which supplies drinking water to about 40% of Northern Ireland.

    Testing of water from Lough Neagh, which has a surface area 26 times bigger than Windermere, found genes resistant to a wide range of antibiotics, including carbapenems – drugs reserved for life-threatening infections when all other treatments have failed.

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: A dawn search for the rare black grouse | Eben Muse

    Ruabon grouse moor, Wrexham: Mating season is upon us. Will I be lucky enough to spot a courtship lek?

    I’m shooting grouse on the moor today. There are two kinds here: red grouse, a gamebird reared and shot in its thousands; and its larger, rarer cousin, the black grouse. The latter is supposedly spared by a ban that remains voluntary despite catastrophic declines in recent decades. As it’s not shooting season, which runs from August to mid-December, I shoulder a camera, not a shotgun, hoping to snap one of these increasingly rare birds.

    Springtime is when black grouse start to breed, so I arrive before dawn, which is when they lek – a courtship dance where they fan their tails, peck and scuffle with their rivals.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Shockingly bad’: Nissan Leaf drivers voice anger over app shutdown

    Carmaker’s decision to drop NissanConnect EV app on relatively recent cars fuels warnings from experts

    Owners of some Nissan Leaf electric vehicles are angry after the carmaker announced it would shut down an app that lets them remotely control battery charging and other functions.

    Drivers of Leaf cars made before May 2019 and the e-NV200 van (produced until 2022) have been told that the NissanConnect EV app linked to their vehicles will “cease operation” from 30 March. This means they will lose remote services, including turning on the heating, and some map features.

    Continue reading...

  • Can scientists really resurrect the dodo? Inside the company that says it can

    Colossal Biosciences’ CEO says its work follows a ‘moral obligation’ while critics say it’s ‘tech bro’ hype that could undermine conservation

    Can and should we resurrect animal species that have been extinct for thousands of years? Such weighty, existential questions were once the preserve of science fiction but are now being played out within an unassuming brick building in a Dallas business park.

    Colossal Biosciences, valued at $10.2bn after raising hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from investors including celebrities spanning from Tiger Woods to Paris Hilton, has provoked a stampede of acclaim as well as denunciation after announcing last year it had made the dire wolf, a species lost from the world for more than 10,000 years, “de-extinct” via the birth of three new pups.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘The fish fled’: Nile fisherman earning more from collecting plastic than fish

    Mohammed Ahmed Sayed Mohammed is among those redeploying his skills for a local recycling company that is cleaning up the Nile

    At 6am, Mohammed Ahmed Sayed Mohammed steers his boat from al-Qarsaya island through Cairo’s Nile waters towards the capital’s riverside clubs. Fifteen years ago, he searched for fish. Now he hunts plastic bottles.

    “The fish fled from the plastic chokehold,” said Sayed, who has lived on the Giza island since arriving from Assiut, further south on the Nile, as a 14-year-old fishing apprentice. He never returned to his village, marrying locally and raising three children who now live alongside him with their 12 grandchildren on the island housing 200 families.

    Continue reading...

  • The environmental cost of datacentres is rising. Is it time to quit AI?

    As the QuitGPT movement gains momentum, should people concerned about the environmental impacts of AI consider opting out?

    • Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint

    • Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com

    It’s only a few years on from the release of ChatGPT but the race to plug artificial intelligence into everything has sparked a surge in datacentres, with escalating environmental costs.

    Globally, datacentre power demand is growing four times faster than all other sectors, according to the International Energy Agency, and is on track to exceed Japan’s electricity use by 2030.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.