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

  • Climate damage would obliterate any economic benefits of new North Sea fields, analysis shows

    Exclusive: Economic harm of CO2 pollution from Rosebank and Jackdaw forecast to far outweigh any boost to UK

    The climate damage caused by developing the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields under consideration by the UK government would destroy their economic benefits many times over, according to an analysis.

    It estimates the economic damage caused by the carbon pollution from the oil and gas produced would be between £119bn and £336bn in the coming decades, compared with the £28.7bn in value to the UK estimated by Adura, the fossil fuel company promoting the new fields.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Small changes can make a big difference’: how getting farmers, fishers and beavers together could save a Cornish river

    A local initiative is testing simple ways to stop algal blooms in the River Fal threatening some of England’s most biodiverse marine habitats

    On a rocky beach in Cornwall, a group of wetsuit-clad freedivers and snorkellers are wading into the shallows. Below St Mawes Castle, built by Henry VIII to defend Falmouth harbour, they disappear in a swish of florescent pink and green fins.

    They are volunteers, trained by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust to use underwater cameras and floating GPS devices to detect changes in marine habitats over time.

    Two volunteers, Simon Tagney and Max Behnert, prepare to survey the seabed beneath the 16th-century St Mawes Castle. Photograph: Luke Gartside/The Guardian

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: A peachy, summer beauty that loves the clean air | Nigel Brown

    Ynys Môn (Anglesey): The rosy footman is a relative newcomer to this part of Wales, bringing with it nectarine tones and markings like hieroglyphs

    I have a routine in the summer months that I like to keep to as often as I can. That is, to start my day in the company of moths.

    This morning, after a gentle night  – too cloudy to see the flight of Perseid meteors but mild enough to encourage the flight of moths – I head out to my Robinson light trap. It’s 40 years old and somewhat shabby, and sits between the meadow plots in our wildlife garden like a tiny flying saucer. With cuppa to hand, and joined by our familiar robin, who knows this routine well, I examine the live catch.

    Continue reading...

  • Going with the grain: how restoring biodiversity led one farmer back to heritage wheat

    Henry Astor looked back to his grandfather’s time for the inspiration to find older varieties that could help nature on his Cotswold farm

    It is the earliest harvest Henry Astor can remember. But walking through the scorched wheatfields of his Cotswolds farm, signs of life are everywhere – swarms of insects, kaleidoscopic wildflower meadows, bushy hedgerows several metres wide. A yellowhammer perches on a nearby tree.

    There are 18 other red-listed birds on the farm, says Astor, who this year ringed 23 barn owls, three kestrels, two little owls as well as goshawk chicks. “Last winter we had clouds of goldfinch, chaffinch and greenfinch,” he says. Britain has lost 73 million birds since 1970; but at Bruern Farms, a small but welcome reversal is taking shape.

    Continue reading...

  • At least 35,000 excess deaths recorded in Europe’s back-to-back heatwaves

    True figure likely to be much higher as it only covers about half of continent and does not include August totals

    At least 35,000 more people died during Europe’s four record-breaking, back-to-back heatwaves this summer than would normally be expected, according to incomplete figures from barely half the continent.

    Excess mortality in three of the EU’s larger countries – Germany, France and Spain – alone has already exceeded 25,000, according to the provisional national figures, and experts say the toll will rise significantly once August totals are consolidated.

    Continue reading...

  • Heatwave health risks threaten insurer earnings, rating agency S&P warns

    Rise in claims linked to heat-related deaths and illness, especially among older people, could drive up premiums

    Europe’s intense heatwaves could hit insurers’ earnings as companies face a rise in claims linked to heat-related deaths and worsening health conditions, the rating agency S&P has said.

    While a long summer of extreme heat will have increased drought and wildfire-related claims, the rating agency said there would also be fallout for life and health insurers, and for the reinsurers who provide financial protection to insurance companies.

    Continue reading...

  • How growing up in ‘Chemical Valley’ inspired lawyer to sue industry she used to work for

    Hélène Duguy is taking on companies accused of failing to stop Pfas pollution in the area of France she calls home

    The factories were just part of the landscape for Hélène Duguy growing up in the heart of an area known as France’s “Chemical Valley”.

    “Those factories are visible from my mother’s apartment,” says Duguy, 34, whose mother still lives in St-Genis-Laval, south of Lyon.

    Continue reading...

  • We asked our climate reporters to highlight one idea for positive change. We got a chronicle of global transformation

    There are countless initiatives around the world that can inspire people and spur them into action. Amid the devastation of the climate crisis, our journalists strive to highlight these stories of hope

    The news is very often about the bad things (especially if you’re on the Guardian’s environment desk). Wildfires, floods, tipping points, billionaires making huge profits and buying themselves island refuges for the apocalypse … And yet, ticking along beside that is the steady pulse of what the rest of humanity is doing in response to the climate crisis. From housing developments with no cars to buildings made out of hemp, all over the planet, people are ploughing ahead and changing their neighbourhoods and cities and world.

    But as news stories typically need to be about new developments or things people didn’t previously know about, it can be hard to cover all those brilliant initiatives being undertaken in the background – no matter how cheering they are. Which is why, back in 2023, we decided to ignore the usual rules about what constitutes “news” and start writing about them anyway. Readers, we knew, would like to hear about them.

    Climate campaign 2026: help us reach 30,000 acts of support

    Continue reading...

  • Climate-saving wonder – or €240m vanity bauble that ages like milk? The rocks set to hit Rotterdam docks

    MVRDV – the firm behind Marble Arch Mound – says Rotterdam ROCKS! will inspire visitors to live sustainably. But in an era when the greenest building is the one that already exists, this tottering cairn looks set to misfire

    ‘It looks like something Shrek would throw up,” sniffed one online commentator, unflatteringly comparing Rotterdam ROCKS!, the recently unveiled proposal for a waterfront site in Europe’s largest port, with the vomitings of a cartoon ogre. Designed by Dutch architectural firm MVRDV, which gave London the supremely underwhelming Marble Arch Mound in 2021, Rotterdam ROCKS! (the use of EMPHATIC CAPITALS connoting an in-your-face energy) is the winner of a major architectural competition intended to create “a new world wonder”.

    But instead of a modern Hanging Gardens of Babylon or contemporary Colossus of Rhodes, MVRDV’s super slick renderings depict a pile of artificial “rocks” (or ROCKS!) stacked together in a humongously scaled tottering cairn, wreathed in suspiciously luxuriant foliage and sluiced by a preposterous waterfall.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Environmental violence’: inside the fight to save indigenous land from becoming a nuclear dumping ground

    New documentary To Use a Mountain spotlights the pain and triumph of resisting government efforts to turn parts of rural US into disposal sites

    Nuclear energy was supposed to be our salvation, humanity’s chance to retool technology first conceived as a weapon of mass destruction into an engine of limitless prosperity. But even as the industry touted nuclear fission as an economic game-changer (never mind the astronomical startup costs), a safety paragon (never mind the spills at Chornobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima) and harmless fodder for an American comedy institution (never mind that glowing rod on Homer’s back or the three-eyed fish), there was no getting around the matter of what to do with all the toxic waste (never mind nuclear’s claimed green credentials).

    The stagnant state of that dirty business brought Casey Carter, the director of the new avant-garde documentary called To Use a Mountain, back to his interview with a Washington state farmer who was part of a class-action lawsuit against the government over the release of radioactive material from the Hanford nuclear reservation – site of the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor. The farmer’s words still echo, despite ultimately being cut to fit the film’s 90-minute runtime. “He joked that nuclear power is the only faith-based energy because everyone always asks, ‘Do you believe in it?’” Carter says. “He was like, ‘You don’t have to believe in solar. It’s just a pretty good idea.’”

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

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