What is going on?

NEWS:  "Bayer Found Responsible for Poisoning of Children in Peru". Click here to read a press release from the Pesticide Action Network (August 30, 2002).  This is the same company, and the same chemical, that is shown in the Toxic Trail documentary. 

The pesticide industry is big business. Annual Sales are over 30 billion US dollars. Major manufacturers say they try very hard to encourage responsible use of the chemicals – they call it 'Product Stewardship'. Despite this, an estimated 25 million cases of pesticide poisoning occur each year. Nearly all the victims are in developing countries.

Toxic Trail is a television documentary which was broadcast in two parts on BBC World.  The documentary starts in Thailand and follows the flow of pesticides into Cambodia where they are posing a serious threat to human health and the environment.  The documentary also looks at how farmers are learning about ecology and discovering how to produce crops with less pesticides, often eliminating these toxic chemicals altogether. 

This website provides additional information about the issues which are shown in the Toxic Trail documentary.  Here you can... 
...view a set of fact-sheets about the hazards associated with pesticides, and alternative approaches which have been adopted in parts of Asia [The Issues]
...find out more about the organisations involved in making the Toxic Trail documentary [Partners]

...download scientific papers and training materials, and connect to other websites, which provide more information about pesticides and the harm they cause [Resources]

The Documentary

Toxic Trail was broadcast on BBC World as part of the 'Earth Report' series, which is produced by the Television Trust for the Environment (TVE).  Part 1 was first shown on Monday 23rd April 2001, while Part 2 was shown on Monday 30th April 2001.  Both programmes were repeated a number of times.  

You can read a summary of the Toxic Trail documentary by clicking here. A complete transcript can be downloaded by clicking here [pdf file, 11 pages, 247 Kb]

NEWS:  The documentary is now available in the following languages: English, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Khmer, Sinhala, and Thai. Click here to find out how to order a copy.