Pesticide seller detained amid toxic ginger

A vendor selling a highly-toxic pesticide to ginger farmers in Weifang City in Shandong Province has been detained amid reports that the fields may have been exposed to the banned pesticide.

His store in Xiashan District, which illegally sold shennongdan, a pesticide made from aldicarb, a carbamate insecticide, has also been closed, China News Service reported yesterday.

Local authorities said the ginger fields which used shennongdan will be ploughed up as repeated use of the pesticide might have tainted the soil since plants absorb aldicarb easily.

There are nearly 26,667 hectares of ginger fields in Weifang and many in Xiashan District, where the pesticide was widely used.

It has a reservoir close to it.

Exposure to high amounts of aldicarb can paralyze the respiratory system, cause blurred vision, headaches, nausea and tremors in humans. Fifty milligrams can kill a person weighing 50 kilograms, experts said.

Wefang listed shennongdan as banned pesticide in 2006.

It was reported that the tainted ginger was only sold in domestic market and was not exported as most countries have extremely strict chemical residue standards. Farmers have also admitted not eating the pesticide-laced gingers.