“I sprayed poisons”

(First of two parts)

T

he field manager at one of Central Kalimantan’s sprawling oil palm plantations had warned the workers to wear protective equipment at all times during spraying. But in Indonesia’s humid heat, workers often disregard this warning. 

Hesti, though, tries as much as possible to keep on her “safety equipment” – a cloth face mask, latex gloves, a hat, and a synthetic apron – while she goes through the day spraying herbicide on weeds. 

According to Hesti, who requested to use a pseudonym for this report, she washes the face mask after her shift so she can use it again the next day. She buys another one when it is completely worn out. Hesti said that like the other workers at the PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada, one of the largest palm-oil companies in the region, she has to use her own money to buy the gear that she believes will protect her from the sun, as well as the fumes and wayward splashes from the herbicide she is spraying

“Gramoxone is very potent,” Hesti told Asia Democracy Chronicles (ADC), referring to the brand name of paraquat dichloride, a powerful chemical herbicide. “If you get poisoned, or after coming home from work, you have to quickly drink milk and tamarind water.”

The recommendation to drink milk and tamarind water to get rid of toxic substances in their systems has circulated among plantation workers for years. While health experts dispute its efficacy for such, some palm oil companies have taken to providing condensed milk for their workers on a per-day or a per-month basis.

What no one questions, though, is that paraquat is highly toxic to mammals, including humans. First marketed and sold in 1962 under the trade name Gramoxone, it is one of the most widely used weed killers in the world. W hether paraquat is carcinogenic or not is still under debate, but studies show that pure paraquat can cause severe lung damage, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and death, when ingested or inhaled. It can also cause moderate to severe eye or skin irritation. 

Marketed by Swiss-based Syngenta, paraquat sale was definitively banned in Europe in 2007 due to its harmful effects to the ecosystem and human health. Yet paraquat is still exported and marketed elsewhere across the world, especially in the global south.  

In 2019, Indonesia became the world’s third largest importer of paraquat from Europe, after the United States and Brazil. That year, Indonesia brought in some 2,300 tons of the herbicide from U.K. factories. 

Since 2017, production and exports of Gramoxone from China have also increased, following Syngenta’s acquisition by the Chinese state-owned company ChemChina. Syngenta is now under Syngenta Group, controlled by another Chinese state firm, Sinochem, which merged with ChemChina in 2020. Ironically, China, along with the United Kingdom and Switzerland, is among the more than 60 countries that have now banned the use of paraquat. So has Brazil, which up until a few years ago was among the top importers of paraquat.

“The fact that these substances are produced and imported from countries where they are banned due to their danger constitutes an unacceptable double standard,” said Sarojeni Rengam, director of the Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific (PANAP).

Bad for golf courses, okay for farms?

In Indonesia, among the biggest paraquat buyers is the country’s palm oil sector, consisting of both big plantations and smallholder farmers. Oil palm plantations cover more than 16 million hectares of the country’s land area, according to the government, of which some 36 percent are in the Indonesian part of Borneo: East, West, and Central Kalimantan. 

The sector employs some eight million people, according to the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, which also says that it contributes between nine to 17 percent of Indonesia’s GDP. But the continued use of herbicides that are toxic to both humans and the environment is yet another questionable practice in an industry already dogged by controversy.

In the United States, paraquat has been deemed too toxic for use in golf courses, yet is allowed in farms, albeit with a restricted-use classification. Nevertheless, as of November 2023, Syngenta and its former U.S. distributor Chevron were facing more than 4,000 lawsuits in the United States over paraquat’s alleged links to Parkinson’s disease.

Syngenta maintains that paraquat is safe for the environment and does no harm to humans if handled with caution. It also claims that paraquat is “essential” for farmers dealing with climate change, as well as for their  “quest to produce food for an increasingly populated world.”

In Indonesia, government regulations stipulate that only appropriately trained workers should handle dangerous herbicides and pesticides. The opposite, however, was observed by ADC in the field. Paraquat and other potent herbicides can be easily obtained as well at farming-supplies sellers across the country. 

In Bangkal village in Central Kalimantan, smallholder farmer James Watt said that he first used Gramoxone in 2015, after he realized that weeds at his palm oil plantation grew faster than he could cut them. A farming supply shop owner in a nearby town recommended Gramoxone; Watt has been using it since. When ADC visited him last March, Watt had a half-full, five-liter jerry can of Gramoxone under his kitchen cabinet.  

“I need a herbicide because if you just cut down the grass and wood, it will grow very quickly,” said Watt, a father of five. “For example, today it was cut, the next day it will grow again. So it’s useless and a waste of energy.”

Watt, 54, said that he was not told of the danger of long-term use of the herbicide. As such, he has never bothered to put on any protective gear. He added though that he often gets skin irritation and swelling, as well as blurry vision, during and after using Gramoxone.

“I don’t wear a mask,” said Watt. “I will look at the wind direction. Sometimes I smoke a cigarette first to see the wind direction. So you don’t spray on yourself.”

Women workers most vulnerable

At corporate-run plantations, the herbicide sprayers are mostly women; male workers are usually assigned to security or harvesting tasks. 

In a 2019 study published by Hasanuddin University’s Media Kesehatan Masyarakat Indonesia journal, researcher Maksuk had noted a high concentration of paraquat in the urine of oil palm plantation workers. 

The Palembang Health Polytechnic (Poltekkes Kemenkes Palembang)-affiliated Maksuk also found that on average, female workers had a paraquat concentration of 6.55mg/L in their urine, while male workers had 6.35mg/L. 

The researcher said as well that a worker had a paraquat concentration of 0.001mg/kg in their urine per day, or above the European Commission’s stipulated daily Acceptable Operator Exposure Limit of 0.0005/mg/kg. 

“Paraquat that is ingested and absorbed by the system can cause higher risk of liver necrosis and kidney disease by 20 percent, and can (raise the) risk of Parkinson’s disease,” wrote Maksuk. 

The sprayers at plantations are daily workers who have neither health insurance nor other benefits enjoyed by regular employees. According to PANAP, 70 percent of plantation workers do not have a contract. 

In 2019, PANAP conducted a survey in four oil palm companies, and interviewed over 50 workers. Most of the respondents did not know much about the risks associated with the products they handled. Moreover, only one of the four companies made water available to the workers – male and female – to drink or wash themselves with.

ADC, meanwhile, saw Hesti’s saved cell phone videos and photos that often showed her and her coworkers with masks lowered, and without gloves or other protection.

Hesti and her colleagues said that the field manager had given only basic instructions, such as how to dilute the herbicide, as well as how to follow the wind direction to maximize herbicide coverage on the weeds and avoid getting sprayed themselves.

An herbicide sprayer usually carries a 15-kg knapsack sprayer on her back for hours, while exposed to humid equatorial heat. Hesti said that at times, she felt a burning sensation on her back while working. Quite often, she felt dizzy and nauseous. Whenever she would accidentally get herbicide on her hands, these would itch afterward and the skin would swell.

A toxic keepsake?

Now 28, Hesti has been working as a paraquat sprayer for more than a decade. She has lasted twice longer at the job than Herna, who began working at the Penyang, Central Kalimantan oil palm plantation of PT Musim Mas in 2006, but resigned just five years later.

Herna had also been an herbicide sprayer, working from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., with an hour-long lunch break, six days a week. Besides paraquat, Herna worked with also-controversial glyphosate, marketed under the brand Roundup. The company provided masks, protective garb, and gloves, but the heat had Herna and her colleagues often taking these off against regulations. 

In any case, PANAP’s Rengam remarked, “Personal protective equipment in this context does not work and cannot be the solution.”

Herna said that she and her coworkers were told by the field manager only to be careful when mixing and spraying herbicides. They barely received any information about the risks posed by these. But whenever she accidentally splashed some of the diluted paraquat on herself, she said, her skin would burn. 

ADC tried to query PT Musim Mas and PT Hamparan Masawit for this story but has yet to receive a reply from either as of this writing.

“Sometimes I just let it be until the wound dried out,” Herna said. “Gramoxone has a strong smell. It stings your nose. So as soon as the packaging is opened, the smell is immediately strong. So, you have to mix it quickly.”

She told ADC: “I sprayed poisons.”

“I wanted to help my family,” Herna said. “Jobs are scarce around here. Nowadays it is difficult to find work except working at a [palm oil] company.”

When she quit in 2011, her body had become weak. Like Hesti, Herna often had nausea and dizziness while spraying, aside from blurry vision, headaches, and difficulty in breathing. The company clinic doctor would give her over-the-counter medicine and tell her to get some rest. The doctor, however, never mentioned any long-term impact of herbicide exposure. 

Many of her coworkers also complained of headaches, nausea, and vomiting, Herna said. Now, years later, she feels much better, but has yet to regain most of her energy. Herna said that her current doctor said she may have a stomach problem and advised her to have regular meals. But the 48-year-old mother of six said that she always has her meals on time. 

“The doctor also said it could indicate internal disease, such as lung problems,” a wan and pale Herna said. “(Sometimes), it’s hard for me to stand up, it feels like I’m being stabbed in the stomach. But doctors also don’t know the cause. So I don’t know whether this is due to exposure to herbicide or not.” ◉

This series received support from Journalismfund Europe.