Comm: "Russ Dilts has worked with farmers in Asia for over a decade. We follow him on the toxic trail across south east Asia. We'll find that regulations and commitments to corporate stewardship mean little in the field. We'll talk to the victims of pesticide poisoning and discover how farmers could be better off by letting insects and fish do the work of the chemicals. Cambodia is Russ Dilts' main worry. The recently opened borders are a highway for pesticides.

"Poorly educated, impoverished farmers believe they are a miracle ally in the war against pests. But some of the chemicals crossing this border are listed by the World Health Organisation as Category 1A - extremely hazardous to human health. The Cambodian farmers simply have no conception of how dangerous these pesticides are. We wanted to start the trail in the pesticide manufacturing plants. But despite requests routed through the industry association we could not gain access to the factories."

Russ Dilts: "Okay, we're now in Bang Pu. This is the first of Thailand's industrial zones. Many of the world's corporate citizens are based here. You see names familiar to you, such as Zeneca and Bayer. A number of these companies are major pesticide producers, so-called life science companies. These companies import active ingredient for pesticides, which is then formulated here with inert ingredients such as water, surfactants, emulsifiers, other things, to become the final product, which is marketed here and in other neighbouring countries.

"We're standing in front of one of the formulation plants of a multinational chemical company. We would like to know what goes on behind these walls, but unfortunately as at this time we have not been allowed to get inside with the camera. We would like to see what actually they're formulating and in what quantities, and if possible, where this is going. One major chemical we'd like to follow is methyl parathion. It's an old chemical. It is causing problems in rice in several countries in this region. Methyl parathion is categorised as 1A, extremely hazardous, by the World Health Organisation.

"Bayer is one of the major producers of the chemical - however there are hundreds of Thai firms producing their own labels of methyl parathion, often under less regulation than multinationals such as Bayer. I believe they and perhaps government regulators believe that it can still be used safely, that it can be used appropriately, can be used on the correct crops at the correct times. However we think we might see something different when we get to the actual fields and the villages."

Comm: "Our first stop on the toxic trail was Prachinburi, midway between Bangkok and the border town of Aranyaprathet."

Russ Dilts: "Right now we're going to pick up the toxic trail on the way to the Cambodian border. We'd like to see just what range of stocks they have, what volumes and what they're selling in this area."

Comm: "Methyl parathion is top of Russ Dilts' list of the most dangerous chemicals. It must be handled with extreme care. It's not illegal to produce or sell methyl parathion in Thailand. But it's one of the dirty dozen - a list of the worst chemicals according to the Pesticide Action Network - an international trust monitoring pesticide use worldwide."

Russ Dilts: Okay. This is methyl parathion by Bayer. If you look, look closely, you'll see the international code warnings. These are, okay, gloves, if your eyes are good you can see this, this is face mask, feet covering, neoprene boots, this is a symbol for keeping out of reach, store carefully, it's dangerous to aquatics and fish, always wash your hands, boots, face mask, gloves, and the old skull and crossbones. This is a category 1A. The LD50, meaning the medium lethal dose, for this is 14 milligrams per kilogram of flesh, or body. This is an old and quite dangerous chemical, Folidol. We notice that all of our major makers are represented here to a range of Thai manufacturers, to American Cyanamid, all the players are here. For the most part well labelled."

Comm: "Store owner Krisorn Kulkiet Partsert has been selling pesticides to wholesalers for 20 years. He believes they're for the local market, not Cambodia."

Russ Dilts: "We think there are several forms of trade. You will have wholesale trade here, selling off to retailers in Cambodia, you'll have Cambodians coming across, who will then distribute direct to farmers - you will probably also have Thais coming in to invest in contract farming. Now they may be bringing their chemicals direct from Bangkok, so there are several ways in which the pesticides cross the border for several types of distribution channels. We're moving now into downtown Aranyaprathet, where we'll try to find some of the actual stores doing retail and wholesale of pesticides that will cross the border into Cambodia.

"Same, so we have the methyl parathion from Bayer, imported active ingredient coming in from, or the pure chemical active ingredient, from Europe probably. This Foxinol, almost an identical bottle, except it's a local company and the active ingredient is probably coming from China."

Comm: "The international companies are not able to stop the fakes entering local markets. Carbon copies of the originals to capitalise on the multinationals' marketing, almost identical except for the safety labelling. But it's the originals which Patchana Juajitrapran sells to cross border traders."

Female Translator: "Few people buy the new products. Some brokers buy it, Folidol, to sell to the local people. But since the opening of the border Folidol is popular. The buyers like the small packages rather than the bigger one and most of them are brokers who buy to sell to the Cambodian people."

Russ Dilts: "We're now travelling the last few kilometres before the Thai/Cambodian border. What I think we'll see here is a lack of regulation in terms of what is flowing across the border into Cambodia, including pesticides. Aranyaprathet is one of a number of very porous border points, where products like pesticides can flow into Cambodia.

"This border, every day thousands and thousands of push carts come across, virtually unregulated. This post has only been open for about two years and today it's wide open. This allows goods, including pesticides, to flow freely into Cambodia."

Comm: "The irony is that although methyl parathion and 50 other category 1A formulations are outlawed for use in Cambodia, it is not illegal to make methyl parathion in Thailand. Whatever the niceties of the legal regime may be, it makes very little difference here on the border with Cambodia. The country has no means to stop the toxic traffic from Thailand."

Nuth Sakhan, Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture: "You see in the border we cannot control it, we have no fully capacity to control the importation from outside like from Vietnam or from Thailand."

Russ Dilts: "We've made it across the border now into Cambodia. We're now on the main road out of Poipet leading to Sisophon. In Sisophon we'll see our first sites, look at our first stores, see our first fields."
Comm: "Chinese New Year, Sisophon. It didn't stop farmers attending a workshop where FAO extension worker Yim Vuthuang and epidemiologist Helen Murphy try to assess the numbers of people experiencing the symptoms indicating pesticide poisoning."

Helen Murphy, Medical Epidemiologist: "I have been working on all of these countries and the first exercise I do with farmers is I say what do you think the signs and symptoms of pesticide poisoning are, please think about only things that you yourself have experienced, and I've really been quite impressed that in Cambodia, they will give me practically all the symptoms that we know about. 40% of the farmers that I've talked to will say yes, I've experienced vomiting, and I consider that moderate poisoning.

"The point really is not to produce decimal perfect data. The point is for farmers, through self-discovery, to understand the health effects by observing and doing their own studies among each other so they understand the total amount of exposure they're getting. That's the real importance of these. But it turns out, I think some of the data is fairly valid."

Russ Dilts: We're now entering a village about 20 kilometres east of Sisephon. Here we will see Helen and Vuthuang working with farmers to observe other farmers handling highly toxic pesticides. I think this will begin to dispel the myth that these chemicals, these poisons, can be handled safely by farmers under actual conditions in rural areas."

Comm: "They ask what Beuk Suon is using and about the labels. He can't read. Vuthuang, accompanied by another farmer trainer, goes with Beuk Suon to the field. They need to check he has no symptoms, so go through a checklist before he sprays. Beuk Suon guesses that the label is saying he must wear gloves. It's academic, because he doesn't own a pair. With no protection he's mixing a highly toxic cocktail including two brands of methyl parathion - Folidol and Crabicide - both category 1A. Beuk Suon drenches his vegetables several times, washing out the sprayer in the community pond. He's oblivious to the danger methyl parathion and other so-called organo-phosphates pose to the nerves in his body."

Helen Murphy: "Organo-phosphates primarily affect your nervous system. Basically what they do is interrupt nerve transmission. Starting from the top you'd get central nervous system problems where you'd get irritability, insomnia, vomiting, trouble walking, you'd have inco-ordination, staggering, ataxia, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, diarrhoea and abdominal cramps, and finally your, your skeletal muscles. This causes the muscle cramps, and the extreme muscle weakness and fatigue."

Helen Murphy: "A lot of farmers tell us that they develop a certain tolerance. When they first start spraying they say oh yes, I get lots of symptoms, then after a while they say oh I get strong and I get used to it, and then suddenly out of nowhere they will really get sick, and thereafter they're very, very sensitive, they're hypersensitive."

Comm: "As symptoms can occur overnight we return the next morning. Beuk Suon is cheerful and joking - so far, he seems healthy. Vuthuang still takes time explaining to him about the dangers of what he's doing. Afterwards he picks the vegetables for market."

Russ Dilts: "This leaf crop, sprayed just 14 hours ago, is now on its way to the market. It's now the consumer's turn. This is a short duration leaf crop, which could probably get by with little or no pesticides. If we look closely now, the spray was being applied to get rid of a small beetle, which makes small holes in the leaves. This beetle is still alive and well despite the application of the cocktail. Did he fly? Let's get him to go. Take off, brother. Now I can make him hop."

Russ Dilts: "This is our first stop at a market in Cambodia, to see how pesticides are actually retailed. This is actually very interesting. We have the usual suspects. Folidol very prominent. Lacphose. Which are the legal and still sealed chemicals from major companies in Thailand. Most of what we're seeing is in its original packages, coming from Thailand and Vietnam. The cost of a glove is roughly a dollar. If a farmer's only earning $215 a year, this is three days' profit."

Russ Dilts: "We're now flying over Siem Reap. This rice bowl fed the ancient Khmer kingdoms and allowed them to grow and flourish.

"This is a group of Cambodian rice farmers. In the off season, they plant patches of vegetables. What they're doing now is making a body map. They'll map out the signs and symptoms that they've experienced before when spraying and applying chemical pesticides."

Ning Chhay: "There are many things that the farmers raise and I have written down here, but the most common one is eye irritation, the blurred visions. There was three among the participant here that used to get vomit, and ten of them just nausea, the feeling like vomiting. And we look at the body, they, the farmers said that they feel difficult to breathe, and in some cases what they feel they have, they feel cold or sweating on their back."

Russ Dilts: "What we've just seen in terms of mixing these five chemicals and spraying this on cabbage, is this unusual in Cambodia?"

Ning Chhay: "Of course this is usual practice, that the farmer in Cambodia commonly practice. And the more important thing that the farmer using his bare hands to mix the insecticides together. Very dangerous."

Russ Dilts: "Right, and also if we look at these fields, they're infested with diamond-back moth, larvae on every leaf, diamond-back moth flying around them and they've been applying probably every other day, to no effect...This is what we talk about when we talk about the pesticide treadmill. You have insect pests, you spray insecticides, you get resistance, you get more insects, you spray more pesticides, you get more insects, you spray more insecticide. Until people can get off that, they will continue to poison themselves, they will continue to lose their crops. What we've just seen here is normal practice. Normal practice as defined by what farmers in Cambodia do in their fields on a daily basis. In one season this happens if not millions of times, hundreds of thousands of times. This is, it's outrageous, it's obscene. These are chemicals that cannot be used safely under conditions in Cambodia. They cannot use protective gear because one, of the heat. If you cover yourself in plastic you would suffocate - two, it is simply unavailable...Three, it would be unaffordable."

Comm: "Ning Chhay explains that some of the farmers view pesticide as a status symbol."

Ning Chhay: "Some farmers they say that oh chemical insecticides are good. The same as they who has the motorcycle has the car in the village, what do you think of this, they are the modernised people, is the perception. And also some, the farmer get some advertisement from Thailand and from Vietnam through the border. Some, so I can say that some middle men, they are small businessmen that come across the border and talk to the farmers, you can use this products so you will get higher yield and can kill all the insect."

Comm: "As in Sisephon the market in Siem Reap is full of highly toxic category 1A pesticides."

Russ Dilts: "What is your number one seller pesticide here? Okay. Folidol, Mevinphose, so Mevinphose and methyl parathion. Class 1A both. About how much do you sell per week?"

Stall owner: "About 50."

Russ Dilts: "50. 50 bottles a week."

Comm: "From the Thai border in north west Cambodia the trail led us to the ancient heartland and finally to the farms around Cambodia's capital of Phnom Penh. It's the country's most important vegetable growing area - feeding a population of just under a million."

Russ Dilts: "We started in north west Cambodia, near the Thai border; now we're east, off of route 1 on the way to Vietnam, about 200 kilometres from the border. Here we're going to look again at vegetable farmers to see their practices and to see how they're using pesticides. What we've been seeing before is people spraying low on cabbage and even on rice, walking through it, getting a lot of exposure, dermo exposure waist down, plus leaks all up their hands and some down the back. On these beans he's spraying up above his head and you feel the wind coming. Basically spraying here into the wind, you're coating yourself with a mist of pesticides."

Comm: "Pech Savoeun recalls a recent incident of serious poisoning."

Male translator: "When I was in the field I felt dizzy and then I couldn't walk. When I returned home I vomited and asked the doctor to give me a serum. I have to use pesticides. There is no other alternative. I'm a farmer, there's no other work."

Comm: "Pech Savoeun is one of a group of farmers who are attending a 'farmer field school'. The sessions are designed to help them recognise the ill effects of the most toxic pesticides and reduce their use. When questioned many in the group admit to having felt sick.

"The farmers have carried out a survey of what's being used locally. Surprisingly there are equal amounts of pesticide pouring in from Vietnam and Thailand. It's the labelling that is the main concern of the Pesticide Action Network."

Sarojeni Rengam, Pesticide Action Network: "And the labels are all either in Thai or in other, Vietnamese language, not in the Khmer language, and so even if the farmers can read the labels, they will not be able to understand. These labels are not in the language of the country so it's a really dangerous situation. In Cambodia the farmers have no awareness of the dangers of pesticides and they been using it in really dangerous conditions, and they store it in their homes, in really you know, close to where they sleep, where they eat."

Comm: "Farmer trainer, Sok Is visits farmers to see where they are storing their pesticides. At Heng's home he is disturbed to find that DDT is kept in the bedroom, near a rice store and a bag of herbal medicines. Sok Is is also concerned that the spray cans are within easy reach of the children."

Russ Dilts: "During our trip we've gone and done samples and seen a number of sites, but CEDUC, the first and possibly the only Cambodian NGO dealing with agriculture, has done a lot of research and training and advocacy, specifically on the pesticide issue. We hope that from their experience they can help verify our impressions and provide us with more data on the actual extent of the pesticide problem in Cambodia. We're here in the village with CEDUC specialist Dr Komar and one of the farmers he's been working with on the pesticide issue."

Dr Komar: "Before it was not (inaudible) it was much more. He went to the doctor and the doctor gave him an injection, so that this is less now."

Comm: "Chen Leang's skin irritation combined with his inability to sit still, interrupted sleep and lack of concentration point to pesticide poisoning resulting from long term exposure."

Russ Dilts: "We've come through Cambodia and we've seen a few sights, but only in a week's time. You've been doing this work with CEDUC seriously here with lots of farmers, and what have you found?"

Dr Komar: "Among the farmers we met one among three used to experience poisoning. Sometimes we used to take photo, this is when, they, after they have problems with pesticides, or you see that is their hands, they use pesticides and through this contacat you can see the symptoms."

Russ Dilts: "Severe contact dermatitis."

Dr Komar: And, and, and like this, this one, she drank the water from the rice field."

Russ Dilts: "We see that a lot in rice, you make actually a toxic soup which then goes into your drinking supply. This is a severe case here doing gastric lavage."

Helen Murphy: "The scope of the problem is most serious in Cambodia. I've been really appalled by what I've seen here. I've never seen such hazardous pesticides used in any country in such a hazardous fashion, and I've never heard so many stories of what I consider moderate poisoning from, from occupational use. But I think the problem is, is pretty widespread all over south east Asia. In Indonesia we estimate about 9% of farmers will get sick at any given time over a period of a year. We found in our study in Java that 20% of spray operations will be associated to up to three symptoms of pesticide poisoning. My biggest concern is that this issue is really being missed in this country. We have a population that's highly vulnerable in terms of their health status - they have almost untreatable malaria, high prevalence rates of tuberculosis. Typhoid is like a common cold and they're facing one of the largest AIDS epidemics in the region. Therefore the donor money is focused on these health issues, but the breadwinner farmer and this issue of pesticide poisoning, I think is being totally missed. This whole issue of safe practices I think is false security. There is no way that a farmer can absolutely not be contaminated in the field. He would have to wear a space suit, and that's impossible here."

Russ Dilts: "We're in the large market on the eastern outskirts of Phnom Penh. This market supplies all the pesticides to the vegetable growers who supply all the vegetables to the capital city of Phnom Penh. This is our last stop on the toxic trail. Let's see what we can find. Okay, we're here in, deep inside the market. This whole corner of three large stalls is floor to ceiling in pesticides. We'll pick one and look at it in a little more detail. This will give you an idea of the shelf space which might be a proxy for how much they're selling of different products. Bayer products, this is American Cyanamid, Mevinphose, another 1A."

Comm: "Despite the view from companies in Bangkok that many of the problems originate with fake pesticides, this was the first time we'd seen a genuine copy."

Russ Dilts: "This is clearly, what looks to me like a Bayer knock-off. The seal is different, the label's different, the trademark's a bit different - very close. First one we've seen. All the ones we've seen in the villages have been like this, coming out of the crates with the Bayer on it. The sticker's bad, the colour's different -even the Bayer symbol looks different. And that will be how much, please?"

Comm: "At all the markets we'd visited in Cambodia, Folidol was the most popular product."

Russ Dilts: "With what we've gotten so far on the toxic trail, I think we'll take this back to Bangkok and talk to some of the producers, including Bayer, and see what they have to say."

Comm: "Watch programme two to find out what the companies have to say and see how farmers are developing more eco-friendly solutions for themselves."