Chlorpyrifos is a chemical that kills insects on growing vegetables and fruit. The series of stories, funded by Journalismfund, uncover its effect on adults and children, the spread of the pesticide in different foods, the legal battle in European Union and the fact that it has been banned in more and more countries, but cannot be completely avoided. At the same time, market analysts predict the market to expand in the next five years.
The important cross-border investigation on chlorpyrifos was initiated by Investigative Reporting Denmark and Danwatch, and was made in collaboration with journalists from Knack in Belgium, Le Monde in France, Dagbladet in Norway, Newsweek in Poland, Ostro in Slovenia, El Confidencial in Spain, and The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting in the United States.
In France, the series uncovered how only one study from Dow looked into the neurotoxicology of chlorpyrifos. The producer has refused to make another despite heavy critics of the study. In Norway, the story focused on the forbidden insecticide found in food all over Europe. In Belgium, the team looked at how widespread the pesticide is in food. In Slovenia, the focus was mostly on the spread of the poison and in Denmark, the team ran a story on how Danes are consuming this forbidden nerve-poison in imported fruit and rice.
Journalismfund supported the following journalists: Wojciech Ciesla (Poland), Staffan Dahllöf (Denmark), Anuška Delić (Slovenia), Nils Mulvad (Denmark) and Jesper Nymark (Denmark).
© Photo: Marcos Garcia Rey
