A map showing the area of the National Fire Ant Eradication Program’s coverage in Southeast Queensland.
BAITS used in the fire ant eradication program contain deadly cancer-causing chemical PFAS, The Tribune can reveal.
Five out of the six products listed on the National Fire Ant Eradication Program’s (NFAEP) product guide for fire ant treatment contain one of three PFAS pesticides such as fipronil, indoxacarb and hydramethylnon, which have been shown to pose threats to human health, wildlife and biodiversity, and water and soil quality.
Fipronil is banned in 49 countries and indoxacarb and hydramethylnon are banned in 29 countries, deemed as causing unacceptable harm.
Marketed under the names Indoxacarb Technical, Steward Insecticide and Avaunt Insecticide, fipronil is used as the active ingredient in pesticides Advion and Arilon.
PFAS is linked to health risks in human and animal studies, including cancer (kidney and testicular), hormone disruption, liver and thyroid problems, interference with vaccine effectiveness, reproductive harm, and abnormal foetal development.
Indoxacarb, an oxadiazine pesticide developed by DuPont, acts against “lepidopteran” larvae – butterflies, moths, and skippers – by blocking sodium channels in the nervous system.
The Australian Government agency responsible for the management and regulation of agricultural and veterinary chemical products, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Authority (APVMA), endorses PFAS pesticides for use in the NFAEP.
Environmental charity Pesticide Action Australia (PAA) said pesticide products used in this country may contain a variety of chemicals that meet the definition of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
PFAS is known as a “forever chemical” due to its extreme persistence in the environment and its ability to build up in the human body.
PFAS in pesticides is used as the active ingredient or in the product’s fluorinated container which leaches into the contents. It can also comprise the product’s inert ingredients.
“Pesticide Action Australia is deeply concerned at the application of pesticides which have been found to contain PFAS which are linked with the NFAEP or the complementary work of the Queensland Government’s Fire Ant Suppression Taskforce (FAST),” a PAA spokesman told The Tribune.
“Australia’s National PFAS Position Statement states that Australian governments should be ‘transitioning away from the use of chemicals that cause irreversible or long-term contamination of Australia’s environment’.
“For government at local, state or federal level to be releasing pesticide pollution containing PFAS into the environment runs counter to this objective. The application of pesticides containing PFAS will contribute significantly to long-term pollution, environmental harm and put public health at risk for generations to come.
“Australia’s Strategy for Nature 2024-2030 explicitly names pesticides as a source of pollution impacting our wildlife and that ‘pollution, including from chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides, waste and contamination, is driving ecosystem change.
“It has especially devastating direct effects on freshwater and marine habitats.
“Pesticide Action Australia urges the Australian Government to immediately ban the use of any pesticides which contain PFAS, including any associated with the NFAEP or FAST activities; further engage, listen to and be directed by the legitimate and evidence-based concerns being put forward by affected communities of pesticide pollution and re-evaluate the harm being caused by PFAS pesticides currently and the projections of harm for the medium and long-term regarding pesticide pollution.
“It is time to assess whether the application of PFAS pesticides violates Australia’s national and global commitments to environmental and health protections and to structurally reform the APVMA so that it is majority publicly funded and publicly accountable, implementing the precautionary principle.”
A study was undertaken by a national team of 10 scientists from universities, museums and state governments, and led by Biodiversity Council member Professor John Woinarski from Charles Darwin University (https://shorturl.at/HSlTf) and reported that between 1-3 species of insects, and other native invertebrates like worms, snails and spiders, are becoming extinct in Australia each week.
The authors of the study stated that one of the causes of biodiversity loss in Australia was the use of pesticides.
NFAEP would not comment but the APVMA told The Tribune why it allowed the use of pesticide treatments containing PFAS as an active ingredient.
“The APVMA uses a risk-based approach in our assessments; this means that we consider whether the risks when a product is used as specified are acceptable, and if they can be mitigated by changing the way that a product is used,” a spokeswoman said.
“The APVMA will not approve a proposed use if it is not safe or effective [and are] currently conducting a review of fipronil, with our proposed regulatory decision scheduled for June 2025.”
The Invasive Species Council (ISC) said Australian fire ant treatments were not PFAS coated and that “there [was] no evidence to suggest that they contain any PFAS at meaningful or harmful levels”.
“Australian fire ant treatments are … not liquid chemical broadcast applications where PFAS contamination has been examined in other contexts,” an Invasive Species Council spokeswoman said.
Fire ant eradication treatment also consists of corn grit soaked in soybean oil containing pyriproxyfen or S-methoprene which is aerially baited three times a year.
Fipronil is often used through direct nest injection to treat nests in “high-risk” public areas, such as playgrounds and parks.
On August 22, 2024, the Senate appointed the Select Committee on PFAS (per and polyfluoroalkyl substances), to begin an inquiry into the extent, regulation and management of PFAS, and present its final report by August 5, 2025.
https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp13954
https://www.mda.state.mn.us/environment-sustainability/active-inert-pfas
p6 - fipronil: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/ENVI-RD-756349_EN.pdf
fipronil - https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-023-00721-8
Watch residents and police in heated standoff at Samford Valley.
Fipronil identified as killing birds
THE media has recently reported on studies showing flea treatments containing fipronil are polluting rivers and killing infant birds in the UK.
Flea treatment fipronil, used in Australian fire ant treatments, is banned from outdoor agriculture to prevent the pollution of waterways in the UK and 48 other countries.
Topical flea treatments, applied at the back of a pet’s neck, are distributed through the grease glands of the coat and into the pet’s fur.
Research at the University of Sussex has found that such pesticides are in 98 percent of English rivers, often at levels far higher than those deemed safe.
Recent research [https://shorturl.at/0MDBD] discovered that 100 percent of blue tit and great tit nests were contaminated with pesticides such as fipronil, as the birds collect fur from dogs and cats to insulate their nests.
It found that nestling mortality is associated with higher levels of the pesticides.
The research found that all 103 nests studied contained fipronil.
Overall, a higher number of either dead offspring or unhatched eggs were found in nests containing a higher number of insecticides, higher total concentration of insecticides or a higher concentration of fipronil, suggesting that contact exposure of eggs to insecticides in nest lining may lead to mortality and lower reproductive success.
Likewise, a new study (https://shorturl.at/nXW4F) estimates that between 1-3 species of insects and other native invertebrates like worms, snails and spiders, are becoming extinct in Australia every week, and about 9,000 have become extinct since European arrival in 1788.
The findings reveal that Australia’s loss of biodiversity is far greater than was previously recognised.
Among the extinctions, many beneficial invertebrates, pollinators and species that are important for maintaining soil health like earthworms will have been wiped out.
The Biodiversity Council and Invertebrates Australia have said the findings were alarming and are calling on federal state and territory governments to increase work to understand, monitor and conserve Australia’s invertebrates.
A study in 2003 by Vandervoude et al (https://shorturl.at/8beLW) found that the baits used in the fire ant eradication program “could impact on a range of non-target invertebrates”.
“The active ingredients in the baits are common to a range of pest control products, and therefore some impacts on nontarget organisms may be expected in such a large-scale treatment program,” the research paper stated.
“Both the fire ants and the baits therefore potentially impact on soil, litter and the larger mobile ground fauna.
“A component of this fauna, along with fungi and bacteria, play an important role in decomposing organic matter and cycling plant nutrients through the ecosystem.
“Changes in faunal composition may cause changes in decomposition processes as fauna are implicated in the movement of and inoculation by bacteria and fungi spores as decomposition takes place. In addition, these fauna provide food for a range of terrestrial invertebrates (eg spiders, centipedes) and vertebrates (frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals).”
