A network of environmental organisations is calling on the Mexican government to prohibit the sale of the insecticide endosulfan. “It is highly toxic for humans and for most animals, and is also persistent in the environment,” said Fernando Bejarano, coordinator of the Mexican Action Network on Pesticides and their Alternatives, one of the groups pushing for the ban.

The future of the toxic insecticide will be decided at the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which will take place Apr. 25-29 in Geneva.

Between 2002 and 2010, Mexico imported 4,000 tons of endosulfan from Germany, India and Israel. More than 70 countries have already banned endosulfan or are in the process of doing so.