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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Chilling silence on pesticide poisoning -Reena Gupta

Chilling silence on pesticide poisoning -Reena Gupta

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published Published on Nov 17, 2017   modified Modified on Nov 17, 2017
-The Hindu Business Line

The recent deaths in Maharashtra once again affirm that highly toxic agrochemicals are freely sold across the counter

Last month about 40 farmers died and more than 700 were hospitalised in Maharashtra due pesticide poisoning. Initial reports suggest that the deaths are due to monochrotophos. This is a highly toxic chemical that has been banned in more than 60 countries but is still allowed to be sold in our country. This is the same chemical that was responsible for the death of 23 children who consumed the toxic mid-day meal in Bihar in 2013. This chemical was completely banned in the US in 1991 because it killed huge populations of birds.

In India, the sale, dosage and usage of many of these pesticides is not very well regulated. According to official estimates, pesticide poisoning is directly responsible for the death of at least 10,000 people every year. Most of the time these deaths are of poor people; they are not reported, or are under-reported.

The organic food movement has created some awareness of residual pesticides in agricultural produce because this also affects the wealthy and informed urban population.

Rural impact

But the worst impact of pesticide exposure is on the health of rural folks— men, women and children. It affects people directly involved in spraying these pesticides. Studies in rural Bihar have shown a higher incidence of breast cancer among women residing in the Gangetic plain as compared to the control group staying in urban areas. Children are also very adversely impacted by early exposure to pesticides. There is strong evidence that links early exposure of children to toxins to various developmental problems including impaired cognitive functions.

A study in Spain has found a direct link between exposure to pesticides or Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and prevalence of Type-2 diabetes in adults. It shows that people with higher concentrations of these chemicals, are four times more likely to suffer from diabetes as compared to others.

In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (a UN supported body) declared that organophosphate insecticides such as tetrachlorvinphos, parathion, malathion, diazinon and glyphosate are carcinogens.

Chaotic system

In theory, the pesticide industry in India is regulated and farmers are meant to be educated on usage and dosage by trained agricultural extension agents who are supposed to reach out to them. But in practice, the industry is a complex maze. The farmer is advised on sale, usage and dosage by his local shop selling agricultural equipment and clearly there is a conflict of interest there.

The two main agencies involved are The Central Insecticide Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) and FSSAI. The CIBRC registers pesticides for crops while the FSSAI sets the maximum residue limits of pesticides for the crops it has been registered for.

The state agriculture universities and departments then make their own recommendations for these pesticides. The agriculture extension agents would generally follow the recommendations of the state universities and boards.

What this means is that CIBRC would approve a certain compound for a certain crop; based on that, FSSAI would determine the maximum residue limit for that particular pesticide for that crop.

All this assumes a perfect world where there is perfect information flow from the CIBRC to the state universities to the extension agents to the farmers. In reality, there is a huge dearth of extension agents in most states due to budgetary constraints. Farmers usually go to the local shop and buy whatever the shopkeeper recommends. So a farmer may end up spraying cauliflower with X chemical.

If this X has not been approved for spraying on cauliflower, there may not even be an MRL set by the Government. The farmer sprays in whatever proportion the seller has told him, which may be many times over the safety limit. And all this pesticide laden food ends up on our tables.

Please click here to read more.

The Hindu Business Line, 14 November, 2017, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/chilling-silence-on-pesticide-poisoning/article9960445.ece


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