Endosulfan, a powerful 50-year-old insecticide sometimes called DDT’s “cousin,” was officially banned last week at an international pesticides meeting in Geneva. Partial exemptions were created for India, however; the chemical may be used on some crops there for up to 10 years. Many countries outlawed endosulfan long ago because it is dangerous to farmworkers, accumulates in the body, kills beneficial insects and persists in the environment. The United States is an...

Tobacco is a silent killer and the single largest cause of preventable disease including cancer, heart attacks, chronic obstructive lung disease and asthma. According to World Health Organisation, tobacco killed 100 million people in the 20th Century and will kill a billion people (ten times more) in the 21st. Deaths due to tobacco in India are expected to rise from 1.4 per cent in 1990 to 13.3 per cent in 2020....

Agriculture department confirms high pesticide residues THE country’s regulators have failed to check the flow of pesticides into the food chain, suggests a monitoring report of the Department of Agriculture and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, the country’s premier institute. Fruits, vegetables, poultry and milk are all laced with high pesticide residues —much above the maximum residue limits (MRL) set by the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of 1954. Samples of...

The issues relating to the victims of endosulfan, sprayed in the plantations of Kasargod district in Kerala, have snowballed once again. “Earthworms emerged from the soil, and, subsequently, died. Then birds came to eat the earthworms and they died as well.”   “Some termites were killed in a cotton farm sprayed with endosulfan. A frog fed on the dead termites, and was immobilised a few minutes later. An owl which flew over...

Epidemic declared in Rajnandgaon and Bilaspur districts; 10 dead in Bilaspur State health officials have confirmed the outbreak of a malaria epidemic in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon and Bilaspur districts. While the neighbouring districts of Durg and Koriya have also reported a spurt in malaria cases, officials have embarked on a State-wide intervention programme to contain the disease. Health Secretary Vikas Sheel said 10 people had died of falciparum malaria in Bilaspur thus far,...