Pesticide residues in blood of Punjab farmers
Pesticides are commonly used in India but this comes at great cost to human health.
Pesticides are commonly used in India but this comes at great cost to human health.
By H K Dua in the Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2011 Train No 339 leaves Abohar every night to reach Bikaner next morning. Over a period of time it has come to be known as “Cancer Train”. This train has acquired the dubious reputation simply because nearly 100 cancer patients travel by it from Punjab to Bikaner for diagnosis and treatment at the Acharya Tulsi Regional Cancer Treatment and Research Institute.
The numbers of people affected by nearly 20 years of aerial spray of Endosulfan, an organochlorine pesticide, in the cashew plantations in Kasaragod, the northern most district of Kerala is increasing. While the focus earlier was on Padre village, the health impacts are evident in people of nearly 11 panchayats in the district. Victims here are suffering from congenital deformities, physical disabilities, mental retardation and gynecological problems. The same health impacts are now being seen in the neighboring Dakshin Kanada district in Karnataka as well.
Pesticide industry body loses defamation case against CSE, twice
At the sixth meeting of Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) to the Stockholm Convention (Geneva Oct 11-15), India once again opposed a global ban on the manufacture, use, import and export of endosulfan. Of the 29 members in the review committee, 24 supported the ban and four (Germany, Ghana, Nigeria and China) abstained.
Endosulfan is claiming new victims, though a state government survey puts the total number of affected at just a little over 2,000 people in 11 gram panchayats of Kasaragod. Years after the pesticide was banned in Kerala, it is creeping into newer areas – a Down To Earth investigation has tracked down more cases in Muthalamada panchayat in Palakkad district, while reports are coming in of endosulfan-affected people from villages and hamlets located far away from regions where the pesticide was sprayed.
By H K Dua in the Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2011 Train No 339 leaves Abohar every night to reach Bikaner next morning. Over a period of time it has come to be known as “Cancer Train”. This train has acquired the dubious reputation simply because nearly 100 cancer patients travel by it from Punjab to Bikaner for diagnosis and treatment at the Acharya Tulsi Regional Cancer Treatment and Research Institute.
Pesticides are commonly used in India but this comes at great cost to human health. The Centre for Science and Environment decided to investigate the matter and looked at the agricultural heartland of Punjab. It found that 15 different pesticides in the 20 blood samples tested from four villages in Punjab. But what is more important to find out is how much of pesticide in blood is ‘safe’. Does a safety threshold level exist? If yes, how do scientists — and the industry — compute it?
Pesticides are commonly used in India but this comes at great cost to human health. The Centre for Science and Environment decided to investigate the matter and looked at the agricultural heartland of Punjab. It found that 15 different pesticides in the 20 blood samples tested from four villages in Punjab. But what is more important to find out is how much of pesticide in blood is ‘safe’. Does a safety threshold level exist?
New Delhi, August 4-5, 2004
Today the pesticide industry sent four employees to ‘picket’ our office. We know that they were employees because when asked, they told us “We work at United Phosphorus Limited” a major producer of pesticides and added further “we have been sent here by our boss”. They brought with them posters and slogans. We offered them water, tea and chairs to sit on.
Ordinary people of the remote Padre village of Kasaragod district in Kerala along with NGOs have been at the forefront of a battle to ban the use of endosulfan, a toxic pesticide that has been used for decades in India. While the struggle to have this toxic substance banned continues nearly ten years after evidence first emerged from Kerala about its health impact, the government and the powerful pesticide lobby continue to be in denial about it.