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DEALING WITH PESTICIDES
Article sent to us by Tirtho Banetrjee
Some years back a poster depicting a woman's bare
breasts held the caption-"Milk in these containers is
unfit for human consumption." This is quite suggestive
of the fact that the milk of every Indian mother
contains DDT residues higher than the tolerance limit.
Our daily diet has 0.27 mg DDT. A nation-
wide survey of food contaminants few years back
revealed excessive levels of cancer-causing fungal
products in cereals and toxic metals in food products
in India. An average Indian consumes 80 times
more than the permitted amount of DDT via their food
leading to heart ailments and other fatal diseases.
The Green Revolution that came to India in 1950 was
ascribed to the large-scale use of pesticides in the
country. With it ushered an era of self-sufficiency in
foodgrain production. Pesticides had hit the markets
and were hailed as a boon by farmers. However, soon
a number of environmental problems as a consequence of
excessive use of pesticides came to the fore. Dr.
Rachel Carson's seminal book 'Silent Spring'
published in 1962 was an eye-opener to many ardent
supporters of pesticides. It demonstrated how
indiscriminate use of pesticides had resulted in the
decline in population of white-tailed eagles in
Sweden,
poisoning of penguins and sea-gulls in Antartica and
to the death of several species of birds in USA
besides inflicting other deadly ravages of the kind.
The response to this grave warning in many counries in
the West was swift and widespread. And by 1972, the
use of organochlorine pesticides was banned in the US
and many European countries. But the developing
countries have yet to wake up to the mortal danger
inherent in the use of this chemical. Socio-economic
reasons are usually advanced in support of pesticides
in these countries. However, nothing can justify the
use of a chemical that is bound to prove more suicidal
than profitable to man.
All pesticides are lethal poisons. Due to the
interrelatedness and the interdependence of organisms
within an ecosystem, chemical pollutants can have far
reaching effects in the environment through their
accumulation in the food chain, in vegetables, fish,
eggs, milk products, edible oil and in mother's milk
and the unborn
foetus.
INDIAN CONTEXT - India is the largest producer and
consumer of pesticides. Inevitably, the problems that
pesticides pose for us are indeed menacing. The
country, at present, uses about 80,000 tonnes of
technical grade pesticides annually to cover 182.5
million hectares of cultivated area. The demand is
expected to rise to 1,54,000 tonnes anually by 2002.
Besides, India accounts for one-third of pesticide
poisoning in developing countries. Pests damage farm
produce worth roughly Rs 6,000 crores a year, ranging
between 10 and 20 per cent of what is produced.
The environmental hazard caused due to effluents,
agricultural run-off and residues on crops is
frightening. As pesticide uptake occurs mainly through
the skin and eyes by inhalation or by ingestion, the
Indian farmers, because of their ignorance are most
vulnerably exposed to it. About 3 lakh Indian farmers
lose their lives due to pesticide poisoning
annually. In spite of the known potentiality of the harm
wrought by pesticide , it is really alarming that the
Dunkel Draft allows agricultural use of 8 out of the
12 most lethal pesticides in the world.
WORLD SCENARIO : The total amount of pesticides
applied worldwide is estimated to be around 2.5
million tonnes annually. Of this 50-60% are
herbicides, 20-30% are insecticides and 10-20% are
fungicides. Globally, about 50,000 accidental human
poisoning take place due to pesticides and 10,000
deaths occur annually. Scattered individual cases of
poisoning discovered from hospital records in some
countries are not disclosed to health workers from the
fear of ignominy. The results of surveys of the health
hazards of pesticides go unpublished because
scientists and journals are reluctant to report
'negative findings'.
In 1980, about 50,000 tonnes of pesticides were used
for public health programmes in the developing
countries. The sale of pesticides doubled between 1972
and 1985. During the last four years, there has been a
dramatic increase in pesticides, particularly in
Africa.
Fungicides in the USA, UK have been responsible for
babies being born without eyeballs. Thinning of egg
shell of birds leading to hatching difficulty and
injury to embryo has been attributed to pesticide. A
number of pesticides have been reported to be
'carcinogenic' to animals (rats and mice) and these
substances clearly represent a potential hazard to
human beings. Hayes in his standard work on the health
hazards of pesticides cited 28 major outbreaks of
pesticide poisoning due to contaminated food over a
period of 40 years. Instances of pesticides' impact on
human health are many but a few have reached epidemic
proportions. Examples include the Karemi Yusho disease
in Japan in 1968 which affected hundreds of people
who ate the Karemi rice oil contaminated with
chemicals. In Italy in 1976, many died due to exposure
to another chemical, 'dioxin', released in a chemical
explosion. In the world's worst industrial
disaster--the Bhopal Gas Leak Tragedy-- there was an
accidental release of toxic raw materials from a
pesticide manufacturing plant. More recently, 1350
cases and 8 deaths occured in California among people
who consumed watermelons that had been treated with
'aldicarb', a systemic pesticide t registered for such
use.
FUTURE SCENARIO : It is a well established fact that
during the next 20 years, global demand for farm
products is likely to increase threefold due to both
population increase and enhanced purchasing power. As
more and more arable land gets degraded, production
will take place in a limited area and consequently the
pressure on land would increase. To feed the world's
hungry millions the crop yield would have to be
increased substantially. But, as pesticides are now
contributing a negligible portion to the increased
production and,
producing more of ecological imbalance, it is high
time that we weigh its harm with its profits.
Pesticides routinely used alters microbe population.
threatening the long-tarm viability of soil on
plantation. Thus, production suffers. Moreover, nearly
all the injurious insects have become adaptable to the
new ecosystem under the insecticide umbrella. Due to
continuous use of a single insecticide, it loses its
potentiality leading to promotion of resistance in
insects.
SOLUTION : Modern progressive agriculturists all the
world over are persuading farmers to turn to
economically and ecologically sound pest control
technologies-- biological control agents, natural
pesticides and chemicals that don' t harm the
environment.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which combines the
use of chemicals with biological controls and other
measure which have no deleterious consequence, is the
new buzzword and best possible solution at hand to the
problem of pesticides. IPM involves use of natural
organisms to tackle pests and organic
farming without the use of chemical insect killers.
For instance, the versatile Neem has wonderful
pesticidal properties and the Western world is agog
with possibilities which Neem can offer in IPM. Neem
products have been cleared already in USA and several
companies have started maunfacturing Neem pesticides
containing 'azadiirachtin ' , Australia has taken to
planned plantation of Neem trees to promote and
develop the concept of appropriate technology.
Injurious insects may be controlled with the use of
microorganisms in place of conventional chemical
insecticides. Viruses, bacteria and fungi etc play an
important role in the dynamics and natural control of
insect pollution.
The establishment of a suitable infrastructure to
ensure that the adverse effects of pesticide on both
the human population and the environment are minimised
will need efforts in all areas of pest management and
control. Obviously, no one technique will work by
itself. What is needed is an integration of a variety
of ecologically sound methods. A wide range of
plant-derived insecticides should be developed. India
should set-up tolerance limits and stringent legal
requirements as well as standards followed by
legislation.
In addition, there is a paramount need for increased
national and global awareness regarding how to
control diseases associated with pesticide exposure.
Misuse of pesticide is often the result of ignorance
which can only be removed by education and training.
Environmental and biological monitoring and evaluation
of health hazards due to pesticides have to be carried
on a war-footing. Epidemiological data and honest
reporting will give the much needed feedback in coping
with this vitally serious issue .
by TIRTHO BANETRJEE,
131, Rabindra Palli,
Faizabad Road,
Lucknow-226016
INDIA
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