Pesticides and increasing diseases.

[Guest guest]

Marching forward in the 'Death Valley'

Sujit Roy, 06 March 2008, Thursday

 

 

THE WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that there will be one million pesticides poisoning cases and 20,000 deaths every year globally. India is no exception. The non-judicious use of pesticides, lack of awareness and control give birth to a higher rate of cancer, asthma, leukemia, anemia, and diseases of the kidney, skin and digestive tract.

Dr. Aniruddha Dhar is a doctor by profession. He is now in trouble. The reason is simple. He is unable to prescribe a proper diet chart for a patient.

Suchismita Basu is a nutritionist. She prescribes but in a cloud of doubt whether the diet chart would help the patient at all.

Aniruddha or Suchismita are no exceptions. Medical professionals, particularly those who value ethics and morality, are in real trouble now. Because the statistics from scientific experiments prove that in India, a leading third world country with the second highest population in the world, no food and drink is safe including medicines. The reason behind this is excessive use of pesticides in an effort at Green Revolution.

Within the next two decades, India will be a country with the highest percentage of cardiac patients and diabetics. It has been projected that 300 million individuals would be affected with diabetes by the year 2025. Presently 19.4 million individuals are affected by this deadly disease, which is likely to go up to 57.2 million by the year 2025. The growth of cancer patients and their deaths will increase manifold because Indians are fast losing their immunity due to intake of foods and drinks unsuitable to human health. Damages of nerves and defects among newborns will also increase.

Scientific experiments have proved that the euphoria of Green Revolution has faded away and India is now battling the residual effects of extensively used chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

In the name of principal food or green vegetables, we are facing the indirect impact of pesticides because while all the developing countries are up in arms against inorganic food, India is yet to create awareness for the same, leave aside the formation of an act or implementing a programme in favour of a proper food policy. Use of pesticides in India increased 20-fold, from six million hectares to 125 million hectares between 1980-90. After a high annual consumption of nearly 75 000 MT in '90s, interventions from the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices has started to show a declining trend in the use of pesticides in India.

Yet the contamination of food products in the country is alarming. About 20 per cent of Indian food products contain pesticide residues above tolerance level compared to only two per cent globally. No detectable residues are found in only 49 per cent Indian food products compared to 80 per cent globally. The reason lies in non-judicious use of pesticides, lack of awareness, and inadequate information dissemination amongst the farming community in India. This is causing deadly diseases like cancer and cardiac problems. Many of the environmental problems that have come to light in the past 40 years are not isolated from each other at all. WHO estimates one million pesticides poisoning cases and 20,000 deaths every year, globally.

The excessive use of chemical fertilizer like urea, DPK, NPK, etc and pesticides have resulted in the disorders of endocrine glands - thyroid, parathyroid, pituitary, kidneys and adrenals. The incidence of cancer, asthma and diseases of kidney, skin and digestive tract has increased by 20 to 25 per cent in Punjab. Youngsters at the age of 25 to 30 are suffering from heart ailments and male infertility. Alongwith suffering humanity, the soil is also sick with severe deficiency of micronutrients. Decreasing carbon content of the soil has resulted in decrease in water and nutrient holding capacity. In addition organisms like bacteria, fungi and earthworms have disappeared. Furthermore, selenium levels are very high at toxic level.

The food we eat, the water and milk we drink are contaminated with one or the other chemicals. So much so the traces of the banned pesticides like BHC, Endosulphan, DDT and HCH have been found in the safest and sacred mother's milk in many cases in Punjab. Due to the use of Endosulphan in Punjab as in Kerala, birth rate of mentally retarded (MR) children, incidence of miscarriages, stillbirths and delayed pregnancy among women agricultural workers and wives of men employed in pesticide mixing and spraying, have increased. There is also evidence of increased risk of birth defects from parental exposure to pesticides. Leukemia, lymphoma, anemia, soft tissue sarcoma and cancers of the breast, brain, prostate, testis and ovaries are directly related with the impact of massive uses of pesticides.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has found 'sufficient' evidence of carcinogenic potentiality in 18 pesticides. Studies have proved a link between reproductive health impacts in women and pesticide exposure. Many studies worldwide have reported the presence of DDT and its metabolites in samples of breast milk. In Delhi, a breastfeeding infant receives 12 times the acceptable limit of DDT. Scientific experiments have also exposed that exposure to pesticides and solvents could be contributing to male infertility..

Kheti Virasat team experienced a very amazing fact during its visit to three villages of Bhatinda district. There is exceptionally high number of cancer patients in these villages due to forced excessive use of pesticides for cotton crops. In the village Ramanvas, a population of two thousand has already seen 25 cancer-related deaths with another 15 suffering from cancer. Mandikhurd and Harkishanpura have had six and ten cancer deaths respectively.

All these deaths have occurred in the last eight years. Kidney failure has claimed one victim each in each village. The proportion of diabetes relative to the population is also quite high in these villages. The number those suffering from breathing and skin disorder are also high. Children with congenital defects, including mental retardation are also quite common.

Complaints of abortions or abnormal births and jaundice during pregnancy have gone up considerably. The incidence of infertility has also increased. Hypertension and high blood pressure have become common ailments.

The village Padre in Kasaragod district of North Kerala is burning example of far more destructive impact of pesticides. Due to Ariel spray of Endosulfan on cashew trees the whole village faces unimaginable health problems like central nervous system disorders in children of that area. These include cerebral palsy, mental and/or physical retardation, epilepsy and congenital abnormalities like stag horn limbs.

In addition an increase in blood and liver cancer, infertility, undescended testis, miscarriages, menstrual irregularities, skin disorders, asthma, etc were also observed. Psychiatric problems and suicidal tendencies have also been rising. Surprisingly, almost all the ailments are restricted to people below 25 years of age.

The union government and the state governments are happy to note and preach that the country has gained self sufficiency in growing rice, wheat and other main food items but unfortunately our leaders, knowing the bare truth, feel shaky to admit that absence of control over the mechanism of high yields, brings in a deadly situation for the health of 100 crore plus population of the country.

People today are more health conscious than they were a decade ago. People are inclined towards herbal diet and medicines. This has led the way to the mushrooming growth of private health clinics and nature cure centers. The nutritionists are in larger numbers now everywhere.

While this is a noticeable development, the darker side is that people have no option but to eat and drink poison. Most of health clinics are just doing business given the potency of the market. But a small percentage of them just cannot cope up the situation and are hesitating while prescribing for patients.

More important is the fate of the newly born babies. They are born with the fatal impact of the food habits of their parents and they are brought up in a world full of deadly food items.

Thanks to medical professionals who have come out with the truth, understanding well that it should be monitored strictly or they may face a worse situation professionally. It is time people woke up to decide whether they want to lead a healthy life or go towards a slow death in the new 'Death Valley' – India.

Think Simply. Think Wisely.

Curb Semantics. Speak the Truth.

 

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