Pesticide users better beware

The use and abuse of chemical pesticides in Bangladesh and other developing countries can cause a great deal of needless misery which could easily be removed through sustained awareness-raising activities. And it was reassuring to find that the World Bank itself was getting modestly involved in this, as evident in a handout it released last year to the media, with some very disturbing data on the subject. It called for urgent outreach programmes to educate the handlers and users of such poisons in order to limit the damage done to the environment --- indeed the entire ecology of planet earth. According to a WB survey of 820 boro (winter rice) farmers and growers of potato, bean, eggplant, cabbage, sugarcane and mango, more than 47 per cent of them were found using the toxins far in excess of requirement! What is even more alarming is that only four per cent of them were formally trained in pesticide use or handling and storing the chemicals. Well over 87 per cent use no protective measures at all and 54 per cent of the traders reported frequent health symptoms commonly associated with acute pesticide poisoning! It is not for nothing that organic farmers worldwide have been crying themselves hoarse to stop trade in, and use of, poisonous agrochemicals ever since the first links between their use and adverse health effects have been suspected. It was in the last decades of the past century that evidence of pesticide residue began to surface in groundwater and in foods in developed countries. In Bangladesh, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) under the health ministry, have, on several occasions, found that the cause of 'mysterious' deaths,' now and then was the excessive and indiscriminate use of hazardous pesticides in the neighbourhood. It may be recalled that in two villages in Dhamrai upazila in 2009, at least three children and a number of domestic animals had died and as many as thirteen other children and some adults had fallen sick, due to just this one instance of pesticide poisoning ! The Director of IEDCR, had said then that such tragic incidents 'must very well be happening in other parts of the country too !' That is more likely than otherwise, given the WB findings. The IEDCR director had, it is reassuring to note, initiated an awareness campaign soon after in the two identified villages. The government's relevant ministries and departments ---- agriculture, environment, health, commerce ---- all need to put their heads together for long-term solutions to the grave risks posed by indiscriminate use of agrochemicals. Apart from restricting use as much as possible, it is also imperative that farmers be encouraged to switch over to IPM (Integrated Pest Management) ---- the use of natural parasites and predators to control pests ---- as a viable alternative to the identified toxins. It is on record that the IEDCR investigating committee, following the Dhamrai tragedy, had found evidence of extreme callousness on the part of the farmers who handled certain poisons, some of which belong to the 'dirty dozen' group, and have been banned globally decades ago. Yet, some of the nastiest are found to be still in use in Bangladesh, smuggled, allegedly, from across the border under the very nose of the authorities. It was reported that the farmers in Dhamrai had been spraying too much furadon or carbofuran on their paddyfields. This poison, it may be mentioned, had been banned in Kenya where it was said to be used for killing predator animals as ferocious as lions ! About organophosphate pesticides like cypermethrin,malathion and chlorpyrifos, users seem to have no idea either about the 'recommended safe' dose or any precautionary principles. For example an aubergine ( the popular 'begun') grower in one village was found to apply about ten kilograms of furadon and over seven litres of some liquid pesticide on his 0.75 acre land. According to the local agriculture officer furadon is not recommended at all for aubergines, but, if used, the dose should have been no more than two to three kilograms. As for the liquid pesticide, a 600 ml application---- not at one go, but in phases ---- should have sufficed. Apart from outright deaths from toxic overdose of pesticides there are long term health effects that organic farmers have been warning against over the past quarter century or so. The deadliest pesticides can wreck the human body and mind ---- the nervous, reproductive, immune systems and the brain itself. Organic farmers in Bangladesh too have been warning against such dangers. Pesticide residues are indeed likely to turn up virtually everywhere in Bangladesh, in ground water and in foods, causing many adverse health effects of 'unknown' origins. It has been suggested that there might be links between the growing incidence of leukemia (blood cancer) in Bangladesh these days and indiscriminate use of agrochemicals. This suspicion certainly deserves thorough investigation by competent researchers. It would be wise to popularise integrated pest management(IPM) ----- making the most of biological interactions among and between different insect- friends and foes ----- rather than encourage the wholesale poisoning of the population and the environment. Organic farmers have long been recommending a return to the old farming system, abandoning continuous cropping in favour of rotation of different crops because rotation disrupts the life cycle of diseases, insects and other pests. A five year study by the US National Academy of Sciences revealed as early as 1989 that this alternative or organic farming ---- with IPM and some judicious use of the least harmful chemical pesticides and fertilizers ---- is not only productive and profitable but the economy and environment could benefit if more farms went organic. Hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds have been invented for every imaginable convenience and billions of dollars have been spent on product development and marketing. As for the reactions of these chemicals on living things and the environment, attention has been next to nothing. All side effects can never be thoroughly tested because the sheer number of combinations churned out are astronomical. But some industrial substances that have been studied reveal their indisputable links to certain serious diseases, including cancer. There could also be more subtle but potent health problems other than cancer , such as systemic damage to the endocrine system which regulates hormones; the immune system and the nervous system. Who can say what the potential for neurobehavioural damage, birth defects or other toxic fallouts are from the endless chemical products that enter man's habitat and food chain?