'Treated with Thiram (POISON)'
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Ameer Hamza
'Keep away from sunlight and high temperature ... treated with Thiram (POISON) …. Do not use for food, feed or oil purposes,' says a waterproof packet of seeds from 'Sufala Beej Bhandar', a very popular company in Bangladesh. The warning is all in the 'imperial' language ---- so what if the end-users can't read English ! Or would it matter at all even if they did ? So great is the apathy among producers and users alike with regard to handling toxins of all kinds that warners might as well be crying in the wilderness.
Even then, one finds magistrates destroying poisoned edibles by jerks and spurts.Such melodramatic action merely boosts their egos, say cynics, but hardly deters the habitual offenders all along the delivery line. If there's carbide to turn fruits yellow there's something else to keep vegetables green for unnaturally long periods ! The abuse of pesticides is unbelievable. Last year the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) under the health ministry, discovered 'mysterious' deaths in Dhamrai upazila, in at least two villages. The cause was: excessive and indiscriminate use of hazardous pesticides in the local fields. 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 this single instance of pesticide poisoning.
Such tragic incidents 'must be happening in other parts of the country as well', was the fear of the IEDCR chief, who. It was reassuring to note, had followed the trail of the poisoning. An awareness campaign was initiated in the identified villages as a start but much more needs to be done by the government's ministries and departments concerned ---- agriculture, environment, health and commerce to make people fully aware about the issue of hazardous pesticides. It must be taken up seriously and strict dos and don'ts have to be instituted to limit damage.
The IEDCR investigating committee in the field 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 worldwide decades ago. Yet, some of the dirtiest are found to be still in use in Bangladesh, openly smuggled, allegedly, from across the border. A contemporary reported then that the farmers in Dhamrai had been spraying too much furadon or carbofuran on their paddyfields. This poison, it may be mentioned, had recently been banned in Kenya where it was said to be used for killing predator animals as ferocious as lions ! Is it any wonder that children should succumb so quickly ?
As for 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 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. Then again, who is there to monitor whether or not the mandatory period between pesticide application and picking the produce for consumption is at all followed ?
Apart from outright deaths from toxic overdose of pesticides there are long term health effects that organic farmers in the advanced countries 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 activists in Bangladesh too have been talking about such dangers. No doubt pesticide residues can be found everywhere in Bangladesh, in ground water and in foods, causing many adverse health effects of 'unknown' origins.
High time the authorities did everything in their power 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 environment, and humans and animals as well, with all kinds of chemical pesticides. Organic farmers recommend returning 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 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.
'Keep away from sunlight and high temperature ... treated with Thiram (POISON) …. Do not use for food, feed or oil purposes,' says a waterproof packet of seeds from 'Sufala Beej Bhandar', a very popular company in Bangladesh. The warning is all in the 'imperial' language ---- so what if the end-users can't read English ! Or would it matter at all even if they did ? So great is the apathy among producers and users alike with regard to handling toxins of all kinds that warners might as well be crying in the wilderness.
Even then, one finds magistrates destroying poisoned edibles by jerks and spurts.Such melodramatic action merely boosts their egos, say cynics, but hardly deters the habitual offenders all along the delivery line. If there's carbide to turn fruits yellow there's something else to keep vegetables green for unnaturally long periods ! The abuse of pesticides is unbelievable. Last year the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) under the health ministry, discovered 'mysterious' deaths in Dhamrai upazila, in at least two villages. The cause was: excessive and indiscriminate use of hazardous pesticides in the local fields. 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 this single instance of pesticide poisoning.
Such tragic incidents 'must be happening in other parts of the country as well', was the fear of the IEDCR chief, who. It was reassuring to note, had followed the trail of the poisoning. An awareness campaign was initiated in the identified villages as a start but much more needs to be done by the government's ministries and departments concerned ---- agriculture, environment, health and commerce to make people fully aware about the issue of hazardous pesticides. It must be taken up seriously and strict dos and don'ts have to be instituted to limit damage.
The IEDCR investigating committee in the field 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 worldwide decades ago. Yet, some of the dirtiest are found to be still in use in Bangladesh, openly smuggled, allegedly, from across the border. A contemporary reported then that the farmers in Dhamrai had been spraying too much furadon or carbofuran on their paddyfields. This poison, it may be mentioned, had recently been banned in Kenya where it was said to be used for killing predator animals as ferocious as lions ! Is it any wonder that children should succumb so quickly ?
As for 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 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. Then again, who is there to monitor whether or not the mandatory period between pesticide application and picking the produce for consumption is at all followed ?
Apart from outright deaths from toxic overdose of pesticides there are long term health effects that organic farmers in the advanced countries 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 activists in Bangladesh too have been talking about such dangers. No doubt pesticide residues can be found everywhere in Bangladesh, in ground water and in foods, causing many adverse health effects of 'unknown' origins.
High time the authorities did everything in their power 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 environment, and humans and animals as well, with all kinds of chemical pesticides. Organic farmers recommend returning 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 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.