Fucking pesticides

Pesticide has become a major threat to our environment and the lives of people whose lives very much rely on natural sources such as the river. I guess you must have read news about the aborigine children who died in places like Cameron Highlands (where I used to live) where the river has been permeated by pesticide. This is a major issue that many people have ignored cos it seems that only the lives of marginalized people are affected. Wait a minutes, how sure are you that the water that we drink everyday are actually 'clean'.

The threats of environmental issue as such have always been underestimated. Believe me, none of us can afford the consequences. Below is a report released by Pesticide Action Network and The Asia Pacific about how pesticides kill people in India. Please spend your precious time reading it and then contemplating about what you can do as individual to make a difference.

Industry urged to pull dangerous pesticides from Indian market

As Indian regulators, media and the public debate about a report on
excessive levels of pesticide residues in Coke and Pepsi amongst other
soft drinks, attention is not being paid to the real problem that is
killing scores of Indians each year - that of deadly pesticides being used
in agriculture on a variety of crops. Poverty stricken Indians are
paying a heavy price for the use of pesticides in farming. Therefore the
India-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Pesticide Action Network
(PAN) Asia and the Pacific, and the German Coalition against Bayer
Dangers urge pesticide producers to withdraw all highly toxic pesticides
from the Indian market.


Kavitha Kuruganti from the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA):
"Many of these extremely dangerous pesticides are products of
multinational companies like Bayer, DuPont and Syngenta which have stopped
producing and marketing such pesticides in the developed world long ago.
However, they maintain double standards on people in India. Here, they
produce and market these pesticides aggressively." The CSA has documented
dozens of cases of poisonings, many of them fatal. "For instance Bayerดs
pesticide Hinosan (active ingredient: Edifenfos) is involved in such
poisonings we documented", continues Kuruganti.


"PAN AP in collaboration with partners in India and other countries in
Asia, have documented how Class I pesticides, as well as those
erroneously considered 'less harmful' such as endosulfan and paraquat (Class
II) continue to poison millions of workers and farmers across Asia!",
asserts PAN AP's Executive Director, Sarojeni V. Rengam. "It is an
unmitigated tragedy that Class I pesticides, as well as paraquat and
endosulfan-which are extremely hazardous under conditions of use in the
South-are still so widely used. We call on the world's largest producers of
endosulfan, which is Bayer; and paraquat, namely Syngenta, to stop
production of these deadly pesticides immediately!"


Bayer CropScience is the market leader for pesticides in India. In many
parts of the world the company sells pesticides in WHO Class Ia
(extremely hazardous) and I b (highly hazardous) like Thiodicarb, Disulfoton,
Parathion, Fenamiphos, Azinphos-methyl, Methamidophos and Oxydemeton
Methyl. Philipp Mimkes from the Coalition against Bayer Dangers which has
been monitoring the corporation for more than 25 years: "In 1996 Bayer
promised to replace all WHO Class I pesticides with products of less
toxicity. The company evidently failed to keep its promise. Bayer
products containing these extremely dangerous ingredients are still on the
market. As a result thousands of agricultural workers across the world are
poisoned year after year."


In a statement issued by Bayer in Germany, the company acknowledged
that it sells Class I product Hostathion (ingredient: Triazophos) in
addition to Thiodan (Endosulfan) in India. However Bayerดs Indian website
lists several more Class I substances like Larvin (Thiodicarb),
Metasystox (Oxidemeton Methyl), Tamaron (Methamidophos) and Folidol (Parathion
Methyl).


The Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, PAN Asia and the Pacific and
the Coalition against Bayer Dangers state that a safe use of pesticides
is not possible in India specifically, and the South in general, because
of poverty, illiteracy and other social conditions as well as tropical
climatic conditions which do not permit the wearing of protective gear,
or institute other protective measures. The groups criticise the
industry's marketing strategies which give pesticides an image of being
"safe". They also recall the FAO code of conduct, to which India is a
signatory and which has also been endorsed by the pesticides industry, which
recommends that Class I and Class II pesticides should not be used in
developing countries.


Having initiated a large programme of Non Pesticidal Management of
crops successfully with farmers in over 180 thousand acres in the state of
Andhra Pradesh, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture questions the need
for pesticides in agriculture. Therefore the Indian government is urged
to ban aggressive marketing of pesticides, to express the
acknowledgement that these products are essentially poisons and to ensure that the
industry is made liable for their products, including compensation,
medical care and economic rehabilitation for all victims.

For more info, kindly log on to :www.panap.net