A pesticide which is linked to deformities among children, even death, should not be used. Yet, India is the world’s largest user of endosulfan, consuming an estimated 4,500 tonnes every year, and exporting as much. The Centre is resisting a ban on the cheap pesticide, in spite of it being linked to deformities and deaths among the villagers of Kerala who were exposed to it because of aerial spraying of the cashew crop. The fact that the chemical is banned in 87 countries, including the US and the European Union, too, does not seem to have much impact on the government.
Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan’s fast for the ban on using endosulfan is timed with an important meeting of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which is being held in Geneva. The initiative seeks means to protect human health, and global environment from dangerous chemicals.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was expected to take a leadership role in sorting out this matter, but the Prime Minister’s Office has just reiterated that endosulfan use has been banned in Kerala, and maintained that imposing a nationwide prohibition would require national consensus, backed by scientific study. It is on the basis of such studies that endosulfan has been banned in most of the developed world. It is considered toxic to humans, and aquatic life, including fish. It can lead to death, disease and birth defects, among human beings and animals, just as it did in the Kasaragod district of Kerala in the 1980. How many more such cases will it take for the government to come to the conclusion that is similar to those on the basis of which other countries have barred endosulfan use? Instead of waiting for the Indian Council of Medical Research to give its report on the subject, the Centre should be proactive in banning a pesticide as the rest of the world has done.
Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan’s fast for the ban on using endosulfan is timed with an important meeting of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which is being held in Geneva. The initiative seeks means to protect human health, and global environment from dangerous chemicals.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was expected to take a leadership role in sorting out this matter, but the Prime Minister’s Office has just reiterated that endosulfan use has been banned in Kerala, and maintained that imposing a nationwide prohibition would require national consensus, backed by scientific study. It is on the basis of such studies that endosulfan has been banned in most of the developed world. It is considered toxic to humans, and aquatic life, including fish. It can lead to death, disease and birth defects, among human beings and animals, just as it did in the Kasaragod district of Kerala in the 1980. How many more such cases will it take for the government to come to the conclusion that is similar to those on the basis of which other countries have barred endosulfan use? Instead of waiting for the Indian Council of Medical Research to give its report on the subject, the Centre should be proactive in banning a pesticide as the rest of the world has done.
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