Medicos, NGO Meet Calls for Pesticide Ban and Review
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Medicos, NGO Meet Calls for Ban Endosulfan in Karnataka and Review of Other
Pesticides
Date:
Tuesday, October 15, 2002 4:07 PM
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Medicos, NGO Meet Calls for Ban Endosulfan in Karnataka and Review of Other Pesticides
BANGALORE, 11 October, 2002 --- The Karnataka Government should ban the use and sale of Endosulfan, a deadly chemical pesticide recently banned in neighboring Kerala, and add to the momentum for a national ban on this pesticide, according to Community Action for Elimination of Pesticides (CAPE). CAPE is a recently formed collective of pesticide-impacted communities, public interest doctors, scientists and voluntary groups.
Endosulfan-exposed community members from Kasaragod, Kerala, have been diagnosed with numerous health problems that are typical of the chemical's effects - nervous disorders, paralysis, cerebral palsy, cancers of various kinds, reproductive damages and mental illnesses. The health disaster evident in Kerala, has been confirmed in the border regions of Karnataka as well. Barely 30 kilometers from Kasaragod, Kokkada and nearby villages in Karnataka have also reported high incidences of damages to the nervous system, reproductive anomalies and cancers. Like in Kerala, here too cashew plantations are routinely sprayed with endosulfan. However, the Government of Karnataka is yet to ban the deadly pesticide despite repeated demands for a ban by the endosulfan-impacted communities in Kokkada.
"Every day of delay in banning endosulfan implicates the Karnataka Government in the willful poisoning of coming generations. Since Karnataka Government has a modern and scientific mindset, they should act upon the scientific evidence linking endosulfan to irreparable health and environmental damage," said Dr. Ravi Narayan of Bangalore-based Community Health Cell.
Endosulfan, one of the largest selling pesticides in India, is banned in more than 30 countries because of its extreme toxicity and the inevitable impacts on the environment and health of communities exposed to this chemical. "It is criminal that Endosulfan continues to be used in India despite the conclusive evidence pointing to its disastrous effects. The fact that the Government has placed an industry's commercial interests above the health of communities clearly exposes the disproportionate access that the chemical industry has to the corridors of power," said Ms Sarojeni V Rengam, of Pesticide Action Network-Asia Pacific.
"Documented cases establish that the pesticide industry will manipulate science, resort to corrupt practices, and harass its opponents to keep its markets open. Even as we speak, numerous pesticide multinationals like Dow and Syngenta are eyeing Asia for selling pesticides which have been banned in their home countries," said Dr. Romy Quijano, a renowned toxicologist and Member, Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety. Dr. Quijano, who also works with the Pesticide Action Network from the Philippines, has himself been subject to harassment court suits by multinationals like Hoechst for having spoken against the health impacts of endosulfan, a poison originally developed by the German company.
Chemical pesticides, being highly persistent and prevalent in the environment, enter the food chain and contaminate everybody in the world. These pesticides can cause irreversible damage to health even at levels below detection by and even attack the immune system protecting us from succumbing to diseases.
"The only way out of this poisonous trap is non-chemical agriculture. This is not only less expensive and more remunerative, but also yields food that is wholesome. Not only that, non-chemical agriculture is a proven success," said Mr. Narayan Reddy, a farmer who neither uses chemical pesticides nor fertilizers on his farm in Doddabellapur, Bangalore, since 21 years. "The Government should expressly encourage farmers who wish to step out of the toxic treadmill by providing incentives, credit and training," he said.
CAPE has resolved that it will wage a three-pronged national campaign geared towards stopping and reversing the entry into India of agrochemical MNCs and their new poisons, eliminating the use and sale of synthetic pesticides, and promotion of agriculture without chemical inputs. CAPE held its first National meeting in Bangalore between 8th-10th October to develop strategies to make way for sustainable farming. More than 50 people from 9 states in India and from the Philippines and Malaysia attended the 3-day meeting.
Contact Community Health Cell, 367, I Main, I Block, Koramangala, Bangalore. Ph: 5531518 & 5525372 CAPE Secretariat, THANAL, L 14, Jawahar Nagar, Trivandrum 695003. Ph: 0471-311896 0471- 727150 Jayakumar C. Thanal L-14 ,Jawahar Nagar , Kawdiar P.O. Thiruvananthapuram , Kerala, India. Pin 695003 Tel / Fax:++91 - 471 - 311896 Email: thanal@vsnl.com
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