The Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers presented its report on ‘Insecticides and Pesticides – Promotion and Development including Safe Usage – Licensing Regime for Insecticides’ on December 19, 2023. Pesticides are broadly of four types: insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and bio-pesticides. Herbicides kill/control the growth of weeds, and have the …
The Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (pops) will come into force on May 17 this year. And that is a matter of great concern for the developing world. This Multilateral Environmental Agreement (mea) currently covers covers nine pesticides (aldrin, chlordane, dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane, dieldrin, diendrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex and …
the complete phase-out of methyl bromide, an ozone-depleting substance (ods) used as a pesticide, would now be delayed because the us will continue to use it for at least one more year. Industrialised countries should have phased out the agricultural chemical by January 1, 2005. But the us wanted a …
A ban imposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency on two household insecticides has significantly reduced the number of underweight babies born in localities where the chemicals had been widely used. Researchers from the US-based Columbia University have found that infant birth weights and birth lengths in upper Manhattan area …
Last fortnight, Down To Earth reported on the 'endosulfan scam'. On how an "expert" group, set up by the government to review safety concerns related to the pesticide and the health impacts on people living in the shadow of 20 years of incessant aerial spraying, had given the matter short …
Multinational pesticide manufacturers operating in India are trying hard to get the country's pesticide registration mechanism amended so that their data can be protected. Currently, any company planning to introduce a new pesticide in the country has to first get it registered under the Insecticides Act of 1968. The process …
• The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade has now become international law. The convention enables countries to decide which potentially hazardous chemicals they want to import, and to exclude those they cannot manage safely. While trading in chemicals, …
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/ When you're a foetus, hormonal messages determine every step in your development. From your brain to your toes, these messages fix you for life. ourstolenfuture.org, is a warning that synthetic chemicals worldwide are disrupting these messages. Our stolen future, a book published in March 1996, asks: what will be …
a recent us report may have wide-ranging impacts on international pesticide research and human health because it has given a clean chit to human testing of pesticides in the country. Intentional human dosing studies for epa regulatory purposes: scientific and ethical issues was drafted by the us National Academy of …
I write this to provoke, not to insult. It is increasingly important to understand that in the modern world, the term "sound science" is becoming the choicest of insults. Science is a passive hireling, not to bring policy reform, but to delay, prevaricate and to dismiss. And scientists are hired …
the United States Environmental Protection Agency (epa) has been hauled to court for allegedly trying to weaken the rules that protect endangered species against pesticides. Conservation and pesticide watchdog groups filed a lawsuit against the agency on January 15. The activists contend that epa is acting on the advice of …
The armyworm has devastated crops in several provinces of Pakistan. Sindh is plagued by the pest, which has damaged 25 per cent of the rice crop and a substantial part of the banana crop. Even as Sindh is expected to face a crop deficit of 100,000 tonnes, the current wheat …
The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was set up to investigate the issue of pesticides in cold drinks, and everyone told us that we had reached a dead end. Parliamentarians aren't interested, we were told. The issues were too technical, too contentious. Cynics added that with elections round the corner, the …
THE Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) has corroborated the Centre for Science and Environment's (CSE) claims of pesticide content in soft drinks. The issue exploded last August. The CSE's investigation found shocking levels of pesticide residue in 12 brands of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo owing to contaminated groundwater sources (Frontline, August 16, …
farmed salmon have significantly higher levels of toxic contaminants than salmon from the wild, scientists from the us have found. Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and pesticides are on an average 10 times higher in farmed salmon as compared to their wild counterparts. These chemicals not only threaten the immune …
extensive use of Gaucho, a pesticide containing the active substance imidacloprid, has killed hundreds of thousands of bees in France, as per a report. "The results are alarming. The treatment of crops by Gaucho poses risk to bees in several stages of life,' concludes the 108-page report, compiled on behalf …
the Spices Board India (sbi) in Kochi, Kerala, has identified 43 villages in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh to grow residue-free chillies using the integrated pest management (ipm) system. The move is a part of the board's strategy to encourage farmers to totally avoid the use of chemicals in the …
excessive use of pesticides, rodenticides and fertilisers is chiefly responsible for the arsenic crisis in West Bengal and Bangladesh. This controversial theory has been recently proposed by P K Sikdar and S Banerjee of the Kolkata-based Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, and the Centre for Study of …
This book describes the issues surrounding pesticide residues in food and drinking water and, in particular, the issues associated with human exposure and consumer risk assessment. In broad terms, consumer risk assessment encompasses three areas of scientific disciplines
This briefing paper on pesticide contamination and food safety makes a strong case for formulating standards for food and drinks and revamping the pesticide regulatory framework in the country. It discusses the need for legally enforceable standards addresses the larger issue of institutional reform in the governance of food safety …
