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 …
A briefing paper on "pesticide contamination and food safety" - The CSE studies on pesticides in water and soft drinks, pesticides contamination and its health impacts, regulatory apparatus and processes, right to clean water and the industrial use of water.
There is never any end to learning. And so, surprises. We have learnt, over 20 years, that environmental governance in India is lackadaisical. Still, the extent of irresponsibility never fails to surprise. Some months ago we did a study on pesticides in bottled water. We were really looking at pesticides …
Every nation that registers and uses pesticides must do its own homework and ensure that exposure to each pesticide, under no circumstances, exceeds the acceptable daily intake. Keeping toxins within strict limits not injurious to health is the true mandate of safety. Without this, the use of pesticides would be …
The world awoke to pesticide contamination of food years ago. As early as 1953, a resolution at the World Health Assembly expressed concern about "the increasing use of various chemical substances in food'. This inaugurated a process that led, two years later, to the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food …
the strong case against endosulfan just got stronger. Environmental Health Perspectives (ehp), a peer-reviewed scientific journal of international repute, has published the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Occupational Health's (nioh) damning research on the organochlorine pesticide in its December 2003 issue. Not only does this vindicate nioh, fresh doubts have also …
organic reservoir: Spreading an ultra-thin layer of organic molecules on the surface of reservoirs could prevent millions of cubic metres of water evaporating each year, according to Flexible Solutions, a Canadian company. It is the first to commercialise the technique. Field tests of the technology conducted in several countries show …
It is well established that exposure to pesticides can result in cancer, liver damage and nervous disorders. Now, researchers have zeroed down on another harmful effect of the toxic chemicals. Scientists from the us-based Emory University School of Medicine have found that several commonly used pesticides are toxic to the …
On July 7 this year a warehouse in a residential area of Asuncion, Paraguay's capital, caught fire. The warehouse, belonging to the ministry of agriculture and livestock and stocked with pesticides, was completely gutted. The fire triggered off fears of severe contamination. But three months later, all 1,100 people living …
In December, it will be five years since the World Bank (wb) formally adopted its Operational Policy on pest management (op 4.09). However, two recently released reports of the Pesticide Action Network North America (panna) clearly show "widespread violations of the wb's pest management policy'. op 4.09 requires World Bank …
Clearly betraying a strong pro-industry bias, the us Environmental Protection Agency (epa) has observed that the country's federal law bars suits from being filed against pesticide manufacturers when a product does not deliver what its federally approved label promises. The latest approach makes a blatant departure from the position epa …
gm on the platter: The US government has recently issued a notice to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for failing to comply with safety laws when it allowed offsprings of animals used in a genetic experiment to be sold as food. The pigs had genes from different species; the …
I met an eminent economist last week. He quoted another eminent economist-cum-columnist, and asked me if it was true that apples had higher pesticide residues than Coke or Pepsi. Before I could respond, he rather menacingly concluded: "And is it not true that mother's milk has pesticide?" Evidently, "common-sensical truths" …
Even as soft drink majors are struggling with the pesticide controversy, a Mumbai-Newline reporter found fungus like material floating in a 300-ml bottle of Coca-cola.
The us Environmental Protection Agency (epa) suffered a double whammy on September 15, when two separate lawsuits raising the same issue were filed against it in the federal district court for the Southern District of New York. The contention in both cases: epa 's inability to implement stipulated children-specific standards …
Four journalists who brought to light in 2000 the use of banned pesticides at a banana plantation in the Philippines have now been put behind bars. Also arrested is Romeo Quijano, professor at the University of the Philippines and president of the country's chapter of global group Pesticide Action Network. …
Water Filter The confusion resulting from reports about pesticides in bottled water and soft drinks saw a few companies sneak-ride upon the concerns of the bewildered common man. Take, for instance, the ad for Usha Brita Waterguard (in The Hindustan Times, September 6, 2003), which instead of detailing the cleaning …
A pesticide has got two factions of Kenyan scientists sneering at each other. Divisions have arisen between two of the country's premier research organisations
