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 …
An endocrine disrupter is a synthetic chemical which, when absorbed by the body, interferes with normal hormone function. This undermines intelligence, decreases resistance to disease and impairs reproduction. These chemicals include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, pesticides and phthalates which cause a range of problems
stockpiles of obsolete pesticides, including dieldrin, chlorinated organomercury compounds and ddt, stored in a warehouse at the National Agricultural Research Council, Kathmandu, are posing a danger to the health of the residents, workers and livestock in the area. The pesticides were exported to the country by multinationals such as Bayer, …
IN FEBRUARY this year, Down To Earth published a cover story on the unusual cases of deformities in Padre, a village in Kasargode district, Kerala ('Children of endosulfan', Vol 9, No 19). The story was corroborated by a detailed study carried out by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) …
I WILL respond only to the few substantive issues raised by S K Handa and E V V Bhaskara Rao. I do not wish to say anything about the strong words they have used to discredit our work. But it is not surprising. I find, in particular, Indian scientists very …
The aerial spraying of the endosulfan pesticide has been temporarily banned in many parts of the Kasaragod district of Kerala. The district collector, C K Visvanathan, on August 9, 2001, passed an order to this effect in response to a memorandum submitted to him by the Endosulfan Spray Protest Action …
Many species of predators and crop-friendly birds have migrated from cotton fields in Pakistan due to the excessive use of pesticide. Starling, quail, dove, fruit beets, house crow, blue rock pigeon, nightingale, sparrow and woodpecker are some of the bird species that have deserted the Pakistani cotton fields. This is …
indiscriminate use of pesticides resulted in the death of fish in a lake behind Delhi's Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. This was revealed during a pesticide residue analysis conducted by the pollution monitoring laboratory of the Centre for Science and Environment (cse). The analysis revealed the presence of multiple residues of …
a recent study has proved that exposure to pesticides such as ddt (dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane) can increase child mortality ( Lancet , Vol 358, July 2001, pp 110-114). Mathew P Longnecker of the Epidemiology branch of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, usa and his colleagues used the serum samples …
the origin of malaria is associated with the beginning of cultivation thousands of years ago, confirm two recent studies. In 1958, Frank Livingstone had proposed a hypothesis that the emergence of malaria might be linked with the beginning of agriculture. According to Livingstone, the introduction of slash and burn system …
Aerial spraying of the herbicide glyphosate by Columbia is posing a serious health hazards for Ecuadorians. Colombia is spraying the herbicide in its Putumayo province to control the cultivation of drugs. But this has raised concerns in Ecuador, which shares a 620-km border with Colombia. Incidents of headaches, fever and …
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Industrial Deve lopment Organisation (UNIDO) have launched a new website on the cost-effective means of phasing out the extremely toxic and ozone depleting pesticide, methyl bromide. The website www.uneptie.org/ unido-harvest provides information on the experiences and results of projects aimed at phasing …
rachel Carson couldn't have been more accurate. A disturbing silence is the overarching presence in lands doused with chemical pesticides. Not just Padre
in two separate incidents in Idukky district in Kerala, one boy died and 41 persons were hospitalised after being exposed to phorate, an extremely hazardous pesticide, on June 26, 2001. The pesticide, which is widely used in the state, is a restricted use pesticide and is part of the us …
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that municipalities across the country have the right to ban the residential use of pesticides. The court ruled that the Montreal suburb of Hudson had not violated laws when, in 1991, it banned the use of pesticides for gardening, becoming the first Canadian …
children exposed to ddt (dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane) attain puberty at a much younger age, reveals a new study. The study shows that girls exposed to ddt develop breasts and start their menstruation cycle by the age of ten, both processes which generally start at the age of 12. The study carried out …
tiny silverleaf whiteflies are resisting the latest crop of pesticides in fields of melons and peppers in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas, us . Tong-Xian Liu, researcher at the Texas a&m; University, in the us , and his assistants, searching for signs of the tiny silverleaf whiteflies say there …
A South African company continues to sell Chlordane, a toxic pesticide that is banned worldwide. The South African chemical industry stopped selling the pesticide in March 2000. But Gulf Chemicals, a KwaZulu-Natal-based company, continues to manufacture the pesticide, with the approval of Etienne Wolmarans, registrar of the country's department of …
A dozen notoriously toxic chemicals have been outlawed, or restricted around the world under a landmark United Nations treaty signed in Stockholm in May. It is a rare piece of good news for the global environment. The accord will ban, phase out or severely cut back a range of industrial …
A German food laboratory found traces of potentially dangerous pesticide Dicofol and fungicides Procymidon and Chlorthalonil in six out of 20 random samples of imported strawberries reports Reuters . The samples were from Spain and Italy. All three substances are suspected of being carcinogenic. Dicofol belongs to the same chemical …
