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 United Nations Education Science and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) will launch the first-ever planet-wide climate research programme involving nearly 70 countries. Under the programme CLIVAR (Climate Variability and Predictability) existing global data will be collected to study the complex interactions among the atmosphere, …
T he vulture is a very patient bird. It is waiting patiently for its next flight, which may very well be into oblivion. Meanwhile, experts try and figure out what is killing the vulture. Ornithologists fear that India's vulture populations have declined in recent times. The vulture has a host …
Groundwater in 44 districts of Nepal is contaminated with arsenic, according to the country's Public Health Engineering Department. In some areas, the arsenic content is 10 times higher than the acceptable level. Out of the 60 districts where groundwater tests were carried out, only 16 were found free from harmful …
in india, cotton is grown in about 2.60 lakh hectares of land. This is equivalent to approximately 35 per cent of the gross cultivated area. Yet, nearly 50 per cent of the total pesticidal consumption is in cotton farming alone. Thus, the extent of damage that pests and diseases can …
the number of cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma ( nhl ), chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and testicular tumours increased in three predominantly agricultural counties in western Ireland during the past decade. The increase may be at least partly a result of increased exposure to agricultural chemicals, theorise Cecily Kelleher and colleagues of …
predatory birds and mammals are being poisoned after eating rats which have high levels of pesticides in their bodies. The proportion of barn owls found with anticoagulant rodenticides in their livers increased from 5 per cent in 1983-84 to 36 per cent in 1995-96. This was stated in a study …
large numbers of whale deaths off Mexico's coasts were most likely caused by humans polluting the seas, but the real answer may never be known due to government foot-dragging, environmentalists said. Mexico has recorded at least four massive die-offs of whales and other marine mammals since 1993, the latest occurring …
millions of children in the United States are exposed to unsafe levels of potentially toxic pesticide residues. According to a study by Consumers Union, publisher of the magazine Consumer Reports , as little as a single serving of some popular fruits and vegetables may contain enough chemicals to exceed safety …
allan Walker and his colleagues at Horticulture Research International, a British government-owned research agency in Warwickshire, uk , have discovered a strain of bacteria that degrades phenylureas, the most widely used herbicide family in Europe. Spraying the phenylureas -eating bacteria on to the soil could soon destroy these herbicide that …
Despite the danger posed by pesticides, there is no data in India on the nearly 70,000 compounds that could cause human death. The issue was recently discussed at the meeting of the "International Congress of Medical Toxicology and Legal Medicine Experts' in Delhi. After deliberations, setting up of a National …
to the dismay of many environmentalists, it seems that a potent ozone-depleting pesticide scheduled for a gradual phase-out would be retained after all. us researchers have found that emissions of the agricultural fumigant gas methyl bromide could be reduced to what they claim are insignificant levels by applying composted manure …
under pressure from the us food industry, the Environmental Protection Agency ( epa ) has modified a new brochure on pesticides, putting less emphasis on their health risks and barely mentioning organic foods as an alternative to foods grown using toxic chemicals. The original strongly blamed pesticides for inducing heath …
Flight into obllivion The vulture is disappearing in India. Nobody knows why. Some experts blame pesticides O n october 3, 1998, the Centre For Science and Environment ( cse ), New Delhi, received a letter from Asad R Rahmani, director, Bombay Natural History Society ( bnhs ), Mumbai, mentioning a …
T he pesticide threat first emerged in the West, the us in particular. In the early 1930s, the Dutch elm disease spread across the us. A fungus disease spread by beetles, it proved fatal to trees, blocking their water-conducting vessels. In 1954, us farmers began spraying ddt to kill the …
More studies are required to confirm the number of vulture/bird death reports in India. However, it has been known that urbanisation and deforestation have been responsible for a gradual decrease in several species of birds of prey. Scientists and ornithologists say that in southern India, where domestic livestock carcasses are …
When noted British author Aldous Huxley finished reading Silent Spring , he was distraught. "We are losing half the subject matter of poetry,' he remarked. He was not quite right. The chemicals have found their way up the food chain and after the birds, humans could be next. Huxley might …
A survey conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, in December 1998 confirms the presence of high levels of pesticides such as HCH and DDT in cattle and pig carcasses collected from areas surrounding the Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur : Vulture cuisine). Eight samples were collected, …
In this study, a new clean up method was developed for the routine multiresidue determination of organochlorine pesticide residues in honey. The analytical procedure requires sample extraction with methanol, followed by a clean up step through a C18 Sep-Pak cartridge. Finally, pesticides are eluted with hexane. The determination of organochlorine …
