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 European Union (EU) has warned consumers that a large proportion of fruits and vegetables are contaminated with pesticides. The problem could be big enough to warrant checks on imported foods to guarantee their safety, said officials. In a report published in November, the EU said that about 40 per …
EVEN after 23 years, the Vietnam War continues to invade the lives of the soldiers who waged the war. Only now there is no distinction of race or colour. Both US and Vietnamese soldiers are suffering because of a chemical, Agent Orange, sprayed in Vietnam by the US from 1961 …
THE widespread effects of pollution can be gauged from the fact that the remotest and the most uninhabitable regions on earth are facing the brunt of pollution caused by pesticides and industrial chemicals. Researchers at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, found that atmospheric processes are transporting and dumping chemicals …
INTERNATIONAL trade in unwanted hazardous chemicals and pesticides is now a serious global concern, especially in developing countries that lack resources to monitor their safe application, storage facilities, and adequate training for their applications. To deal with this, 61 countries have signed a new convention to prevent trade in hazardous …
IN THE 1980s, researchers found something missing in Lake Apoka in Florida. Strangely, there were no alligator eggs in this lake known as a haven for alligators. Examining the surviving alligators very closely, the researchers found a strange deformity in several male alligators. Almost 60 per cent of them had …
Despite its negative effect on human health, chemical farming based on the use of pesticides and fertilisers is widespread. In volume terms, developing countries use these chemicals less than the developed world, hut pesticide use is growing steadily everywhere except in Eastern Europe. According to the latest report of the …
AFTER floods, droughts, earthquakes and several other natural catastrophes, India exposes itself to yet another threat, although of a different nature. Pesticides, or insect killers, are gradually spreading their tentacles into the human body. The government banned the use of dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DOT) in 1986 and hexachlorocyclohexanc (HCH, which was …
"DRINK only the Delhi }al Board water," advise the numerous advertisements brought out by the Delhi government. Not really. Even the treated water coming through supply pipes is contaminated and unfit for drinking, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). An affidavit filed in the Delhi high court has …
WHAT do you do with chemicals that poison the Earth, travel fast, and do not disintegrate easily? Known as Persistent Organic Pollutants or POPS, these are toxic organic compounds that have many agricultural and industrial applications. But also pose a serious threat to all life as well as the environment …
among the most tragic consequences of the drug war in South America is the destruction of the Andean jungle. A recent move to use a granular herbicide, called tebuthiuron or "spike', to put an end to coca cultivation has ignited a degree of opposition from environmental groups. us activists point …
Nature means life. It also means death. Whether it means life or death depends on the quality of nature. And whereas progress can greatly enhance our ability to fight disease, it also has the extraordinary ability to degrade the quality of nature and increase the load of disease. Soil degradation …
from 2.2 million cases in 1993, the incidence of malaria in India has grown to more than 3 million cases in 1997. And, it is still growing. Even as you read, the malaria parasite is developing resistance to the latest drugs, having already taught its genes how to digest earlier …
Work on bioenvironmental management in the state capital Panaji and in the tourist area of Candolim-Calangute has reached a dead-end, thanks to the uninterested stance of the Goa government. Completely ignoring past efforts, Goa is turning back to chemicals. In 1986, malaria suddenly engulfed Panaji due to growing resistance in …
Filariasis, another disease spread by mosquitoes, is a greater problem in southern India than in the north. In extreme cases, it is marked by swelling of the feet known as elephantiasis. From 1981 to 1986, the vcrc achieved filariasis control in Pondicherry just by improving the town's environmental sanitation. But …
Rise in malaria cases has been a matter of great concern in Chennai. According to studies conducted by the mrc , the total number of malaria cases rose from 41,822 cases in 1995 to 45,930 in 1996. What is alarming is that cerebral malaria, an acute form of the disease …
While the industrial complex of the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited ( bhel ) boasts of lower incidence of malaria due to the efforts of the civil maintenance department of the bhel and the mrc , the Hardwar city continues in its battle against mosquitoes. In 1986, the mrc started bioenvironmental …
With great vigour, the mrc took up the first bioenvironmental programme in 1983 in the Nadiad taluka in district Kheda, central Gujarat. For five years, its staff toiled relentlessly in this area to eliminate breeding sources without the use of chemicals. The project ended in 1989. "We wound up in …
mrc 's scientists demonstrated a dramatic fall in malaria incidence just by applying larvivorous fishes in water bodies in Kolar, Karnataka. After six years of innovative work in Kolar, the mrc is continuing its efforts, wondering what will happen after they wind up operations. "State officials are excited and happy …
The Banavara primary health centre ( phc ) in district Hassan, Karnataka, recorded 8,028 malaria cases in 1995. Reason: the high percentage of migrant labourers from Andhra Pradesh who work as stone cutters in the Chikkur railway line conversion project. In 1995, the mrc expanded its work in Kanakatte and …
What do the field experiences tell us? Firstly, bioenvironmental management can be a working alternative to contain malaria. The science of the methodology is sound. Secondly, the efforts of the mrc and the vcrc proved to be successful in the short term but failed in the long term due to …
