India school deaths highlight need to phase out toxic pesticides
31 July 2013: The tragic incident in India in which nearly two dozen children died
after eating a contaminated school meal is a stark reminder that highly hazardous
pesticides should be phased out in developing countries, the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Tuesday. On 17 July, 23 children in the village
of Dharmasati Gandawa in the eastern state of Bihar died, after eating a free school
lunch that was made with cooking oil tainted with the monocrotophos pesticide. This
substance is widely used in India in spite of being described as having “high acute
toxicity” by FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO). In a news release, FAO
stressed that the distribution and use of highly toxic pesticides in many developing
countries, poses a serious risk to human health and the environment, and measures
to put safeguards in place to protect the population must be implemented. “The
incident in Bihar underscores that secure storage of pesticide products and safe disposal
of empty pesticide containers are risk reduction measures which are just as crucial
as more prominent field-oriented steps like wearing proper protective masks and clothing,”
FAO said. . This pesticide has been banned in Australia, China, the European Union
and the United States, and in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. “There
is consensus that highly hazardous products should not be available to small-scale
farmers who lack knowledge and the proper sprayers, protective gear and storage facilities
to manage such products appropriately,” FAO said. recommending that governments in
developing countries speed up the withdrawal of highly hazardous pesticides from their
markets and switch to non-chemical and less toxic alternatives. Source: UN