Pesticide overdose puts poison on your platter

Consuming food grown with too much pesticide has an adverse impact on vital organs: Experts

LUCKNOW : All the fruits and vegetables that glitter on the dining table are not good for the stomach as they may be carrying an unmonitored dose of pesticides, which have a toxic fallout on human health. Statistics reveal use of bio pesticides (considered safer than chemicals) is just 0.5% of the total pesticides used in UP. The chemical pesticides used by a majority of farmers go unmonitored.

LUCKNOW: All the fruits and vegetables that glitter on the dining table are not good for the stomach as they may be carrying an unmonitored dose of pesticides, which have a toxic fallout on human health.

Statistics reveal use of bio pesticides (considered safer than chemicals) is just 0.5% of the total pesticides used in Uttar Pradesh. The chemical pesticides used by a majority of farmers go unmonitored.

“Farmers are guided by shopkeepers, who sell pesticides with maximum (profit) margin. There is a lack of awareness about proper dose. To save labour cost, farmers use the maximum possible concentration of pesticide,” said TA Usmani, joint director, plant pathology at the Central Integrated Pest Management Centre (CIPMC).

CIPMC has been training farmers and monitoring their maximum residual limit for pesticide, but the number of such farmers too is 0.5%. Lucknow has about two lakh farmers, but only a thousand have attended sessions with CIPMC on how to use pesticides in a year.

“We train farmers to use biopesticides at the right time and in correct quantity. If this is done, pesticides will not turn harmful, said TA Usmani.

Farmers in Lucknow said pesticides were a sure tool for obtaining better yield as they controlled pests and were cheaper than organic pesticides.

“For using organic pesticide, we have to start early and take preventive steps against pests. The chemical pesticides can be used even when the crop gets infested,” said Ramesh Kumar, a farmer in Malihabad.

“The attempt to get higher yield from land paves the way for excessive use of pesticide,” said Dhananjay Singh, plant protection officer of Lucknow.

“In over 30 years of my career as scientist, I have seen farmers listening to instructions for using organic pesticides or chemical in a controlled manner so that its impact lasts for a short period, say a week. But what farmers do in the field makes the impact (of pesticide) last for a month,” said Dr Ashraf Hussain, a scientist working in the eastern part of the state.

Sample this. If a farmer puts neem as pesticide, he would require up to 25 kilogram of it per hectare in case it is used as preventive pesticide. To fight diseases such as stem borer, fruit flower borer or maggots in Brinjal crop, the requirement will go up.

Prof Kausar Usman, senior faculty, King George’s Medical University, said pesticide can enter the body via plants and the long-term exposure to pesticide is sure to have an adverse impact on humans. But unfortunately there had been no study done on it, he said.

GIVING ANOTHER EXAMPLE, HE EXPLAINS,

“Many children, who regularly consume chicken, become obese due to the impact of the energy given to them (chicken) beyond their need. This food often contains anti-biotics that poultry owners give to chicken. Nanoparticles enter the body and make children resistant to certain antibiotics.”

CUMULATIVE IMPACT

It’s the cumulative impact of pesticide that poses problems.

“Ironically, there has been no study to prove the pesticide and disease link, but I can say when someone is exposed to food grown with overdose of pesticide for long, the impact is on organs, particularly the vitals ones such as the kidneys or intestines, to start with,” said Prof Kausar Usman, senior faculty at King Georg’s Medical University’s medicine department.

WHEN SIMPLE PESTICIDE TURNS HARMFUL

Pesticides are meant to be sprayed on produce in a fixed dose so that pests die and the produce also remains healthy for people to consume. If a fixed dose is sprayed, the hazardous impact ceases in a week. But farmers spray an overdose (of pesticide) on the advice of shopkeepers and chemical company representatives. The impact lasts up to a month.

The plants absorb pesticides, and residues linger on fruit and vegetable skins all the way to your kitchen, even after you wash them. Stem and even fruit absorbs pesticide in traces that enters body of man or animal.

Malathion used in several crops kills insects by preventing their nervous system from working properly. People, pets and other animals can be affected the same way as insects if they are

exposed to malathion. Malathion is also readily taken into the body through skin.

In both humans and animals, malathion travels to the liver and kidneys and affects the nervous system.

“Bananas, apples, peaches, strawberries, grapes, celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers are some farm produce that are said to be absorbing pesticide quickly,” said prof Usman.

Faizabad is the hub of banana cultivation in UP.