Do pesticides really kill? They absolutely do, and more than just pests. The World Health Organization estimates that 2,00,000 people die every year worldwide from pesticide poisoning, with three million such poisonings annually.
Fruits and vegetables are the noble members of the food world, but under each crunchy and juicy carrot we bite, hide dangerous carcinogenic quantities of pesticides that can slowly kill.
What is alarming is the fact that, farmers, consumers and authorities alike are not aware of the scale of the hazards that these pesticides could cause to the health of the people. Since we consume most of these vegetables raw or without cooking the resulting health risks can have a compound effect and can cause problems in the long run. Shockingly, we also find that pesticides that are banned in most countries in the world are freely available in India.
India still allows the use of monocrotophos, a pesticide blamed for the demise of 23 children in Bihar in 2013 after they ate contaminated school mid-day meals. Recently, the Hyderabad High Court called fruit vendors who ripened their fruit with chemicals similar to terrorists. Till now we were asking children not to eat junk food but now, we have to ask them to stay away from fruits as well.. The rapid growth in fake spurious pesticides is also a growing concern.A call to action by including all stakeholders is required to tackle the health burden caused by pesticide use.The vulnerability of children towards pesticide related illness is a grim reality and therefore requires urgent attention.
The apathetic attitude of the government towards the use of pesticides needs to change if we are to tackle the menace of pesticides in our food crops.As individuals, we need to encourage the use of organically grown crops and enhance sustainable crop growing practices by using organic pesticides as a first step inorder to build a world free of artificial pesticides.
huerayblog.wordpress.com 