Pesticides that could be carcinogenic and banned in many countries will continue their run in India, though a government panel has recently decided to ban 18 pesticides hazardous to human health and prohibited abroad. It followed an agriculture ministry expert committee’s findings that 19 of 66 pesticides, most of which are used in India for the past four decades but banned in foreign nations, are “likely/probable carcinogenic in nature”.
The Committee finally decided to ban on 12 ‘extremely hazardous’ pesticides by 2018, phasing out of 6 ‘moderately hazardous’ ones by 2020, and review of 28 pesticides in 2018.
The banned pesticide list is as followed:
Recommendations for State Governments
The committed suggested that each pesticide should be reviewed at ten years interval after registration and State Agricultural Universities (SAU) need to be advised to include pesticides as per the approved label claims by Registration Committee in their recommendations to the farmers. The committee encourages governments to develop a system for monitoring of resistance/resurgence in target pests for the commonly used pesticides and organize workshops to train medical personnel serving at grass root level to treat poisoning patients, and even audit of ill effects of pesticides on human health through Govt. run medical colleges. State governments should also keep all I a & I b pesticides of WHO hazards category under strict surveillance and obtain status report from time to time. Audit of ill effects of pesticides on human health should be carried out by State Governments through Govt. run medical colleges.
Recommendations for Manufacturers
The committee also provide more recommendations to pesticide manufacturers and require manufacturers to update label information to avoid misusing and for higher safety. The committee suggested that gloves and masks should be provided with each pesticide pack, and for pesticides which are applied in Ultra Low Volume (ULV), clear instructions should be given to use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The health status of the workers directly and indirectly exposed to the pesticides in manufacturing, handling and packaging in the premises may be submitted to the regulatory authorities on annual basis. And for labels and packagings, there is a need to improve labels on the packing, particularly cautionary information which may be given prominently and cautioning statement should be incorporated, if the pesticides under use are photo sensitive. And information like children and pregnant women should not be exposed to pesticides and pesticide sprays should be preferably avoided during active foraging period of honeybees is suggested to incorporate into the label. Sometimes pesticide containers may be misused for domestic use as water bottle, or food storage, consequently, the package should be re-examined and improved. For those who produce dithiocarbamate pesticides , Ethylene Thio Urea (ETU) content should be less than 0.5% in dithiocarbamate pesticides and the content requires strict monitoring by the manufacturer for each batch of technical and record to be maintained.
