Endosulfan issue in Kerala 1

Endosulphan issue in Kerala

Environmental effects of aerial spraying of Endosulphan at the Cashew plantations of
Kasaragod District is a burning issue during the past few years and now also in Kerala. Since
1976, Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) was doing aerial spraying of Endosulfan regularly
three times in year in the cashew plantations of in the midst of the residents of the many villages
in Kasaragod district until 2005, to prevent the menace of the tea mosquito bug. As Endosulfan
is, a highly toxic organochlorine pesticide, its rigorous use consequences harmfully mainly on
human beings who are living in the villages of Cheemeni, Periya, Rajapuram, Muliyar,
Panathadi, Padre and Perla of the district. PCK were doing this in an area of 4,700 acres in these
villages and afterwards its destructive impacts already have an effect on over 20,000 persons by
the different threatening kinds of incidence such as deaths, distortions of nervous system, brain
abnormalities, cerebral palsy, mental and physical retardations, cancer formations and
deformities in children. The Government of Kerala had given compensations of R.s 50,000 for
each affected person's family in 2006. Later serious harmful impacts are discovered in new born
children with worst innate variances. It has led to strange illness not only on human being but
also on animals, birds etc.

Endosulfan has been used in agriculture around the world to control insect pests
including whiteflys, aphids, leafhoppers, Colorado potato beetles and cabbage worms. Due to its
unique mode of action, it is useful in resistance management; however, as it is non-specific, it
can negatively impact populations of beneficial insects. [10] It is, however, considered to be
moderately toxic to honey bees, and it is less toxic to bees than organophosphate insecticides.

Toxicity of Endosulfan

Endosulfan is an off-patent organochlorine insecticide and acaricide that is being phased

out globally. Endosulfan became a highly controversial agrichemical due to its acute toxicity,
potential for bioaccumulation, and role as an endocrine disruptor. Because of its threats to human
health and the environment, a global ban on the manufacture and use of endosulfan was
negotiated under the Stockholm Convention in April 2011. The ban will take effect in mid 2012,
with certain uses exempted for 5 additional years. More than 80 countries, including the
European Union, Australia and New Zealand, several West African nations, the United States,
Brazil and Canada had already banned it or announced phase outs by the time the Stockholm
Convention ban was agreed upon.There is concern over the acute toxicity of endosulphan. The
World Health Organization (WHO) classifies endosulphan in Category 2 ( moderately
hazardous). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) classifies it as Category is
(highly hazardous) pesticide. It is readily absorbed by the stomach, by the lungs, and through the
skin, meaning that all routes of exposure can pose a hazard.

T Paul Lazarus, Asst. Professor (SS), Dept. of Agril. Economics, College of Agriculture, KAU, Vellayani –
695 522, Thiruvananthapuram