Impact Of Pesticide Use On Health In Developing Countries

Impact of Pesticide Use on Health in Developing Countries: Proceedings of a symposium held in Ottawa, Canada, 17-20 September 1990

Production and use of pesticides - Toxic effects of pesticides - Short and long-term health effects of pesticides : epidemiological data - Populations at risk - Public health impact - Prevention of pesticide poisoning.

"In a recent survey of 820 Boro (winter rice), potato, bean, eggplant, cabbage, sugarcane, and mango farmers in Bangladesh, over 47 percent of farmers were found to be overusing pesticides. With only 4 percent of farmers formally trained in pesticide use or handling, and over 87 percent openly admitting to using little or no protective measures while applying pesticides, overuse is potentially a threatening problem to farmer health as well as the environment. To model pesticide overuse, the authors used a 3-equation, trivariate probit framework, with health effects and misperception of pesticide risk as endogenous dummy variables. Health effects (the first equation) were found to be strictly a function of the amount of pesticides used in production, while misperception of pesticide risk (the second equation) was determined by health impairments from pesticides and the toxicity of chemicals used. Pesticide overuse (the third equation) was significantly determined by variation in income, farm ownership, the toxicity of chemicals used, crop composition, and geographical location. The results highlight the necessity for policymakers to design effective and targeted outreach programs that deal specifically with pesticide risk, safe handling, and averting behavior. Ideally, the approach would be participatory in nature to address key informational gaps, as well as increasing a farmers' awareness retention. The results also point to specific crops and locations experiencing a higher prevalence of overuse-bean and eggplant in general-and overall production in the districts of Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, Comilla, Jessore, Narshingdi, Rajshahi, and Rangpur. Focusing efforts in these crop and geographical areas may have the most measurable effects on pesticide overuse. "--World Bank web site.

A UN report presented to the UN Human Rights Council in 2017 recognized that, “although pesticide use has been correlated with a rise in food production, it has had catastrophic impacts" on human health and the environment. The report acknowledged that “increased food production has not succeeded in eliminating hunger worldwide because of the many interacting factors involved. Reliance on hazardous pesticides is a short-term solution that undermines the rights to adequate food and health for present and future generations." It is hoped that the knowledge available in Synthetic Pesticide Use in Africa: Impact on People, Animals, and the Environment will both enlighten the reader to present serious concerns on the use of synthetic pesticides, and motivate society to make the changes necessary for the sustainable production of safe, nutritious, and affordable food for the anticipated 9.6 billion inhabitants of this Earth in 2050. Key Features: • Explains the relationship of synthetic pesticides to escalating noncommunicable human and animal diseases in Africa and developing countries. • Discusses the impact of the herbicide glyphosate on the health of humans, animals, and the environment. • Reviews the disease causing mode of action of glyphosate and other synthetic pesticides on nutrient density and human and animal bodies. • Warns of the special vulnerability of children to synthetic pesticide toxicity. • Recommends needed legal initiatives to use synthetic pesticides more judiciously. The book is divided into seven (7) sections: I. General Impact, explains the general impact of synthetic pesticides on the African people, their animals, and environment. II. Human Health, covers the impact of synthetic pesticides on the human body, while III, Children’s Health, focuses on the special vulnerability of children to synthetic pesticides. IV. Animal Health describes the synthetic pesticide threats to animal production and sustainability. V. Environmental Health presents the threat of synthetic pesticides to soil microbiota and sustainable remediations. VI. Control Strategies discusses biologically-based alternatives to synthetic pesticides. Finally, VII. Reglatory Control presents some legal initiatives to combat the misuse of synthetic pesticides.

This is the first book of its kind on the gender dimensions of pesticide use and abuse.

Health Effects of Pesticides covers various aspects of the use of pesticides, their behaviour, degradation, and impacts in the agrarian environment. It focuses on pesticide poisoning incidents and farm practices in developing countries. The health impacts of pesticides, including neurological effects, respiratory effects, and dermal effects are examined. Other repercussions caused as a result of pesticides, including reproductive abnormalities and cancer, are comprehensively discussed. Effects of pesticides on general health and agrarian health surveys have been touched upon.

Agricultural pests and diseases increased with the intensification of agricultural production resulting in a worldwide increase in pesticide use. The rate of increase was greatest in the developing countries, although the bulk of pesticides is still used in the developed countries. The heavy reliance on chemical pesticides is mainly due to the fact that, in the post-World War II era, synthetic pesticides seemed to provide a quick and easy solution to pests and diseases. Little was known then about their adverce, even dangeorus, sid-effects and externalities on human welfare and the environment. When problems associated with pesticide use became obvious and critical, research on alternative methods of pest management was speeded up and has yielded a new approach to pest control, the integrated pest management (IPM) concept which combines several pest control techniques, including adapted crop management practices, and biological, mechanical and chemical pest control measures. By using non-chemical as well as chemical control measures. IPM reduces the extent of use of pesticides. However, although IPM has proved to be successful in several instances and in different areas of the world, it has not been widely adopted by farmers in developing countries. It is suggested here that an important reason why IPM is not widely in practice in developing countries (the focus of this report), is that the current economic environment and government policies related to pesticides, and to pest management in general, induce an excessive (above the socially optimal level) chemical pesticide use. It is argued here that, the excessive and non-judicious use of pesticides being always associated with negative externalities, governments' interventions through taxation and regulations are needed to minimize these adverse effects. The paper analyzes the pesticide-related policies of a large number of developing countries (pesticides in crop protection and public health uses) using a conceptual framework which distinguishes between price and non-price factors that encourage the execessive and non-judicious use of pesticides. The price factors include all forms of subsidies provided for pesticide imports, local manufacture and use, e.g. preferential foreign exhange rates for imports, reduced or exempted taxes on imports, sales and domestic manufacture, provision of free pesticides, etc.; while the non-price factors include excessive investments in pesticide research and farmers' training in pesticide use while neglecting alternatives, extension focusing on pesticides, lack of information to officials at the policy level and to farmers on alternative pest management technology, etc. On the findings of this report is that the majority of the developing countries are providing financial incentives to farmers to use pesticides and are directly and indirectly subsidizing pesticide imports, domestic manufacture, sales ans use with a combination of mechanisms. Similarly, a number of non-price policies encourage pesticide use in some developing countries where relatively little emphasis is placed on research, extension and farmers' training in IPM as against the pronounced emphasis on chemical pesticides.