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As you sow, so you reap
The mental development disorders ranged from severely impaired analytical abilities, motor skills, concentration and memory amongst the children in the chemical-intensive cotton belts of the country, a Greenpeace release said here. The study, entitled ‘Arrested Development’, examined the mental development of children in the age group of 4-5 and 9-13 amongst agricultural communities in three villages each in the districts of Warangal (Andhra Pradesh), Raichur (Karnataka), Bhatinda (Punjab), Bharuch (Gujarat), Yavatmal (Maharashtra) and Theni (Tamil Nadu).
The locations were selected for their high levels of pesticide consumption, it said. Using a “rapid assessment tool”, researchers documented the abilities of children and assessed their development against standard indicators and then the results were compared with that of a “control group” comprising children belonging to similar demographic groups but less exposed to pesticides, the release said. The pesticides-exposed children in the age group of 4-5 performed worse than the control group in 86 per cent of the tests. In the older age group of 9 to 13, this percentage was marginally lower at 84.2 per cent. “The results of the systematic, nationwide study were far more shocking than we had expected. As many as 898 children from diverse backgrounds as Tamil Nadu and Punjab shared the inability to perform simple play-based exercises like catching a ball simply because they have been exposed to pesticides over a period of time,” said Kavitha Kuruganti, principal investigator of the study, according to the release. Charging the pesticides industry with constantly trying to “muzzle scientific and medical data that expose their crimes”, Greenpeace campaigner Divya Raghunathan said the organisation would use the latest study to fight the pesticides industry at two levels - confront them with their liabilities on the one hand and motivate farmers to reject pesticides, on the other.
It also urged the government to back farming communities by providing greater support to organic farming and other non-pesticide and non-GE (genetically engineered) agricultural practices, the release said. Besides, it called upon the pesticide industry to accept its “liability” and provide compensation and rehabilitation of all victims of pesticides poisoning, including children. (Agencies)
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Children of farmers constantly exposed to pesticides suffer from serious mental development disorders, a nationwide study carried out in six states by global environmental organisation Greenpeace has claimed in
Chennai.
Based on the study results, Greenpeace demanded that the Centre immediately ban manufacture and sale of class Ia, Ib, class II and neurotoxic pesticides, including pesticides banned in developed world, as a first step towards complete phasing out of pesticides.
