SOME FACTS:
Delhi children ingest 12 times more than the allowable daily intake of DDT from their mother's milk 1991 study

Fish from Vishakhapatnam harbour showed drastic reductions in humoral response, an immunological disorder 1990 study

Indian cotton-field workers have exhibited that pesticide exposure lead to chromosome damage 1988 study

Chronic asthma’s and pneumonitis have been associated with exposure to agricultural and industrial chemicals, especially pesticides 1986 study ____________________________________________________________

It is a terrifying situation: you could be dying of pneumonia or stomach illness or measles, without knowing that the pesticides you had consumed with your food, even from as innocuous a source as your mother's milk, is the root of your problem; nay, death. The seven days between August 1 and 7 see a major world wide campaign for breast feeding: "Breast is best" was UNICEF's winning slogan till a few years ago. But most mothers could be feeding their children with poisons which enter her body through the food chain, works within the system and wreak havoc, without anyone noticing, like saboteurs working behind enemy lines. Scores and scores of studies -- some based in India -- have shown this. The Down to Earth report, based on a review of these studies by Robert Repetto and Sanjay S Baliga of the Washington-based World Resources Institute, says that countries like India face the gravest threat. The growth of the pesticide market in Latin America and Asia (excluding Japan) between 1987 and 1993, in value terms, was twice the world average. Intensification and commercialisation of agriculture is further enhancing the use of pesticides on a huge scale. Besides, there are chances that the World Trade Organization might force the industrialised nations to cut agricultural subsidies drastically in the near future. This would mean a lot of the world's agricultural production would shift to countries like India. This, again, would mean more intense use of pesticides and herbicides. The alarming thing, as Anil Agarwal, Director of the Centre for Science and Environment, and the author of the Down To Earth report, "Anti body", says, so far scientists have been talking about the link between pesticides and cancers. But there is clear evidence today that they cause UN-noticeable suppression of the immune system, which opens up the human body to a host of debilitating and even fatal infections. Agarwal recognises that there are sceptics who would say that this is an alarmist statement, because much of what is being said about the immunosuppressive effects of pesticides are based on animal tests in laboratories. Thus, it becomes imperative to get into the scientific debate, which is the crux of the DTE report. Critics have said that in the labs, animals are usually administered large doses of the chemicals, and this is not what the humans are exposed to. On the other hand, these critics fail to recognise that these doses, while being large, are given to robust animals fed on high nutrition diets, whereas, humans exposed to pesticide residues are not necessarily fully healthy. Secondly, it has been proved that all mammalian, avian and piscatory immune systems are similar structurally, which means if a chemical affects fishes or animals, it is very likely to affect humans in similar ways. Baliga and Repetto, in their review titled Pesticides and the Immune System: The Public Health Risks, have taken up the case studies in the former Soviet Union, especially of Uzbekistan, where intensive cotton farming had exposed the populace to extremely high levels of pesticides. Scientists have reported higher rates of respiratory, gastrointestinal and acute inflammatory disorders in people exposed to pesticides, as compared to control groups. Critics insist that the Russian case studies are retrospective, which means that the researchers could not test the immune status of ill individuals because the illness itself would have influenced their immune status. However, Baliga and Repetto finally drive the nail in, by citing the results of the world's only prospective tests conducted on Inuit (Eskimo) children of Arctic Canada. Studies carried in the '80s showed that Inuit children in Hudson's Bay were 30 times more likely to suffer from meningitis than children in the US. Chronic otitis, an infection of the ear, was endemic in Inuit children in northern Quebec. It is now widely believed that pesticides used in other parts of the world get transported to the Arctic region through atmospheric winds, rivers and ocean currents and accumulate there in humans and animal organisms. The Inuit depend mainly on fish and meat of bears and marine animals like the seal and walrus for their diet, all of which accumulate pesticides and industrial chemicals. Studies in industrialised countries have reported increased risk of certain cancers associated with the immune suppression. Most tumours associated with immunosuppression have been lymphomas and leukaemias. Pesticides enhance the risk of cancer in two ways, says Agarwal: directly, by acting as carcinogens themselves; and indirectly, by suppressing the immune system which has the ability of destroying the process of tumour formation in the body.

Agarwal insists that there is a definite need to develop an alternate strategy for the developing world. "To argue that we must use pesticides because we have to feed a growing population is like saying we must find ways of feeding you properly even if it means poisoning you to death," he says. "A two-pronged strategy -- with short-term and long-term components -- is what is required." The short-term strategy can concentrate towards greater and better regulation of pesticide use, including implementation of safe food and drinking water standards, safer use of pesticides and use of safer pesticides. The major role here would have to be played by environmental officials, agricultural officials and by state and municipal personnel who are responsible for implementing food and water quality standards. The long-term strategy should be aimed at phasing out pesticides and develop research programmes for non-pesticide-based agriculture. The key role here has to be played, Agarwal points out, by agricultural researchers and policy-makers working together with farmers and farmers' organisations. Agarwal concludes, "It is a task that can be achieved, but will require politicians who really care for the people who elect them. Or, a dynamic civil society which does not let them rest easy."