Demand for endosulfan tribunal

A division bench of the Kerala High Court on September 13 admitted a writ petition that sought the constitution of a tribunal to identify endosulfan victims in Kasaragod and paying compensation to them. The writ petition was filed on the same day.

South Asia

Pest poison killing people: Pesticide-related poisoning is the major cause of death in Bangladesh, an agriculture-based country. Of the 7,438 pesticide-related poisoning deaths recorded since 2008, 8 per cent were due to direct pesticide poisoning and 11 per cent due to respiratory failure, said the country’s 2009 health bulletin. The previous year’s bulletin had no mention of this. Bangladesh suffers an annual crop loss of 10-15 per cent due to pests and diseases.

Rise in biofuel demand could trigger food, water crisis

the growing demand for biofuels could lead to a shortage of food. Studies show biofuel plantations will eat up cropland, and trigger food and water crisis in many parts of the globe, especially in India and China. There is also evidence to show biofuels will not help in carbon emission reduction, instead it will cause detrimental environmental impacts. The

Even the womb does not protect against pesticides

air pollution is certainly an enemy of health. But there are others that may be even nastier. Chlorpyrifos -- a pesticide that can easily enter the human foodchain -- has more victims to its credit than carcinogenic air pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs). This is the finding of a study conducted by researchers from us-based Columbia University.

HONGKONG

A Hong Kong court has awarded us $24.5 million to an American musician, who suffered injuries after inhaling a toxic pesticide 10 years back during rehearsals at the Academy for Performing Arts. The payout is said to be the largest in Hong Kong for a personal injury case. Kristan Phillips, 47, had launched a fight after he inhaled the pesticide Diazinon on June 21, 1987.

DDT use endorsed

Research indicates that there is still a place for that much maligned pesticide DDT, in controlling the Tse-tse fly, a vector in the debilitating disease trypanosomiasis -- the dreaded sleeping sickness.

A pox on pests

INSECTS destroy a major part of standing crop, damaging the predominantly agrarian economy of the developing countries. That traditional pesticides are indisputably environmentally detrimental is an established fact. The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), in Nairobi, Kenya, directed by scientists from the developing world was founded in 1970 to curb the depredations of the pest.