Other voices

Other voices

Evidence cited by S K Kabra from his field studies allegedly indicates a strong circumstancial correlation between peak usage of chemical pesticides and appearance of ntds suffers from the following shortcomings.

- Statistically speaking, the incidence is not higher in the months as alleged by him.

- No specific toxic agent(s) have been identified as the cause(s) of the alleged increase in incidence of ntds.

- No experimental research supporting the alleged teratogenic effects of any of the pesticides is incorporated.

- Pesticides as the sole, or major cause, of folic acid deficiency has not been established. Even the presence of folic acid deficiency has not been documented.

- As the author himself says, village folk rarely use the vegetables grown using high pesticides whereas the converse is truer for city folks. From the data presented it is not clear if ntds occurred more frequently in village or in the city people. A lot of village people do go to cities for delivery purposes as facilities at village level are often very deficient.

- There is no evidence to suggest that vegetables grown during the period of high intensive use of pesticides have a higher percentage of the pesticides and, if so, in what form. A certain degree of change does occur during plant metabolism.

- The contention of some of the quoted health administrators, that is the director and secretary of health services of Rajasthan, that as the report is from a private source and not a governmental source and, therefore, less reliable, is to say the least, untenable. Scientific reports are either accurate or inaccurate and not governmental or private. They have to be judged with strict scientific mind and not on the basis of organisations.

- Lastly, Kabra shares the concern with many people that increasing use of pesticides is linked to various diseases, which manifest themselves at the time of birth or later. However, for a proper scientific understanding of the link, more rigorous methods will have to be used than this one employed by Kabra.

Anil K Singh
Professor of neurosurgery, G B Pant Hospital, Delhi University

The most striking fact in the article is the argument in favour of pesticide residues being the culprit. I would be more cautious because the case is not sufficiently close to be convincing -- though you may be absolutely right, of course. The problem is rather serious and it would be unfortunate if the government, or health authorities thought they were addressing it satisfactorily by showing -- assuming they could -- that pesticides were NOT the cause. This is most certainly an environment-related disaster, whether to do with pesticide use or fertilisers or something completely different (arsenic in the groundwater?) and, therefore, needs urgent attention.

Vidyanand Nanjundiah
Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

The role of occupational and environmental exposure in the etiology of congenital birth defects, including NTDs, still remains speculative. The possible link of environmental factors such as use of pesticides with seasonal differences in the incidence of occupational class with congenital birth defects warrants further scientific studies to prove these facts. The study by S G Kabra is an eye opener to all of us wherein he has tried to link the increased incidence of NTDs during particular periods of the year with the use of pesticides. We need to undertake more studies and enough data is needed from different parts of the country spread over many years to hypothesise the possible link of pesticides with NTDs.

Animal studies will help in documenting the direct effect of pesticides and other chemicals in causing these developmental defects. Authentic published data from all over the country will help us in taking remedial steps to prevent the possible effects of pesticides in causing these defects. Nonetheless, we should learn a lesson from the observations made by Kabra and undertake further scientific studies to prove the possible link of environmental factors with congenital birth defects.

S K Wangnoo
A senior consultant (endocrinologist and diabetologist),
Apollo Hospital, New Delhi