Pesticides endanger children worldwide

Pesticides endanger children in developing countries

05/08/2011

Highly toxic pesticides endanger your health. Children in developing countries, in particular, are suffering from the massive use of highly dangerous plant protection products, according to a recent study by the aid organization Terre des Hommes and the PAN Germany pesticide action network. The two organizations have called on governments and industry to finally remove the extremely harmful pesticides from the market.

According to Terre des Hommes child rights expert Albert Recknagel, around 40,000 people die every year as a result of pesticide poisoning, although it remains unclear how many of them are children. In addition, there is a significant number of unreported cases, so that an estimate of those actually affected seems hardly possible. It is clear, however, that 99 percent of pesticide poisoning has occurred in developing countries, Recknagel said. Although international efforts have been made to ensure the safe use of pesticides since the mid-1980s, the number of reported poisonings per year has continued to rise, criticized Carina Weber, Managing Director of the Pesticides Action Network.

Increase in health damage from pesticides
The study „Pesticides and children“ clarifies that, in particular, children in developing countries are seriously endangered by the use of pesticides. They are at the mercy of the danger of severe poisoning almost without protection, according to the criticism of the child rights expert Terre des Hommes. The nearly 30-year-old effort to reduce pesticide health damage worldwide appears to have missed its target. For example, men in developing countries received training on how to deal with the dangerous pesticides, but women and their children also regularly come into contact with the highly toxic pesticides, the experts at Terre des Hommes and PAN said. Often women would mix and bottle the pesticides. They also usually wash the pesticide-contaminated clothing of their men and the pesticides are also used to control pests in the house, so that there are numerous points of contact with the dangerous chemicals, reports Carina Weber. In this way, not infrequently already the children in the womb would be harmed by the toxins, so the charge of experts.

Shortness of breath, dizziness, blurred vision - symptoms of pesticide poisoning
Children in developing countries also regularly come into contact with highly dangerous pesticides when playing sprayed fields, and the pesticides are often stored in the home accessible to children, said the PAN managing director. In addition, the children must also deploy the pesticides themselves during field work, according to the statement in the current study. The dangerous pesticides are usually sold on the street, bottled in juice or soda bottles, which significantly increases the risk of confusion with food, especially in children, Weber complained. The long-term consequences of pesticide poisoning are particularly worrying for adolescents, added Terre des Hommes child rights expert Albert Recknagel. As symptoms of acute poisoning by pesticides, the experts describe breathlessness, dizziness, blurred vision, eye and skin damage, muscle spasms and unconsciousness. A pesticide poisoning could be quite fatal and therefore should not be underestimated, warn Recknagel and Weber.

Pesticides should be taken off the market
As a long-term consequence of pesticide poisoning, the current study includes an increased risk of allergies, cancers and infertility. Moreover, comparative studies with schoolchildren in Bolivia have shown that the children of female workers on flower plantations had twice as many concentration and learning disabilities as the Bolivian children on average. Flowering is considered one of the sectors in which a particularly large number of pesticides are used. The pesticide action network has been committed to reducing the use of pesticides in agriculture and crop production for years, together with other organizations such as Greenpeace or now Terre des Hommes. The independent studies conducted by non-profit institutions also contributed to, for example, significantly lowering the pesticide exposure limits in the European Union at the beginning of June 2010. PAN and Terre des Hommes are now calling on governments, the pesticide industry and the textile, feed and food industries to develop plans to remove the highly toxic pesticides and finally remove them from the market. (Fp)

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Maximum levels of pesticides lowered in food
Pesticides are no danger in currants?
Currants contaminated with pesticides
Dioxin contaminated fish in Lower Saxony

Image: Angel Garcia / Greenpeace