[For referenced study go to Greenpeace India]
CHENNAI, APRIL 7. Children exposed to pesticides in Theni district have impaired developmental abilities, a multicentric Greenpeace study has concluded. While the study was done in six States, Theni was chosen in Tamil Nadu, as it was a cotton-growing area, where use of pesticide was high. Between April and December last — the cotton season — Greenpeace volunteers combed the villages of Rassingapuram, Silambai and Visuvaspuram, administering tests to children between four and five years and nine and 13 years.
"While the younger group was chosen as brain development is rapid in the pre-school age, the older group is significant, as impaired development impacts on school performance," said Kavitha Kuruganti, principal investigator.
K.A.Chandrasekar, director, SIRPI, local coordinator for the study, said Theni district was the second largest cotton-growing area in Tamil Nadu. "Cotton farmers in the area are using a dangerous cocktail of pesticides and our organisation has been studying the effect on children for quite some time now." Seventyfive children in the younger age group and 75 in the older group were tested, adopting a play approach. They participated one by one, with the researchers relying on verbal instructions alone, keeping the tone informal and friendly so that the children were at ease and performed naturally. As pesticides are potentially neuro-toxic chemicals, and therefore, disrupt the analytical and motor abilities, concentration and motor functions, tests were fashioned to map the capacity of the child in each of these areas. The tool designed for the study had been used earlier in a similar scientific study in Mexico, but this time adaptations were made to suit Indian conditions.
The results were compared and contrasted with that of another study conducted among the same number of children in Madurai who were not exposed to pesticides. For 4-5 years old children, 23 tests were conducted and the results indicated that those exposed to pesticides fared worse than the control group in Madurai in all tests. In the case of the older group, 20 tests were conducted and the children of Theni fared worse than those in Madurai in 19 of the tests.
source: http://www.hindu.com/2004/04/08/stories/2004040807590400.htm 8apr04
CHENNAI, APRIL 7. A major study on the effects of pesticides on mental development shows serious development disorders, including impaired motor skills, concentration, memory and analytical abilities among children in the chemical-intensive cotton belts of India.
The study by Greenpeace examined the mental development of children in the age groups of 4-5 years and 9-13 years in agricultural communities from 18 villages in six States, chosen for their high-level of pesticide use. These six study locations were contrasted with control groups in five other centres among children belonging to the same ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, but living in pesticide-free environments.
The cotton belts were chosen as 55 per cent of pesticides used in the country were in that sector, said the executive director of Greenpeace, G. Ananthapadmanabhan. Children of farmers in Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, Raichur in Karnataka, Bhatinda in Punjab, Bharuch in Gujarat, Yavatmal in Maharashtra and Theni in Tamil Nadu were studied during the cotton-growing season — between April and December in 2003.
According to the results, released to the media here today, in the case of the younger group, children exposed to pesticides performed worse than the control group children in 86 per cent of the tests. In the older age group, this figure was as high as 84.2, Kavitha Kuruganti, principal investigator, said.
Researchers explained that they had arrived at the data using a rapid assessment tool. Employing this tool, children were asked to participate in a wide range of tests to monitor memory, concentration and motor skills. The tests included the use of wooden blocks and jigsaw puzzles to measure mental abilities, ball catching and balance tests for motor abilities and memory games. "With all other possible factors controlled, the only significantly accountable reason for these disturbing findings is the children's exposure to pesticides," Ms. Kuruganti said.
"When we started this study, we knew we were likely to find unsettling evidence of children damaged by pesticides. But the results of the study were far more shocking than expected," she added. As many as 898 children from States as diverse as Tamil Nadu and Punjab, who have nothing in common but their exposure to pesticides, share the inability to perform simple play-based exercises - such as catching a ball and assembling a jigsaw puzzle — simply because they have been exposed to pesticides over a period of time, the Greenpeace campaigners said.
Ms. Kuruganti explained that none of the children worked on the farms, but went to schools and anganwadis. "The exposure to pesticides could have been in-utero (in the womb), through air, soil, water, cotton stalks that are used as fuel or through reusing pesticide cans," she added. Mr. Ananthapadmanabhan said: "Since the effects are not visible — there are no obvious deformities — people tend not to take this seriously. But it is actually a more insidious damage. We do not even realise the damage the pesticides are causing to the mental development of children."
Greenpeace has called on the Indian government to ban the manufacture and sale of all neurotoxic pesticides and Class 1a, 1b, Class 2 pesticides. It also wanted the state to provide greater support to organic farming and other non-pesticide and non-genetically engineered agricultural practices.
source: http://www.hindu.com/2004/04/08/stories/2004040800932200.htm 8apr04
AMRITSAR: The pesticides can effect the development of mental health of children among the agriculture communities using the pesticides intensively, according to a study conducted by Greenpeace.
The study, conducted in 18 villages of six states chosen for their high levels of pesticide consumption, revealed distressing effects on the mental health of children of agricultural communities, Greenpeace and its partner for Punjab project, Kheti Virasat, said at seminar here yesterday.
The research was conducted in three villages of Bhatinda by using a Rapid Assessment Tool (RAT) that helps document the abilities of children and assess their development and results were compared with the results of a Control Group - children belonging to similar demographic groups but not exposed to pesticides, they said.
In Punjab, the difference between the Study Group and Control Group children is "singularly stark". Control Group Children in the 4-5 year age group performed "conclusively better" in 87 per cent of the tests administered. Control Group children displayed better abilities in 85 per cent of the tests administered to the 9-13 age group.
"When we started this study, it was with the awareness that we would probably find unsettling evidence of children damaged by neuro-toxic chemicals present in pesticides", said Kavitha Kuruganti, Principal Investigator of the study.
"But nothing could have prepared us for the extent of damage we'd discover. We've seen children unable to perform simple play-based exercises... simply because they've been exposed to pesticides over a period of time," she added.
source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/567741.cms 11apr04
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