Why this debate - Case of Misuse vs. Abuse of Medicines & Pesticides

Case of Misuse vs. Abuse of Medicines and Pesticides

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Which is more toxic to humans - Mishandled Medicine or Mishandled Pesticide?

Please search on internet and evaluate the toxicity of the following:

Vitamin D3 vs. Pesticide
Urea vs. Paracetamol
Urea vs. Salt

By:

VIJAY SARDANA

Agribusiness and Food Laws Expert

Blog: “Vijay Sardana Online”
Disclaimer:

I have raised some sensitive issues in this article. I am sure you will have strong views on many of the issues raised. Pl. read the wrote article and do share your views in the column below. I want to know how sensitive scientific issues should be discussed with common people.

Do you know LD50 of Vitamin-D3 is 37 mg/kg whereas LD50 of most pesticides is above this value. According to the popular belief, we should ban the use of Vitamin D3 in food.

LD50 of Urea is 7700 mg/kg whereas LD50 Aspirin is 200 mg/kg and paracetamol is 338 mg/kg. Even our common salt (LD50 – 3000 mg/kg) is more toxic than urea. According to the popular belief, we should also ban the use of Aspirin and paracetamol as well.

You may find this as an odd topic to discuss, but as an aware consumer, we must know the facts about things around us. This topic becomes very vital for you to understand the facts about your food and medicines for a healthy life. This will also help to avoid misinformation spread about your health and food which you consume.

A popular myth is, we don’t need pesticides for food secuirty in changing climate:

The fact is we don’t need medicines as well. Like pesticides, medicine does not provide any nutrition nor any food value to diet or human body. Like pesticides, it helps in protecting the health of the human body.

I agree we don’t need pesticides as well, provided there are no diseases or infection to plants. In the human system, we have developed immunisation systems to some extent to control some form of infections. There is no such immunisation for plant life which can take care of plant health.

So, what pesticide does:

Like medicine, pesticide only used to minimise the impact of insect and pest attack on plant health. The pesticide is used when the plant is not able to fight back against the infection to protect its own health. If we do not protect the plant infection or pest they will spread and will kill the plants and in many cases, will eliminate them from the region. Without plant growth, we will stop the food chain required to ensure the existence of life. Not only human life but animals, as well as birds, also exist because of these plants. The worst part is if we did not control infection on one plant, it may migrate to other plants. Example – pests from one vegetable plant can move to another vegetable plant. It is immaterial for the pest or insect to know which plant is existing nearby. They are pests and they behave like pests. It is up to us how we control them.

How to control pests?

There are diverse types of insects and pests?

1.  Crawling insects

2.  Flying insects

3.  Insects those who remain localised

4.  Vector-borne disease – they move from field to field with the help of air, water or other birds or animals.

There is no one ideal method to control all forms of infection by one method, very similar to human medicine system. Can we control all types of body infection by only one type of medicine? If this is so simple, we should stop all forms of research in the field of biological sciences.

Options before us:

1.Population density is increasing in India, we have only 100 sq. meters of land per capita.

2.Climate change is changing the behaviour of crops, insects, and pests as well. The fact is there are unambiguous evidence and data on how climate change will impact human, animal, plant and insect behaviours in coming days. The only option for us is to keep addressing the threat to human, animal and plant life from new forms of infections and diseases.

3.All affected stakeholders must follow the prescriptions provided by the technical experts.

Do you know the fact about Indian policy making:

1.No medicine and pesticide can be used in society with any detailed trails and numerous studies to ensure its safety.

2.No medicine and pesticide is released without specifying the dosage and application method.

3.If we do not follow the instructions provided, it may be either ineffective or may have a side effect.

Which is more toxic for the human system – medicine or pesticide?

It may sound illogical but this is factually correct.

All dosages are determined based on the body weight of the target species. It means the dosage prescribed for human will be at least 100,000 times to million times stronger than what is prescribed for insects and pests because of the difference in body weight.

What does this indicate?

By accident, if a human being takes an overdose of medicine it may have a side effect or can be fatal to a human being.

Now, if the same prescribed dosage for spray in the field is accidentally increased by even 10 times, it will never be fatal to the human system. This is one point which must be clear to all. This clearly indicates that the application of a pesticide in farms will never lead to human deaths. There is no scientific logic if farmers have used the prescribed methods or even he has used two or three or even 10 times of prescribed pesticides dosage. This is an inbuilt safety factor before pesticides can be used under the law. If the same mistake happens with the medicines, it can be fatal to the human system.

Then, why so much controversy-

· Irresponsible drivers lead to car accidents and deaths, no one ever demanded to ban the cars.

· Knife attacks by criminal led to many deaths or use of knife suicides, no one ever demanded to ban the knives.

· Over dosage of medicines led to many deaths, no one demanded to ban the medicines.

There can be many such examples.

Accidents do happen and misuse is common. This is not the fault of the machine, car or medicine. This is due to human negligence or error, then why only pesticides are signed out. There must be the reason behind this.

Why are pesticides singled out?

Very simple, India is a huge food market and price sensitive market. Unless you defame and kill the low-cost input market there is no way exorbitant cost pesticides will enter the market. Please note these same pesticides were very good when they were patented for 20 years, but when they become off patented they become dirty. This is an interesting science, isn’t it?

You will find always generic pesticides are always targeted, never branded or patented. Why this trend?

Who is funding the NGOs to target generic agro-chemicals?

The same attempts were made on generic medicines but the government took a firm stand and these NGOs backed off. Today, India is world leader in generic medicines. Now they are targeting generic pesticides.

How this movement against generic pesticides will hurt India?

1. If we stop using low-cost technology for agriculture system, our food production cost will go up, we will lose our export market and within India income of farms will go down and budgetary support to agriculture support will go up. This will hurt our food security and development agenda, this suits all big powers in the world. Many such shortsighted NGOs are a pawn in these big complex chess game.

2.Many NGOs and their sponsors have their commercial interest in alternative farming systems. Which are either expensive by nature or finding difficulty in gaining consumer acceptance. They do want to create fear psychosis so that consumers are forced to pay a premium for their product which is in fact should be sold at a low price because the claim is these are low cost produced items.

My views for the citizens to consider:

1.Nothing in the country can be used in agriculture production system without the approval of government and approval comes after rigorous evaluation for 3 to 7 years. These valuations are done by technical and scientific experts sitting in universities at multiple locations.

2.In the commercial world, no one saint, not even NGOs. They all have their hidden agenda linked to their donors. India’s food market is the biggest opportunity in the world. People will use all types of trick to get their entry into this highly competitive price sensitive market.

3.All those who raise fear about food production in India, please ask them to provide full food security plan of India for 1.4 billion population based on their ideology with facts and figures and credible supporting evidence from independent agencies to avoid conflict of interest.

4.Please refrain from falling in the trap of the views and opinion of so-called self-declared change agent NGOs and experts with hidden agenda. Be informed citizen, seek clarifications and stick to fact and take an informed decision.

Do send your views.