Killer Spray

The death of nearly 20 farmworkers who sprayed pesticides on Bt cotton crops in Maharashtra puts the focus on the risky practice and on the claims about Bt cotton not needing pesticides.

- Lyla Bavadam

ON August 19, reports of the death of a farm labourer who worked in the Bt cotton fields around Kalamb in Maharashtra’s eastern district of Yavatmal took his co-labourers by surprise. Twelve days earlier he had sprayed the pesticide Profex Super, a combination of the insecticides Profenofos and Cyper methrin, in the fields. Since then, in the same month, 20 more farm workers died in Yavatmal district and 16 in Buldhana, Nagpur, Akola, Wardha and Chandrapur. All the deaths were a result of the spraying of the pesticide. About 1,800 people who handled the pesticide in these districts were admitted to hospitals with symptoms ranging from severe nausea, vomiting, acute abdominal pain, diarrhoea and blurred vision and even temporary loss of sight caused by passive, accidental inhalation of the chemicals.

News of the deaths remained largely unknown except in the neighbourhoods where they happened. Informed sources in the region said that every year there were cases of unintended poisoning by pesticides, so such patients were almost a routine matter during the season. And since the deaths happened over a large geographical area, the government only realised that something was amiss when these were reported in small local publications. Although the authorities sent quality control teams to find out whether the pesticide was spurious, there was no immediate intervention to halt its use, withdraw it temporarily or even send out a general alert on the dangers of handling it.

Although pesticides are categorised as hazardous materials, safety gear for the handlers is non-existent and emergency medical aid is lacking. Advice on the use of pesticides is given by the seller, who naturally has commercial interests in mind. Besides, there is little government monitoring of usage of pesticides.