India is Major Exporter of Killer Chemicals

by Dev Raj

India is among three remaining manufacturers of DDT (10,000 metric ton capacity) along with China and Mexico. Italy stopped manufacture of the widely banned persistent organic pollutant (POP) pesticide early last year.

Although DDT overuse has resulted in development of widespread resistance by agricultural pests and mosquitoes, it continues to be liberally used in this part of the world, says Nityanand Jayaraman, representative for Greenpeace in South Asia.

Following a three-month study, Jayaraman and his colleague Von Hernandez turned up evidence to show that India exports nearly 800,000 kgs of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) pesticides including DDT, BHC, Chlordane, HCH, Aldrin and Endosulfan.

Their findings were released here Nov. 10 in a Greenpeace document called "Toxic Legacies, Poisoned Futures" on the POPs situation in Asia covering India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

But large unrecorded quantities go to Nepal and Bangladesh where officials confirmed to Greenpeace that products of unregulated manufacturing in India seep through the porous borders and stymie efforts to curb or eliminate the use of POP pesticides.

"For many Bangladeshi and Nepali activists, India is to South Asia what the United States is to the world -- a toxic imperialist," Jayaraman said.

But then implementation of pesticide regulation is poor across South Asia. In Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, locally banned or severely restricted pesticides are freely available with widespread smuggling.

Unlike in the West there is little public awareness in the region of the dangers posed by DDT and other POP pesticides. For example, in Bangladesh an official study traced high levels of DDT in dry fish samples to its use as an insect repellent during the drying process.

A sizeable portion of POP pesticides are actually sent by developed countries through donor agencies to Pakistan and Nepal to be stored and used there in extremely hazardous conditions. Greenpeace has named USAID, the Danish DANIDA and Britain's ODA, saying USAID supported a huge anti-malaria programme in Nepal in the 1980s.

Offending chemical corporations using donor channels include Bayer and Hoechst (Germany); Dupont, Dow chemicals, Diamond Shamrock and Velsicol (USA); Shell (Netherlands); Sumitomo Chemical and Takeda Chemical (Japan); Rhone Poulenc (France); Sandoz (Switzerland) and ICI (United Kingdom).

Greenpeace scientist Pat Costner said while the effects of POP chemicals are well documented, they pose a particular danger to infants in South Asian countries in that they interfere with lactation in mothers.

"In South Asian countries breast-feeding is not a choice but the only nutrition available to millions of newborns and the effect of POP on lactation here can be disastrous," Costner said.

Earlier studies have shown that in India the estimated intake of lindane (gamma-HCH) from breast milk exceeds the allowable daily intake (ADI) by up to 20 times. Indians now carry the highest levels of DDT and HCH in their bodies.

Costner said POP-related injuries often fail to manifest in adults exposed to them, but the impacts show up in the offspring or subsequent generations. "Maternal body burdens are transferred through the placenta to the developing foetus and may not be expressed till puberty or adulthood."

Naturally enough, the people worst at risk were workers at factories which continue to manufacture POP pesticides or people living near them, the Greenpeace document said.

It cited one study which found men working in an Indian pesticide factory having significantly lowered fertility and an increase in the still births, neonatal deaths and congenital defects in children born to them.

But Costner said POPs have been associated with particular impacts on women such as breast cancer, early onset of puberty, endometriosis, miscarriages and immune system dysfunctions.

Jack Weiner, international toxics campaigner for Greenpeace, said it was unfortunate that chemical industries and their proponents in the government see stricter environmental norms as hurdles in the way of development and export earnings.

"Governments should aim for a phase-out of polluting practices which lead to an endless cycle of poisoning whose unwitting victims are communities and future generations," Weiner said.