— experts warn against improper use of pesticides

OVER the years farmers have been leaning towards the use of chemical pesticides to rid their pest problems, but the Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals Control Board (PTCCB) believes that some are causes for skin cancer and abrasions.

Though there are little or no official report to show the linkage, Senior PTCCB Inspector Suresh Amichand contended that farmers, particularly those in the Black Bush, Berbice area, get skin abrasions and skin cancer from chemical pesticides.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), pesticides are potentially toxic to humans and can have both acute and chronic health effects, depending on the quantity and ways in which a person is exposed.

The WHO explained that the toxicity of a pesticide depends on its function and other factors. For example, insecticides tend to be more toxic to humans than herbicides. The same chemical can have different effects at different doses (how much of the chemical a person is exposed to). It can also depend on the route by which the exposure occurs (such as swallowing, inhaling, or direct contact with the skin).
None of the pesticides that are authorised for use on food in international trade today are genotoxic (damaging to DNA, which can cause mutations or cancer).
The WHO however explained that adverse effects such as cancer from those pesticides occur only above a certain safe level of exposure.

There are more than 1000 pesticides used around the world to ensure food is not damaged or destroyed by pests. Each pesticide has different properties and toxicological effects.
Whether Guyanese are facing those health effects is still a mystery to some extent because there is no supporting data to back those claims but every day farmers are reportedly going to poison centres and hospitals to treat incidents such as burning of the skin that occur after using pesticides.

BURNING OF SKIN
Dhaniram Ramchand, a 38-year-old farmer of Region Five, told Guyana Chronicle he has experienced some of the health effects of chemical pesticides, particularly the burning of the skin and abrasions.

He said many of his colleagues also had similar experiences but since then they have taken precautionary measures to ensure that the health effects of chemical pesticides do not escalate.
Black Bush Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Chairman Thakur Persaud, who is also a rice farmer, said although he did not experience the health effects of chemical pesticides, he confirmed that other farmers in the area have felt the negative effects of the plant drugs.

Stressing the reality that pesticides are indeed toxic to the health of not just farmers but their families and surroundings was Nadira Deonarine, a fourth year medical student of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Science and Technology.

Deonarine said the main purpose of pesticides is basically to kill and it can kill whatever it comes into contact with.

Pesticides destroy cells, so any living thing it gets itself on, it kills. The medical student explained that those chemicals are very effective likewise those who use pesticides should make protecting their health a main priority.
“The effects of chemical pesticides are lethal and even a small amount can cause significant damage to our health and eventually even lead to death,” Deonarine told Guyana Chronicle.
Farmers are the main users of pesticides in Guyana, and in some cases, many farmers when they purchase pesticides are not properly informed of the dangers associated with its use.

Symptoms farmers may experience after using chemical pesticides on their crops include eye and skin irritation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, weakness, cough or sore throat, said the medical student.
Other signs and symptoms that are connected to the use of pesticides were identified as memory loss, altered or uncontrollable moods, reduced motor skills, reduced visual ability, allergies and hypersensitivity reactions.
Deonarine also said some farmers develop asthma and cancer because the chemicals affect human hormones and can manifest as decreased fertility; complications in pregnancy; and even neurological disorders in brain development.
The medical student who is on clinical rotations at the St Joseph’s Mercy Hospital and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), said she had interactions with farmers who used chemical pesticides incorrectly and experienced its effects.

BE AWARE
Although persons might not be affected directly like farmers, they have to be aware of what they consume.
According to Deonarine, low doses of pesticides can be found in inorganic foods and as such she urged that consumers consider organic foods.
“We should be aware that over time these chemicals can still remain in our bodies and by continuously being exposed to the toxins we can develop serious illnesses,” the medical student warned.

She advised that farmers should invest in alternative methods of protecting their crops and buy chemicals with proper labelling. She also encouraged  that they be properly stored.

The PTCCB has over the years taken up the mantle of training farmers how to safely use chemical pesticides.
PTCCB Registrar Trecia David told Guyana Chronicle that a number of training exercises have been conducted in the agricultural regions. During those exercises farmers were taught how to use correct protective clothing such as gloves and respirators; management of empty pesticide containers and how to use the regulated chemical fertilisers.
Some of those training exercises were done in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Public Health Ministry and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Although the PTCCB works in specific areas where pesticides are frequently used, they have started to look at areas that are often overlooked.
David said the PTCCB has recently taken a community-based approach to sensitising persons in order to include the families of farmers who use chemical pesticides.
“When we engage children in schools they would be able to advise their parents on what to and not to do… housewives are also sensitised because when the farmers finish spraying they might throw their clothes to wash and she might wash the clothes without gloves and become affected by the pesticide,” said David.

ILLEGAL PESTICIDES
By conducting sensitisation programmes the pesticide board helps in mitigating the health effects of pesticides in farming communities. However , they are still faced with many challenges because although they have managed to reduce the registration and distribution of highly hazardous pesticides, persons still smuggle unregulated pesticides into the country.
Over the past year, over 15 tonnes of unregulated chemical pesticides have been seized and the PTCCB’s seizure exercise is still ongoing.

“The illegality is the fact that you do not know what are in these products- that puts people’s lives at risk because we do not know what the ingredients are, we have never screened them, we do not know the potential impact for human health and the environment and that is where our concern starts from, not from it being smuggled,” said David.

Though most of the pesticides that were seized are agro-based, the majority were household pesticides such as rat baits and coils.
“This is serious for us especially with how we use household pesticides in Guyana, we sit in the room, we spray bagon we breathe in, it smells good but it is a pesticide… most Guyanese do not regard pesticides as poisons,” David lamented, pointing out that the rat baits placed in the homes are class one pesticides.

“It is a worrying issue because the way they would look at toxicity of pesticide is its ability to kill rats and because they are successful, they are highly toxic but people still hold them in their hands without gloves, which is not advisable,” she said.
David explained that it can be more detrimental to children because their organs are developing so they can easily contract an ailment.
Studies done in numerous counties revealed that children in areas with high pesticide use are usually slow, developmentally and educationally.

LACK OF STUDIES
As explained earlier, similar studies have never been conducted in Guyana so over the years the pesticides board has been unaware of what level of impacts use of pesticide has in communities and areas where they are frequently used.
“We have been talking about that at the level of the board to try to work with international organisations to do these kinds of research here… one of our struggles with training farmers for instance in the field is you can show them all the research data from other countries but they will say it is not Guyana so they are not at risk,” David lamented.
In his message to the public at the beginning of Pesticide Awareness Week 2017 last week, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder advised farmers to adopt suitable agronomic practices like crop rotation and the use of resistant varieties as key preventive measures.

In addition, considering the negative factors of chemical pesticides, he said farmers need to be sensitised of the various means to effectively manage pests, diseases and weeds.
Bio-control, the use of botanical extracts and other organic farming methods offer promising options and need to be strengthened.