Endosulfan ban- no clear battle lines drawn

Endosulfan ban: no clear battle lines drawn While the EU pushes to ban endosulfan over its safety concern, many in India dispute the evidence on safety, and call to resist any move to ban this chemical Priyanka Pulla Bangalore: Mohammed Asheel, assistant... More

Endosulfan ban: no clear battle lines drawn While the EU pushes to ban endosulfan over its safety concern, many in India dispute the evidence on safety, and call to resist any move to ban this chemical Priyanka Pulla Bangalore: Mohammed Asheel, assistant nodal officer of the Kerala government’s endosulfan rehabilitation programme, recalls his initial scepticism at the reported effects of the fertilizer in Kasargod, the northernmost district of Kerala. “I found it difficult to believe that 158 different diseases were caused by one chemical like endosulfan,” said Asheel, a doctor who coordinated relief work in Kasargod in 2010, at a press conference held by a Kannada newspaper in Bangalore in March this year. “But when I further studied the pesticide, I realized the mechanisms causing diseases were well documented. ” Asheel played a role in the culmination of a sequence of events that began with a 2002 study carried out by the National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad, sugge Less