The political landscape is heating up with demand for ban on endosulfan..This is an excellent case study where the true picture when thrown with colors of political interest combined with media hype and strong market interests on either side can become as clear as an abstract art!
Lets look at each argument and see how tough it is to see the reality
1) Endosulfan, the pesticide has caused such evident damage to people who have come in contact with it wherever its used that it has to be banned….now the counter argument is that endosulfan has been in use from 1950’s and till date no such evident damage was reported neither to the farmers or to the people who used these fruits
2) The increased incidence of malignancies and sexual mal development in endosulfan used area in Kerala is proof enough for its danger…counter argument is that among the states using endosulfan in India, Kerala is not one of the major users. States like Andhra, MP, Gujarat, Maharashtra use 90% of endosulfan and never reported any such damage for last 4 decades
3) There are validated studies to prove that endosulfan caused health problems in Kerala..Counter argument..Both the studies that showed this relation has been shown by epidemiologists to be flawed..as case control studies they had major lapses in case and control selection, data reporting and methodologies to analyze the residual volume of pesticide
4) India is now the leading producer of endosulfan world wide and hence a ban will cause major loss to the Indian companies manufacturing it so they are behind the lobby opposing the ban…counter argument..Endosulfan was produced mainly by EU nations particularly Germany in past. Now they have moved on to much costlier pesticides that are ten times costlier .so they want to get into the lucrative Indian market which is now monopolized by Indian made cheap endosulfan
5) There are ready made substitutes available to endosulfan..Counter argument. No proper long term studies have been done on these..they all are much costlier than endosulfan
6) Endosulfan will be next DDT.. still DDT is found in soil where it was used 30 yrs after it was banned, so ban endosulfan today or the future generations will suffer.. Counter argument…Compared to DDT, which can persist in the environment for decades, endosulfan short half-life means that in most conditions, it reduces to only negligible quantities in a few months, or even days on plants. In fresh food crops when it is used there is a withholding period, which means that by the time foods get to market, minute traces of endosulfan are virtually non-existent
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