Banning toxic pesticides is effective at preventing suicides in South Asia

Sarkar’s article about deaths from pesticide self-poisoning in South Asia conflicts with current evidence, which indicates that “safe storage,” favoured by industry, is ineffective and toxic pesticide bans, recommended by the World Health Organization, are highly effective.12 Experts are not “wondering if bans on pesticides are enough.”She discusses pesticide storage lockers, which have been promoted by industry because they deflect blame to farmers. But farmers have not “chosen” to use toxic pesticides unsafely. Pesticides were introduced during the agricultural “green revolution” into communities that remain completely unable to use or store them safely. As a result of occupational use and easy access during personal crises, over 14 million people have died prematurely.34Sarkar cites Vijayakumar’s “small study” of centralised storage in four villages,5 saying that it showed the approach to be “effective.” Unfortunately, this study could not and did not measure effectiveness; it looked at feasibility. Only 23.3% of households used…
Read Original Article: Banning toxic pesticides is effective at preventing suicides in South Asia »