By Sabatini Chatterjee
On May 24, 2021 British Medical Journal published a research paper titled “Toxic Epidemiology of poisoning exhibited in Indian population from 2010 to 2020: A systematic review and meta-analysis”.
This paper opined on the malicious effect of pesticide poisoning which is increasing in the adult and young children in recent decades.
The major cause of pesticide poisoning was due to corrosives, venom, drugs and miscellaneous agents. Pesticides are the most frequent types of venom which is consumed intentionally by the adult male farmers of rural India whereas the miscellaneous agents are considered as the main cause of poisoning in children. In this context, recent studies indicate that pesticides are the most emerging cause of poisoning in India. There are two in three cases of poisoning happening due to higher consumption of pesticides through solicited or unsolicited means.
Epidemiological data on pesticide poisoning by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has observed that that’s male and female deaths by around 25% and 36%, respectively. Therefore, systematic review and meta-analyses of different studies explored those pesticides were the leading cause of poisoning in adults which indicates 63%, while in case of child poisoning miscellaneous agents are the ultimate cause with an incidence of 45%. The emerging effects of pesticide poisoning were most frequent in North India (79%), followed by South India (65.9%), Central India (59.2%), West India (53.1%), North East India (49.6%) and East India (38.5%).
Another most popular cause of poisoning was the miscellaneous agents followed by drugs, venoms and corrosives. The critical cause of pesticide poisoning lies behind the co existence of poverty and emerging agricultural farming and easy availability of pesticides. Easy availability of pesticides increases the death rate of farmers in states such as Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka and Bihar. According to recent World Health Organization (WHO) estimates death due to “Envenomation” is around 1,00,000 per year, and around three-times the people who survived were disabled due to amputation and incomplete recuperation. Hence, it has observed that agricultural or household pesticides and drugs are taken intentionally which is a major cause of death in India.
The author works as a Research Assistant at the Cultural Research Institute, Kolkata under Backward Class Welfare Department, Government of West Bengal.