Health Effects of Pesticide Use Evidence from Bangladesh

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Health Effects of Pesticide Use Evidence from
Bangladesh

• Susmita Dasgupta
• Craig Meisner
• DECRG-IE, The World Bank

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Pesticide consumption (metric tons)
Pesticide consumption has more than doubled in
the past decade
Source Department of Plant Protection Wing,
Bangladesh
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Alarming Composition of Pesticides

• A Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) analysis
  of active ingredients in use has revealed
• high shares of chemicals (e.g., carbamates and
  organophosphates) with established
  Epidemiological links with Non-Hodgkins
  lymphoma, leukemia, lung cancer, aplastic anemia,
  fetal death, hormonal changes, DNA damage, birth
  defects, and abnormal sperm, ovaries and eggs.

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Active Ingredients Used (sold) in the
Agricultural Sector, Bangladesh
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Need for Careful Assessment and Planning

• Current projections suggest that the agricultural
  output of Bangladesh needs to grow several times
  during the next several decades, as the
  population of Bangladesh continues to grow and
  incomes increase.
• Bangladesh, a densely populated country (997
  people km2 in 2000), will have to increase yields
  from the land currently under cultivation in
  order to serve this increased demand.
• During the past several decades, rising
  agricultural productivity has been driven by an
  increased utilization of capital and chemicals
  (pesticides, fertilizers) and genetic alteration
  of crops.
• The cited increase in the use of toxic chemicals
  warrant careful assessment of the current
  situation and experimentation with feasible
  alternative production systems, for example,
  Integrated Pest Management/ and organic farming
  techniques.

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Limited Secondary Data on Pesticides

• The Department of Plant Protection, Ministry of
  Agriculture maintains
• Time series of yearly consumption of pesticides.
• A list is complied every year to indicate which
  pesticides (by active ingredient and company)
  have been given permission to be sold in the
  market.
• However, the popular belief is as large scale
  smuggling of pesticide from neighboring countries
  takes place, both the yearly consumption and list
  of permitted pesticides actually understate the
  amount of pesticides being consumed as well as
  the variety of pesticides available in the market.

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Current Information on Health Effects

• Historical information on the health effects of
  pesticide use in Bangladesh is not available.
  Although the Director General of Health Services
  (DGHS) maintains aggregate data on poisoning
  related morbidity or death up to 1998-99,
  information by source of poisoning (i.e.
  morbidity and mortality related to pesticides) is
  not available.
• A newly improved system of health-related
  information is being introduced by the DGHS. The
  new system (information is compiled on the basis
  of source of poisoning, e.g., poisoning with
  organophosphates treated as a separate and
  distinct entry) initially covered only two
  districts beginning in 2000-01 Gazipur and
  Narsingdi. The new system is expected to
  gradually extend its coverage to other districts
  as well over time.

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World Bank Research on Pesticides
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Pesticide Applications Reported by Survey
Respondents
One in five pesticides reported by survey
respondents has been classified by the WHO as
Extremely Hazardous.
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Pesticide Applications Reported by Survey
Respondents

• Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
• The survey cited 18 applications of Endrin and 40
  applications of Heptachlor were cited in the
  survey.
• DDT is still sold in the retail markets.

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Use of Protective Clothing

• The study found that the use of protective
  clothing during mixing and spraying of pesticides
  was not a common practice.
• Farmers usually worked in the fields and sprayed
  pesticides bare footed (only 1 reported wearing
  sandals)
• 2 wear gloves while spraying pesticides
• 57 of the farming population cover their head
  with gamchha while working in the fields
• 8 reportedly wear hats
• 6 use locally available cotton masks (the cotton
  mask in use is, essentially, an ordinary piece of
  cloth kept in place by strings made of cloth
  hence quite ineffective)
• 3 use eye glasses.

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Health Effects

• Acute
• mild headaches
• flu-like symptoms
• skin rashes
• blurred vision
• other neurological disorders

• Chronic
• cardiopulmonary problems
• neurological and hematological symptoms
• adverse dermal effects

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Overall Health Effects found in the Survey
47 of the farmers and pesticide applicators in
the survey reported frequent health problems such
as irritation in their eyes, headaches,
dizziness, vomiting, shortness of breath, skin
effects, and even convulsions among others.
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Overall Health Effects found in the Survey

• 47 of the farmers and pesticide applicators in
  the survey reported frequent health problems such
  as irritation in their eyes, headaches,
  dizziness, vomiting, shortness of breath, skin
  effects, and even convulsions among others.
• Among those (respondents) who experienced
  ailments 86 were quite sure that their ailments
  were due to exposure to pesticides.
• The interviews further revealed that 28 of the
  respondents experienced multiple health effects,
  with the maximum number of ailments as five.

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Specific Health Effects found in the Survey

• Among the most perceptible health problems
  encountered in the survey, eye effects,
  neurological effects (headache, dizziness),
  dermal effects and gastrointestinal tract effects
  (vomiting) were the most common.
• Right after application of pesticides
• 27 of the respondents reported irritation in
  the eyes
• 33 reported headache/ and dizziness
• 14 reported skin irritation
• 9 reported vomiting

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Duration of Reported Ailments
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Safer Alternative Integrated Pest Management
(IPM)
In contrast to the 47 among the general
pesticide-using population only 31 of the IPM
farmers reported health problems such as
irritation in their eyes, headaches, dizziness,
vomiting, shortness of breath and skin
effects. Statistical analysis confirmed the
difference in health effects is significant.
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Is Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture Less
Profitable for Farmers?Evidence on Integrated
Pest Management
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Regional Distribution of Survey Respondents
District Conventional Farmers IPM Farmers
Bogra 27 0
Chapainawabganj 3 0
Chittagong 56 0
Comilla 61 31
Jessore 111 54
Kishoreganj 35 20
Munshiganj 25 0
Narsingdi 82 0
Rajshahi 137 8
Rangpur 68 26
Mymensingh 84 0
Total 689 139
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Adoption of IPM

• Education, prior training, experience, ownership
  and poor health have significant positive effect
  on IPM adoption probability.
• IPM Techniques in Practice
• Manual removal of pests (70 of the sample),
• Use of natural parasites and predators (58),
• Light traps (14),
• Crop rotation (10)
• Smoke (5).

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Reasons behind IPM Adoption

• Ministry officials recommendations (41)
• Cost-saving from reduced pesticide use (33)
• Environmental benefits (12)
• Improved health (6)

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Comparative Input-Use, Yield, Profitability, Soil
and Environmental Effects

• Input-use accounting, conventional production
  functions and frontier production estimation
  suggested
• The productivity of IPM rice farming is not
  significantly different from the productivity of
  conventional farming.
• Since IPM reduces pesticide costs with no
  countervailing loss in production, it appears to
  be more profitable than conventional rice
  farming.
• Our interview results also suggest substantial
  health and ecological benefits.

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Health Effects of IPM Farmer Interviews

• Have you noticed any changes in your health
  condition?
• Shahid Hossain - One of his neighbors who used to
  apply pesticides was suffering from illness.
  After IPM training Shahid Hossain and others
  convinced him to stop using pesticides. Now his
  neighbor is much better health-wise.
• Chittaranjan Das - used to feel dizzy and itchy
  all over his body after spraying pesticides. Now
  he does not have those problems since he stopped
  using pesticides.
• During the period when Haripada Das used to apply
  pesticides he and others suffered from various
  illnesses. However, after stopping pesticide use
  they no longer suffer from those health problems.

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Observed Change in Soil, Water and Air Quality
after IPM adoption
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Effects of IPM on Soil Farmer Interviews

• Has the IPM method changed the productivity of
  the soil?
• Shahid Hossain - before 2000 (when he used
  pesticides), productivity per 33 decimals of land
  was 15/16 maund (1 maund37.5 kg) of rice whereas
  since 2000 the yield has been 20/22 maund with
  land size and fertilizer use remaining the same.
  Thus he gained from using IPM.
• ChittaRanjan Das - IPM has brought positive
  changes in productivity. He used to get 15-18
  maunds of paddy from 50 decimals of land when he
  applied pesticides, and now gets 25-35 maunds of
  paddy from the same piece of land by applying
  IPM.
• Haripada Das - IPM increased productivity of the
  soil, per season 33 decimals of land used to
  produce 14-15 maunds of rice using pesticides,
  now producing 20-22 maunds of rice under IPM.

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Recommendations

• Information system on pesticides
• Monitoring health and environmental effects of
  pesticides
• Evaluation and promotion of safer alternatives