ENDOSULFAN- & THE STOCKHOLM CONVENTION

                        ENDOSULFAN & THE STOCKHOLM CONVENTION


    The world will be watching India as the conference of parties to the Stockholm convention meet in Geneva from April 25 to 29,2011 to discuss, among other things, a global ban on the pesticide Endosulfan.
  India was the only member country to take a stand against the ban at the sixth meeting of the persistent organic pollutents Review Committee to the Convention that re commented the ban last year.
  Already 81 countries have either banned or decided to phase out  endosulfan, while 27 are still using the insecticide. There is strident demand for its ban in countries such as the Philippines The stand those countries would take on the Review Committee's recommendation at the conference of parities  is to be seen. As of now 173 countries  are parties to the Convention and about 20 chemicals have been approved for elimination, restriction or curtailing of un intentional production under the convention with or without exemptions.
   India exports sbout 50 percent of its production of endosulfan and the manufactures are pressing the Union government to oppose the move for a global ban. They say that the ban would deprive the farmers of a cheap and effective broad spectrum pesticide.

  Health surveys under expert supervision identified more than 4,000 victims in Kasaragod district of Kerala alone and their numbers are growing. More than 500 patients were bedridden, while about 2000 needed assistance to move around various abnormalities have been found among the population near the estates of the plantation corporation of Kerala, where aerial spraying of Endosulfan had been done for more than two decades. The insecticide was found to be persistent in the environment for years.
  A chemical has to be persistent bio-accumulative and capable of endangering human health and long-range transport to attract ban under the Stockholm  convention which deals with persistent organic pollutants.

                                                                          Prof.John Kurakar