Protecting Children from Pesticides 255
Visits from other organizations confirmed what Shree Padre and the doctor
had learned. Word spread that the ill health of the people was caused by
endosulfan.
Villagers gathered at the plantation offices and demanded that the spraying
be stopped. The plantation officials, the pesticide industry, and some local
authorities denied that endosulfan caused the problems. The police were called
in and protests were broken up.
Soon, the local press and television picked up the story. Before long, people
across India and around the world learned about the health problems caused by
endosulfan. The state government banned endosulfan in Kerala.
But the pesticide industry argued that endosulfan was safe. They paid
doctors and scientists to say that the health problems had no connection to
endosulfan. Soon, due to pressure from the pesticide industry, the ban was
dropped. Plantations in Padre began spraying again.
Farmers, doctors, and villagers from the area demanded that the government
study the problem. Finally, the government agreed with the people of Padre
Village: endosulfan was a deadly poison. A law was passed to ban it once and
for all in that part of India.
But endosulfan is still sprayed in other parts of India, and in other countries.
Laws say it is poison in some places, while it is considered safe in others. Poisons
like endosulfan are only banned when people work together to pressure industry
and governments for change.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012