Activists from the US have just reported that their country exported over one billion pounds of pesticides that are known (or suspected) carcinogens to developing countries in 1997-2000. This included pesticides that have "never been registered or tested for safety in the US", and 284 million pounds of "restricted use" pesticides (meant strictly for state certified use but often available to the general public in developing countries).

Connect this with the fact that in tests carried out by Consumer Education and Research Centre, Ahmedabad, in 2000, all 13 brands of wheat flour were found to have Lindane, a banned pesticide. Lindane is unacceptable under the Indian Prevention of Food Adulteration Act.

Aldrin and Dieldrin, suspected carcinogens according to the Consumers International handbook on pesticides, are similarly banned but showed up in two brands, including the multinational Pillsbury. Tests on milk and butter also showed traces of Heptachlor and Lindane (belonging to the "Dirty Dozen" chemical pollutants denounced worldwide) or DDT (which is not permitted for use on crops but is still used by India's Public Health Departments for malaria control).

Pesticide toxicity can manifest itself in humans as headaches, giddiness, nausea, neuromuscular weakness and visual impairment. Some of these illnesses show up only after several years. Pesticides can also act as endocrine disrupters and bring on early puberty in children, especially in developing countries.

Indian state governments are responsible for monitoring food commodities, but many states don't even have food testing labs. Contrast this with Japan's swift suspension of rice imports in February after Japanese food safety officials found traces of lead in American rice bags (although the rice itself was all right). Developing countries use one sixth of pesticides manufactured worldwide but suffer two thirds of the estimated 750,000 pesticide poisonings (and 14,000 fatalities) reported annually. A recent report by the World Health Organisation and Food and Agricultural Organisation warns that pesticides in developing countries pose "a serious health threat".

"Your food should be your medicine," said Hippocrates. Today it looks as if we need medicines to protect us from food.

-Sakuntala Narasimhan

The Last Temptation

After a wild panther walked into a cage in the Arignar Anna Zoological Park on the outskirts of Chennai on March 2, zoo authorities are convinced there is no better trap than love. The nine-year-old male panther, on the prowl since January 22, was scaring people. Evading tranquilisers and baits, it kept moving in and out of the zoo premises. But when the authorities used a female panther "in heat" as bait, the feline couldn't resist the temptation.

Zoo Director P.C. Tyagi believes the animal must have strayed in from the surrounding 70-sq km forest. Last heard, the lovelorn male was smashing his head against the cage, injuring itself badly. Blood and urine samples have been taken for tests to find out if the wanderer has brought in any disease from the wild.

-Arun Ram

Left Alone

If Ashok Mitra, Marxist ideologue and economist, has been a valued intellectual ally of the Left establishment, he has been a source of embarrassment too. After the Godhra incident, Mitra wrote an article in the "bourgeois" press in which he roundly abused the new crop of Bengal's leftist leaders for raising the bogey of Pakistan at the drop of a hat. His obvious target: Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya. With the triennial congress of the CPI (M) round the corner, the chief minister's political aides have strictly ordered the party organ not to accept any article by Mitra.

-Sumit Mitra