“VIRTUALLY NOTHING” FOR ENDOSULFAN

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• The Supreme Court has slammed the Kerala government for doing “virtually nothing” for Endosulfan pesticide exposure victims.
• The court said the State’s inaction was “appalling” and amounted to a breach of the apex court’s 2017 judgment, which had ordered the State to pay Rs 5 lakh each to the victims in three months.
• Five years since the judgment, the court has realised that only eight out of 3,704 victims have been paid compensation.
• The SC has banned the manufacture, sale, use, and export of endosulfan throughout the country, citing its harmful health effects in 2015.

Endosulfan

• Endosulfan is an organochlorine insecticide which was first introduced in the 1950s and is commonly known by its trade name Thiodan.
• It is linked to a slew of grave medical conditions, such as neurotoxicity, physical deformities, poisoning and more.
• It is sprayed on crops like cotton, cashew, fruits, tea, paddy, tobacco etc. for control of pests such as whiteflies, aphids, beetles, worms etc.
• Endosulfan is listed under both the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Impacts of Endosulfan

• Endosulfan in the environment gets accumulated in food chains leading to higher doses causing problems.
• If Endosulfan is released to water, it is expected to absorb to the sediment and may bioconcentrate in aquatic organisms.
• The endosulfan ingestion results in diseases ranging from physical deformities, cancer, birth disorders and damage to the brain and nervous system.

Rotterdam convention 1998

• The convention aims to promote cooperation and responsibility sharing measures amongst different countries dealing with trade in hazardous chemicals and pesticides.
• PIC, Prior Informed Consent is the main feature of the convention and is legally binding on the party members.
• PIC facilitates information exchange about nature and trade-related information amongst the party members.
• The Convention creates obligations for the implementation of the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT