'No evidence to show that pesticides cause cancer'

The Agrochemicals Promotion Group (APG), a representative body of crop protection companies, today discounted the notion that pesticide use was leading to an increase in the number of cancer patients in rural areas.

"There is no scientific evidence anywhere in the world to show that agrochemicals cause cancer. False allegations of this nature can create needless public scare and adversely affect the country's agro-exports," said APG member Salil Singhal.

He cited the conclusions drawn by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute of Cancer Research from the scrutiny of 4,500 studies on cancer to support his point.

The report of these organisations has said: "There is no conclusive evidence that any food contaminant (including pesticides) modified the risk of any cancer; nor is there evidence of any probable causal relationship."

Reacting to the recent statements by the Delhi-based Centre of Science and Environment (CSE), linking the deaths of farmers in Punjab with pesticides use, Singhal said these were totally baseless.

"We have sent a letter to the CSE asking it to substantiate its allegations in the wider public interest, but there has been no response yet," he pointed out.

The Punjab Pollution Control Board, which was asked to look into these aspects, had stated in its report that it was difficult to pinpoint a single cause for cancer as this disease was the result of multiple factors.

It had recommended a multi-pronged strategy to provide safe drinking water, discouraging the indiscriminate use of pesticides, tobacco and alcohol to cope with cancer-related deaths.

The Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University had also suggested to the Punjab government to undertake an in-depth study of the causes of cancer deaths and not to jump to the conclusion that these were caused due to indiscriminate use of pesticides, he pointed out.

Maintaining that the pesticides industry was against indiscriminate use of pesticides, Singhal said there was no need for alarm even if trace chemicals were found in the human body.

Traces of pesticides like DDT were found even in 99 per cent of US citizens where it was banned 30 years ago. But the studies sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO) had found no illness attributable to the DDT usage.

"None of the persons showed any signs of cancer, or any other abnormal clinical neurological finding, hence proving that DDT is not carcinogenic in man," Singhal maintained.