Eradicating Endosulfan

I was looking on the Environmental Justice Foundation website for ideas about my next blog when I came across an article about the pesticide Endosulfan. What really caught my attention were two pictures that were in the article. One being a deformed cow from an area in India where Endosulfan was sprayed heavily. The other was a picture of an Indian girl named Shruti whose hands are severely deformed. Her village has been exposed to aerial spraying of Endosulfan for a long time.

So after seeing these pictures I asked myself what kind of pesticide is this Endosulfan and why hasn't it been banned all over the world? Well after reading about Endosulfan I learned a few things.

Endosulfan is an organochorline pesticide. Like DDT it persists in the environment long after killing everything. It has been used on crops such as tea, coffee, fruits and vegetables, but it is was of the most widely used pesticide on cotton. Endosulfan is supposed to kill insects and mites that feed on the crops, but more often than not it will kill every small animal near the area that has been sprayed. It is also highly toxic to fish and there have been many reports of massive fish die-offs where Endosulfan and run off into lakes and streams.

There is currently steps being taken in the right direction though. Many countries have already banned or restricted the use of Endosulfan and the Environmental Justice Foundation is pressing the European Union for the most retrictive ban yet that will almost eradicate the use and manufacture of Endosulfan. There is even an online letter you can send to the European Union Environment Commissioner so your voice can be heard and we can all work together to stop the use of this deadly chemical.

Here is the link if you would like to read more about Endosulfan's uses and the effects it has on the environment.

http://www.ejfoundation.org/page246.html