Census disproves Kasargod’s high disability myth

Kalathil Ramakrishnan
Express News Service
Last Updated : 26 Nov 2011 12:18:15 PM IST

KASARGOD: Here is a good news for the people of Kasargod who are supposed to suffer from various diseases. The widespread propaganda that the district is hit by various diseases now stands exposed by the first report on disability which was published as per the Census of the government of India, 2001.

There was a hue and cry in the district by various environmental organisations that the people of the district suffered from various ailments when the data was being collected by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India in 2001. The latest disability data as per the Census of 2011 is yet to be published.
In the case of disabled population, the district has only 24 disabled persons per thousand.

The high percentage of disability is reported from Kollam and Idukki districts where the disability rate is 32 per thousand followed by Alappuzha (30 per cent)Pathanamthitta and Thiruvanandapuram (29 per cent) each. The disability data for Kozhikode district is 28 per thousand, Kottayam 28 and Kannur 24 per thousand.
According to the Census report, the movement disability is only seven per thousand in Kasargod, but it is higher with nine per thousand each in Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta .

Mental disability is lowest in Kasargod district with only three per thousand, but it is higher in most of the districts recording five per thousand.
As per the Census report, seeing disability is also lowest in Kasargod with nine per thousand. It is the highest in Idukki with 14 per thousand. But hearing disability is three per thousand in Kasargod with other districts recording more or less the same figure.

Source: http://expressbuzz.com/states/kerala/census-disproves-kasargod%E2%80%99s-high-disability-myth/337261.html

Endosulfan Study: Facts and Fallacies

Dr. K. M. Sreekumar*
Dr. K. Divakaran Prathapan**
* Associate Professor, College of Agriculture, Padannakkadu
* Associate Professor, College of Agriculture, Vellayani.

Fifth meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Stockholm Convention held at Geneva in April 2011 has decided to add endosulfan to the United Nations’ list of persistent organic pollutants to be eliminated worldwide1. Endosulfan, a widely used insecticide, is targeted for elimination from the global market by 2012. Health problems in Kasaragod District in Kerala, where endosulfan was aerially sprayed for two decades, was the focal point of an international campaign that culminated in the global ban of the insecticide2. Circumstances link the alleged health problems in Kasaragod District in Kerala to the aerial application of endosulfan. The Achuthan Commission and the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH)3 that studied the issue, in 2001 and 2002 respectively, recommended a detailed epidemiological survey in the area. The epidemiological survey that was recommended by the expert committees was conducted only in 2010. This study was undertaken by the Calicut Medical College (CMC) under the Chief Investigatorship of Drs T. Jayakrishnan, C. Prabhakumari and Thomas Bina. The report of the study was published by the Centre for Science and Environment on their website and this critique is based on that publication4

Methodological issues
The CMC (Calicut Medical College) study is a comparison of the health problems of 1000 families of Bovikkanam in Muliyar Panchayath affected by the pesticide application with that of 850 families in Banam in Kodom-Belur Panchayath where no pesticide was applied. However, the people of Bovikkanam and Banam are not comparable as they are dissimilar socially and economically. The Muslim population in North Malabar are socio-economically backward5. The population of muslims in Banam is only 15% where as that of Bovikanam is 45%. This difference reflects in the food habits as well as the health and educational status of the people in these areas. A well designed study based on adequate number of representative samples would have yielded unequivocal and conclusive results.

Kasaragod is internationally known through the heart rending images of mentally challenged children carried by the print and visual media. Yet the published report of the study does not include such individuals, whose number can be exactly recorded. Endosulfan residues in the blood plasma of 41 subjects from 11 panchayaths were analyzed. However, no attempt was made to compare these values with those from the reference population, which is intriguing. Thus it is impossible to make comparisons and draw valid conclusions with regard to this important parameter under study. The various parameters of health studied were not properly defined. For example, there are many types of liver diseases including infective jaundice. It is not clear which types of liver diseases were included. Without providing working definition for a parameter, it cannot be studied clearly.

The conclusions of the CMC study are largely based on subjective parameters. The information gathered is mainly based on memory recall by the subjects. No effort was made to cross check this information with other easily available documented facts. For example, death and birth data is documented in the panchayath offices, which is a reliable source of information to study any possible change in the demographic pattern. Similarly, local veterinary hospitals record unnatural death in cattle. Banks and insurance companies too have a data base of morbidity and mortality in cattle as they pay compensation. No attempt was made to make use of such readily available information. The study was conducted at the peak of propaganda by the local Punchiri Club and the visual media. Hence it is highly probable that the responses of the subjects were biased and hence the inferences of the study are erroneous and misleading.

The reproductive health events in women above 30 years (whose reproductive period was during the period of aerial spraying) have been compared with those in women aged below 30 years (whose reproductive period started after the cessation of the aerial spraying). This study had been
designed to assess plausible improvement in the reproductive health of women following withdrawal of endosulfan application. The study report has specified that data on the reproductive heath events in all married women in the study area were collected. However, women are literally transplanted into the family of their husbands following marriage, under the Indian family system, for which Kasaragod is no exemption. This means, at least a section of the women studied by the CMC researchers were living outside the study area with their parents during the period of application of the insecticide. Similarly, many housewives in Banam (unsprayed reference area) are likely married into their respective families from the neighboring sprayed areas. This simple social reality is strong enough to contort the whole data and inferences on reproductive health events in women, as evidently the study is based on a mixture of subjects from both exposed and unexposed areas. Generally, a high proportion of young married men in muslim families in Muliyar work in gulf countries. As a result of the long spell of separation of couples, chances of conception are less and it is common that such couples seek infertility treatment. This is a strong factor that would distort the results of the study on the reproductive health of women as well as their infertility rates. Moreover, the data on reproductive health problems during the period of pesticide application (1980-2000) was never statistically compared with the same during the decade after cessation of the pesticide application.

Read more at https://sites.google.com/site/tokauorg/home/voice

Endosulfan Scam

Relief eludes many Endosulfan victims
By Sudipto Mondal
The Hindu, March 20, 2010

"For instance, a 25-year-old man who lost his fingers in dynamite explosion has been given compensation. The list, a copy of which is available with The Hindu, also has several persons who were born with congenital disorders much before the pesticide spray began."

“How can those born 60, 70 or 80 years ago with birth defects have suffered because of endosulfan which was sprayed around 25 years ago?” asked a doctor.

However, the former Minister and MLA Shobha Karandlaje said: “Only genuine sufferers have been compensated.”

Patients Insist Docs to Enroll them in Endosulfan Victims' List
By Kalathil Ramakrishnan
New Indian Express 19 July 2011

Government doctors in the Endosulfan sprayed villages are facing acute pressure from patients suffering from various diseases who insist that they may be enrolled in the endosulfan victims' list.
The Endosulfan Nodal Cell has included as many as 300 diseases in the endosulfan category. Diseases which are commonly found are included in the endosulfan list.

Health disorders in Kerala are due to iodine deficiency

National Surveys indicate that Health disorders in Kerala are due to

Iodine Deficiency

Iodine Deficiency Disorder [IDD] has been described as the world’s single-most significant cause of “preventable” brain damage and mental retardation. Symptoms of iodine deficiency include goiter, nodules within goiter, pregnency related problems such as miscarriages, stillbirth, preterm delivery and congenital abnormalities in babies. Children of mothers with severe iodine deficiency during pregnency can have mental retardation, problems with growth, hearing and speech, cretinism[1], increased head circumference, horse cry, low intelligence etc. Iodine deficiency leads to severe retardation of growth and maturation of almost all organ systems[2].

A national survey in India shows that the percentage of population consuming salt with less than recommended iodine was very high in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu, respectively[3]. Urinary Iodine Excretion level [UIE] gave unmistakable evidence that there is indeed iodine deficiency.

An easy way to control iodine deficiency disorder is by use of iodized salt. To overcome the problem, Government of India took a decision to adopt ‘universal iodization of salt’ in the country. It was made mandatory that only iodized salt should be sold for food purpose. Prevention of Food Adulteration Act [PFA], 1954 was amended and the sale of non-iodated salt was banned under PFA to ensure the use of iodated salt for human consumption for the entire country.

By 1996, almost all state governments, except Kerala, had issued ban notification on sale of non-iodized salt for food purpose. Kerala government could not issue such notification because of resistance from activists. Here is an example of their reaction against the ban. “Banning non-iodized salt is a WHO-sponsored multinational scientific conspiracy to poison us. There are other health problems like anemia and malaria which affect our country more than goiter.”

---

[1] Cretinism is a term used to describe the state of physical and mental retardation resulting from untreated congenital hypothyroidism usually due to iodine deficiency since birth.

[2] http://www.thyroid.org/patients/patient_brochures/iodine_deficiency.html#symptoms

[3] Monitoring of Quality of Iodised Salt to Prevent Iodine Deficiency Disorders and Increase Production of Iodised Salt through Networking of Medical Colleges in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry States of India, 2002. Human Nutrition Unit, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi-110029.

No health problems linked to exposure to Endosulfan: committee

Ahmedabad, Apr 21 (PTI) The report of the eleven-member committee constituted by the Gujarat government to evaluate the safety aspects of pesticide ''Endosulfan'' has concluded that there are no health problems associated with exposure to Endosulfan, official sources said.

Karnataka decision on Endosulfan not based on Science

Endosulfan is not carcinogenic. US EPA has classified Endosulfan under Group-E (Evidence of non-carcinogenicity). (see below the image of original document from US EPA)

Dr Andrew McKenzie, Executive Director of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority said “The claim that endosulfan, among other pesticides, is a carcinogen is just plain wrong,” “While no-one can be 100% certain about anything, endosulfan has been specifically tested for carcinogenic potential and the World Health Organisation, United Nations Environment Programme and International Labour Organisation categorically state that endosulfan does not show any such potential. Equally any other chemical used in food production is extensively evaluated for safety to humans. Raising concerns of this sort for people, where no cause for them exists, is irresponsible,” said Dr McKenzie. “It is very difficult to counter the worries this will raise for people, and is particularly upsetting when we know the statement is patently untrue”.
Source:
http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/publications/media-releases/2006-03-03.htm

Endosulfan

Maslow's theory of hierarchy of needs is very relevant in understanding psychology of activists.

According to Maslow, human needs can be presented in form of a five-level pyramid with the most basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid and highest level needs at the top.

5. self-actualization (morality, creativity, achievement etc.)

4. esteem

3. belongingness

2. safety

1. physiological needs (food, clothing, shelter)

As per Maslow's theory, people will first try to satisfy their physiological i.e., lowest level needs such as food, clothing, shelter etc. Once the lowest order need is satisfied, they will try to satisfy higher level needs such as safety and belongingness. Once that is satisfied, they will think of esteem. And finally, when all lower order needs are satisfied, they will think of self-actualization.

This theory is applicable to activists. More particularly in developing countries like India, there is a problem of unemployment. To start with something, activists accept funds for campaigning. Sacrificing morality, they come out with tailor-made unscientific reports. Once they get addicted, they want to make a quick-buck through funded campaigns.

There is also a rush to claim "compensation" for which people try to prove that they are "endosulfan victims". Some politicians distribute funds to such victims despite the fact that the expert committee appointed by the government has concluded that there is no link between alleged health effects and Endosulfan.