PESHAWAR, May 27: Unchecked sale of pesticides is taking toll on the human lives, as some of the people take these drugs to commit suicide, agriculturists told Dawn on Monday.

“ People intending to end their lives take sometimes Agtocin, an insecticide which is used to protect the wheat crop. And in most of the cases the drug kills the takers,” an official at the Agricultural University said.

He said the drug, available in the form of tablets, was being openly sold at general stores and on footpaths by vendors, enabling the people to buy it.

Agtocin, which is applied to fumigate grain stores, produces gas or smoke and kills its victims in seconds.

The agriculturists argue that all pesticides — herbicides, weedicides and fungicides etc.— were poisonous, therefore they should be sold by experts and qualified trained people only. And these should be used as prescribed by the experts because they posed a open threat to human health.  

But the officials concerned at the department of plant protection, agriculture extension, claimed that they had strictly banned the counter sale of all sorts of pesticides because the practice had reportedly caused to kill many people.

The pesticides, they also claimed, were now available only with the registered shops in the province.

“ We have issued licenses to some 900 pesticide dealers in the province. To minimise the risk factor attached to the business, these authorized dealers have been imparted necessary training before opening shops”, said Mohammad Hanif, a plant protection officer.

He said that some 600 pesticides were marketed by multinational pharmaceutical firms, and all of the drugs were of utmost importance to protect grain stores from insects.

However, farmers say the pesticides were sold by unregistered shopkeepers, which helped many people to commit suicide. But most of the cases go unreported both by police and the Press, they added.

An agriculturist said the government should strictly monitor the sale of these drugs in the market. Similarly, rodenticide or rate killing powder is being sold in the open market which also caused many deaths.

With the introduction of local government system in the country, the respective assistant directors of agricultural extension department at district-level have been delegated the power to issue licences to the people dealing in pesticides and to monitor their sale.

But the sale is still going unchecked, and reports emanating from remote parts of the province suggest that many people die owing to misuse of pesticides.—AY