24 The Global Food System
tending not to seek medical treatment – as is also the case in the North (Dinham,
1993). Most data are gathered by doctors, researchers and activists from individual
testimony and hospital records, and so are viewed as anecdotal or circumstantial.
This is not to denigrate these reports; it is just that many policy makers do not
accept them as sufficiently ‘scientific’.
Nonetheless, put together, the data paint a picture more bleak than appeared
to be the case in the 1980s (Conway and Pretty, 1991; Dinham, 1993).
- In Malaysia and Sri Lanka, for example, some 7–50 per cent of all farmers reported
that they experienced poisoning at least once in their lives (Jeyeratnam, 1990). - In Thailand, a survey of 250 government hospitals and health centres revealed
that some 5500 people were admitted for pesticide poisoning in 1985 alone,
of whom 384 died (Jonjuabsong and Hwai-kham, 1991). - In Latin America, between 10–30 per cent of agricultural workers tested show
inhibition of the blood enzyme, cholinesterase, which is a sign of organophos-
phate poisoning (WHO, 1990). - In Venezuela, there were 10,300 cases of poisoning with 576 deaths, between
1980–90 (Dinham, 1993). - In Paraguay, 75 per cent of farmers around Asunción experienced symptoms
after spraying (Dinham, 1993). - In Brazil, 28 per cent of farmers in Santa Catarina say they have been poisoned
at least once; and in Parana, some 7800 people were poisoned between 1982–
1992 (Dinham, 1993). - In China, a recent statement from the Agricultural Ministry in China sug-
gested that more than 10,000 Chinese farmers died in 1993 from poisoning
by pesticides (Quinn, 1994). Many were said to be victims of home-made
cocktails marketed illegally and some 30 per cent of products were unlicensed
by authorities. Since 1975, the value of pesticide imports into China has grown
from US$76 million to $293 million.
According to the latest (1990) estimates by the WHO, a minimum of 3 million
and perhaps as many as 25 million agricultural workers are poisoned each year,
with perhaps 20,000 deaths.
Pesticide poisoning and health costs in the Philippines
Recent evidence emerging from the intensive rice-growing regions of the Philip-
pines is confirming this picture of common mortality and illness from pesticides.
These areas have greatly benefited from the Green Revolution packages and use of
pesticides is still growing, with sales of pesticides increasing by 70 per cent between
1988 and 1992. Between 1980–1987, the National Department of Health Statis-
tics recorded some 4031 cases of pesticide poisoning, including 603 deaths (Cas-
teñeda and Rola, 1990). But this may be an underestimate of the extent of poisoning,
as studies are increasingly showing high incidence of poisoning symptoms that go