From Gas Chambers to Your Table: Organophosphate Pesticides are Deadly Killers
Lucy Bowden, CAS ’24
Sketch of Indian school children getting their mid-day meal in their school. Image provided by Pankaj_Adobe Stock.
In July 2013, after a lunch of potato curry, soybeans, lentils and rice, 23 schoolchildren unexpectedly died in Bihar, India.
The children’s lunch was a part of a nationwide free lunch program known as the Midday Meal Scheme. The program was created to improve nutrition for schoolchildren throughout India and ultimately help achieve the government’s goal of promoting Indian education.
After investigation, the root of the children’s sudden illness was clear: high levels of an organophosphate pesticide, monocrotophos, were found in the food. The highly toxic pesticide is banned in the United States, European Union and parts of India due to its extreme toxicity.
Originally, organophosphate pesticides were created by German scientists during World War II for use in the gas chambers and they have continued to be used against people ever since; for example, in Iraqi attacks on Iranian villages and hospitals and by the Syrian government against its people.
Clearly, organophosphate pesticides have been lethal since their inception, so how did it end up in schoolchildren’s food?
After World War II, the deadly chemicals became available for wider use. With their hands on the chemical formula, American companies experimented with the product in agriculture.
Pesticides are used in agriculture to kill or deter pests from infesting farmers’ crops. Organophosphate pesticides work by blocking electrical signals in the brain. This can be incredibly useful for killing unwanted pests on tea leaves or rice fields. Of course, the same can be said for its impact on humans.
For humans, the severity of symptoms increases as the dose of the pesticides increases. After eating, breathing, or contacting the pesticides, signals from the brain begin to stop reaching our muscles. This breakdown in the brain results in cramping, drooling, spasms and seizures. For this reason, the pesticides are not sold or transported in high concentrations. Monocrotophos — the pesticide fed to the schoolchildren in Bihar — is required to be diluted five times before being sold and used on crops. Selling the concentrated form of this toxic pesticide is illegal in India.
However, regulations and bans on certain products have proved ineffective in practice. The source of the high pesticide dose in Bihar was found to be well over the legal concentration and even greater than a completely undiluted product. The container storing the pesticide had been used to hold the cooking oil used to cook the students’ lunches.
Unfortunately, even non-fatal consumption of organophosphate pesticides can leave its victims with long-term health issues. Infants and younger children are particularly susceptible to these effects. The body system in charge of eliminating toxic materials from the blood is not completely functional in younger children, making them most vulnerable to the effects of organophosphate pesticides.
Even when children experience small amounts of these pesticides, such as children living in the California region of the United States and Mexico, they can feel the effects of the microdose years into the future. Researchers studying the impact of these pesticides in this region found that early exposure increases the rates of neurological disorders in children, particularly the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The chokehold of organophosphates has not loosened in India since the death of those 23 students in Bihar. In desperate final acts, farmers across India have committed suicide using pesticides — many as a means to evade repaying loans. Rather than protecting crops, organophosphates have put Indian farmers’ lives in danger.
The devastating impact of organophosphates makes one thing clear: a complete ban is urgent to avoid further casualties by this deadly substance.