ESA: Health of the World's Ecosystems
Michael Hopkin discusses the health of the world's ecosystems at the Ecological Society of America's meeting in Memphis, Tennessee. Check back here for his diary entries from 6-11 August.
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Support for environmental scientists/ activists in Southern countries:
Now because of the globalization/ trans-nationalization and on the other hand less and less communication between scientists of North and South due to the recent Global problems, scientists/ environmentalists in developing and less developed World are really suffering and need immediate help. This scenario is worst in Southern countries with hardline/ dictator government which are trying to ignore environmental issues due to their lack of information/ their wish for more agricultural/ industrial production. This type of governments simply believe that getting involved with environmental issues is against their economic programs and goals. The scenario is even worse when the problem comes to chemical/ pesticide pollution not only because of governmental ignorance but also because of lack of regulations/ different types of mafias! In these countries. The problem is that these governments rarely give the opportunity to real scientists/ environmentalists and most of these scientists/ environmentalists are pushed out of their countries. Now that Globalization and Global system is in place perhaps it is the time that Global regulatory agencies think about giving more opportunity to these real/ pure/ non-governmental scientists/ environmentalists instead of only communicate with governmental chosen ones. In my personal experience about GHS (Global Harmonization System) for pesticide/ chemical regulations, labeling, transportation etc., I realized that Global regulatory agencies are only considering the governmental side in these countries.
With best regards,
Ahmad Mahdavi,
PhD, environmental toxicologist,
Guelph, Ontario.
biomahda@yahoo.ca
Posted by: Ahmad Mahdavi | January 6, 2007 10:10 PM
How pesticides are handled in developing countries:
To use pesticides safely there must be done lots of research and there should exist lots of laws and regulations and enforcement, now let say that this is followed correctly in developed countries where the industry exists but the story and scenario is quiet different in developing countries.
In most of these developing countries there are no research/ regulations or if there is it is not followed / enforced absolutely and this is the problem and because it deals with the life of people and health of the environment it is a real big problem. When it comes to spraying technology and worker protection it is never practiced by ordinary farmers in these countries. These are my personal experiences/ observations during more than 35 years being involved in pesticide science work.
Living more than 15 years in Mazandaran, Golastan and Gillan the three beautiful Northern Provinces of Iran by the Caspian Sea I observed so many cases of pesticide intoxication, if you go and stay one day in a medical emergency station in Sari, Gorgan or Rasht you can see many. This is because people do their spraying without any protective clothing, most of times with bare foot and body because of hot weather and with any type of spraying equipment that they can find and they use lots of pesticides in their rice paddies, cotton fields and citrus orchards etc.
So as a result where there is no scientific research and laws and regulations as in developing countries then most use of pesticides should stop because no rules are followed
With best regards,
Ahmad Mahdavi,
PhD, environmental toxicologist,
Guelph, Ontario.
biomahda@yahoo.ca
Posted by: Ahmad Mahdavi | February 18, 2007 04:09 PM