Who Pesticide Safety Professionals Serve

I will publish no pictures today.

This is a post in mourning.

I write to honor Dr. Raghubir Singh Chikara of Bahalgarh, Sonepat in Haryana. His wife and he lost their only son to lymphoma and its treatment.

Dr. Raghubir Singh Chikara is a hero. He continues to serve his patient community though medicine has so tragically failed his family and him.

Cancer is one of the dreaded words in our lexicon. Losing a loved one to this disease is a shattering tragedy.

Cancer is exceptionally vicious when it strikes an innocent child. It robs families and the nation as well.

It is futile to mourn the death alone. We owe society to strive for prevention and change.

Not all the reasons for cancer are known, but there are certainly quite a few.

Cancer is one of the established implications of crossing the NOEL threshold of any pesticide. Pesticide safety professionals can leave no stone unturned to protect all humans, animals, and the environment from avoidable and harmful exposures to essential farm inputs and vector-control agents.

Here is an action plan for which I request your responses:

1. Store pesticides out if reach of children and women of child-bearing ages.
2. Do not spray in windy conditions.
3. Control drift using high-pressure and electrostatic delivery systems.
4. Degrade residues in water, soil, and farm outputs, using alkaline and microbial agents.
5. Monitor health of all individuals at risk, so that every hyperplasia is detected in time, and stopped in its tracks.

Let us all join hands to defeat the scourge of pesticide-abuse and avoidable ill-health.