Geneva, Mar 11 (Prensa Latina) Countries around the world must augment controls over the use of pesticides for they are causing 200,000 deaths a year due to poisoning, UN experts have warned.
In a yearly report to the UN Council on Human Rights, the organization’s Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Food, Hilal Elve, warned that if the problem is worse in poor and developing nations, no country is immune to these harmful substances.
She added that 99% of serious cases of accidental poisoning with pesticides occurs in developing countries, and in 80% of these cases these nations do not have the required resources to enforce the norms that regulate the use of pesticides.
The UN official said that most of the population around the world is exposed to pesticides through food, water, air or direct contact with the chemicals and toxic waste.
There are irreversible consequences to health, such as cancer, Alzheimer, Parkinson, hormone disorders, sterility and growth disorders.
In the case of pregnant women, these run the risk of abortion, premature birth and congenital malformations of babies.
