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The Dangers of Using Pesticides on Women and Children Working in the Agrarian Sector

How did the Egyptian law organize the usage of pesticides?
Pesticides are the components used to fight plant diseases, pests and insects, rodents, weeds and any other blights and parasite that harm both plants and animals.
The law states that the ministry of agriculture must form a committee for the pesticides of plant diseases. This committee is specialized to suggest the most suitable pesticides to be used on plant diseases. These pesticides must be allowed for circulation, apply to international specifications, and must be registered.
This committee specifies he type of pesticides to be imported and circulated after defining its' specifications and the conditions of importing and circulation. It defines the conditions and procedures of licensing the importing and trading process of these pesticides. It registers them and defines the tolls for using them (no more than ten pounds). It also takes samples of these pesticides for analysis and the necessary tolls (no more than five pounds), in addition to the necessary procedures for challenging the analysis result. The committee has the right to restrict the transportation of some pesticide types.
The Egyptian law forbids the manufacture pesticides, prepare, sell, offer for sale, trade, import or release it from customs without license or authorization from the ministry of agriculture.
To take samples of pesticides for analysis (for free), authorized officials have the right to enter any place that contains pesticides or suspect the existence of pesticides other than homes. They have the authority to take the pesticides that they suspect are forged.
Despite all that, Egypt is considered one of the biggest countries in consuming pesticides in comparison with the agricultural area in it. Pesticides represent a very serious problem on the economic and health levels.
On the economic level, the rate of wasted sprayed pesticide in Egypt is no less than 50% of the used pesticides. There are 500 types of registered pesticides n Egypt, 200 of them are forbidden. Therefore, we can imagine the size of risk and danger that food and citizens health face in Egypt, despite the issuance of the decision of the minister of agriculture no. 719 for the year 2005 that has specified the types and names of these forbidden pesticides "162 trade names, 247 common names and 42 raw components" but they are still being used. This decision had a negative effect, as manufacturers have spread secretly, pesticide prices have increased, selling and smuggling pesticides without license have also spread, which have negatively effected the safety of agrarian production and people's health in Egypt.
On the health level, using these forbidden pesticides has resulted in dozens of people being poisoned every year, in addition to the infection of thousands of people with dangerous diseases, like kidney and liver failure and cancer tumors. These pesticides cause the death of useful animals and birds, in addition to their dangerous effects on sea life. Pesticides leave their remainders in crops and drinking water, which dangerously effect people's health.
The effects of using pesticides on the health of working women and children:
Women and children working in the agrarian sector face many risks and dangers while using and spraying pesticides, especially "the Phosphene pesticide" used to fight the cotton worm. The symptoms of exposure to these pesticides are: dizziness, vomit and diarrhea, n addition to exhaustion, headaches, sight disturbance, muscle contraction, rapid heart beating and difficulty in breathing. In advanced cases, it leads to trance (unconsciousness) and sometimes death. These diseases are spread among working children in the agrarian sector, , as about 350 thousand children have been infected with cancer, 52% of the children who work in the agrarian sector are infected with anemia, 12% of them don’t go to school and 30% of them are infected with liver diseases as a result of spraying pesticides.
As for working women in the agrarian sector, who use pesticides and gather sprayed crops without any protection means, they get poisoned and sometimes die suffering of these pesticides. In addition to that, pregnant women lose their babies (embryo) or deliver premature or disfigured children.
These pesticides have been banned locally and internationally, but their effects still continue in the soil when used 40 years ago, which negatively effect crops and people's health.
What can we do?
We need to gradually transform to natural faming and get along without using poisonous chemicals that pollute the environment, in addition to improving the living conditions of children's families in the agrarian sector and provide them with social and economic care.
We need to improve the environment in the countryside, by connecting it with clean drinking water and providing it with safe drainage systems, in addition to guaranteeing health care and the rest of the basic services.
We need to prevent and ban the work of women and children in spraying and using pesticides, provide them with insurance when working in such hard and dangerous working conditions.
We need to allow them membership in the agrarian workers syndicate for free and compensate them for any injuries they face.
We need common efforts to stop violence against women and children who work in the agrarian sector.
Your participation in this struggle to guarantee the rights of women and children will contribute in making a better future for everyone.