The team of experts led by Professor Romeo F. Quijano, Member, Forum Standing Committee, Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS), Co-Chair, International Persistent Organic Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) and member, Pesticide Action Network Steering Council confirmed that the health problems at villages in Kasargod are caused by the pesticide Endosulfan.

Ms. Revathi Ramachandran , Research Officer, Pesticide Action Network - Asia Pacific (PAN AP), Dr. Praveen and Dr. Rajkumar of Community Health Cell, Bangalore were the other members of the team. The fact-finding mission visited the affected villages in Enmakaje, Bellur, Muliyar panchayaths in Kasaragod District.

They reviewed the reports, visited the affected areas, conducted interviews and examined the victims. After the visit they stated that it is very clear that the complaints of the people are valid and the health disorders are a result of exposure to endosulfan.

Many of the affected are young people and children and there is very clear evidence pointing to mothers having been exposed during times of pregnancy said Prof. Romeo. Pesticides like endosulfan can cause nervous system disorders, physical malformations, mental retardation, immunologic disorders and even cancer he added.

They looked for possible confounding variables like other pollutants, hereditary and nutritional factors and there was practically none. The illnesses documented by the local medical practitioners are compatible with adverse effects expected from exposure to endosulfan. The known mechanism of toxicity of endosulfan could explain the predominance of neurologic and mental disorders occurring in the villages the Professor explained. He added that in his expert opinion, no other reasonable cause can explain the illnesses experienced by the people, except endosulfan.

Dr. Romeo, who is Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Philippines, is technical consultant to the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, Agricultural Department as well as the Health Department in the Republic of Philippines. The Philippine Government has banned endosulfan since 1994 and has been pushing for the inclusion of endosulfan in the list of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) for global elimination as provided for in the Stockholm Convention, 2001.

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