Doctors and scientists from various parts of the country, who were here to attend a three-day Punjab Science Congress, today said that environmental toxicity in Punjab was high.

Some scientists were of the opinion that all the three major types of toxicity —chemical, radiation and biological — were rampant in Punjab. A section of doctors observed that government spending on the public health care in the state was far from satisfactory. “The adverse effects of toxicity on animals and humans are visible and some studies have proved this. It is clear that Punjab is in a deep ecological crisis for rampant use of chemicals and pesticide in agriculture,” said Dr SS Gill, Vice Chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS).

Jaipur: The environment report card is out and Rajasthan is among the worst performers in the country. A latest compendium of “Environment Statistics India 2012” released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MOSPI) indicates that Rajasthan’s environment situation is appalling.

The state has the fifth highest consumption for pesticides in the country. This despite Rajasthan’s contribution to agriculture being under 10% nationally. Moreover, agrarian states like Punjab and Haryana have witnessed a dip in usage of pesticides even as it goes up in Rajasthan. The report noted that the due to excess use of pesticides, organisms develop resistance and lead to major health issues.

In 2009, a government survey had counted 7,738 people living with cancer across Punjab. Now that a fresh survey has counted 23,874, over three times as high, the government has acknowledged the need to identify the causes and tackle what is clearly a menace.

"Fresh studies will have to be undertaken, especially for areas where cancer incidence is high," says Health Minister Madan Mohan Mittal. The nearly 24,000 cases detected was in addition to over 33,000 deaths from cancer-related causes in the last five years — around 18 a day — and 84,453 people who showed cancer-like symptoms but who hadn't yet been diagnosed with the disease.

Three widely-used pesticides made by Switzerland's Syngenta and Germany's Bayer pose an acute risk to honeybees, the European Union's food safety watchdog said on Wednesday, but stopped short of li

The excessive use of pesticides by farmers in India is hindering the country’s efforts to penetrate the global market for fruits and vegetables in a big way, according to Sreejith Aravindakshan from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Talking to The Hindu here on Sunday, Dr. Aravindakshan, who was here to participate in the National Biodiversity Congress, said India’s horticultural exports to northern Europe were largely constrained by the inability of the smallholder-dominated production system to meet western food safety standards marked by low tolerance for pesticide residue.

The central government has pledged to launch a national program to speed up efforts to control and improve the country's soil protection.