Agriculture & Veterinary Chemicals
Residue, Human Health and Bangladesh
Agriculture and
Veterinary (AgVet) chemicals are broadly used to protect crops, livestock,
and other animals and plants from pests and diseases. AgVet chemicals
include pesticides (eg. insecticide, herbicide, fungicide and rodenticide)
, and veterinary medicines (eg. hormones, and antibiotics). They are also
used to boost plant and animal production. For example, pesticides
increase crop production through killing of pest’s plants and animals.
Drugs such as hormones and antibiotics help to boost animal growth.
Though, the use of
AgVet chemicals provides many benefits, however, it is believed that there
is also some risk that residues of these chemicals may be found in
agricultural produce. Residue are remains of a chemical either the
chemicals itself or as breakdown products. Residues in food and
agriculture produce may result from
the application of AgVet chemicals, accidental
contamination or intentional treatment of animals or feed with chemical or
drug or from environmental contamination.
AgVet chemicals
residue may enter into the human body through food chains. Therefore, the
risk of AgVet chemicals to human are in the risk of residues remaining on
the food consumed. For example, if animals are fed on feedstuffs treated
with pesticides, these hazardous chemicals can be taken up in meat, milk
and milk products. This is mainly due to hydrophobic (fat loving) nature
of some of pesticides that may cause them to be
incorporated and accumulated in the tissues of living organisms.
AgVet chemicals as residue if consumed by humans more than the
recommended maximum residue limits (MRL) can be hazardous to humans.
Human health
effects from pesticides residue in food include cancer, infertility,
miscarriage, male sterility, birth defects, and effects on nervous system.
The other pesticides related effects are disruption of endocrine system,
and suppression of immune systems. Eating meat with unacceptable levels of
hormones can lead to many side effects such as breast enlargement and
ovarian cysts. Presence of antibiotics residues in milk can make people
more vulnerable to allergic reactions to some medicines.
From
recent survey of Australia’s agriproducts undertaken under National
Residue Survey (NRS) and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ)
show a high rate of compliance with food standards. For example,
the National Residue Survey (NRS 2005) conducted during 2003-2004 found
that 99% agriculture produce contains AgVet chemicals which are below the
MRL s that is legally permitted or recognised as acceptable in or on a
food. The survey results suggest that Australian produce are clean and are
of high quality. The Survey included meat, grain, horticulture, and wild
caught fisheries products (see Table 1)
Table 1 : Summary
Results of Australian National Residue Survey on Agriculture Produce (NRS
2004)
|
AGRICUTURE
PRODUCTS TESTED
|
NUMBER
OF SAMPLES THAT EXCEEDED AUSTRALIAN STANDARDS or MRL
|
PERCENT
OF SAMPLES THAT EXCEEDED MRL
|
|
Meat
Products (cattle, sheep, pig, goat, horse and others)
|
7 samples out of
12654 samples tested
|
0.05%
|
|
Honey
|
0 sample out of
1293 samples tested
|
0.00%
|
|
Grain
products (cereal grains,
flour and bran, pulses, canola and others )
|
9 out of 5241
samples tested
|
0.17%
|
|
Horticulture
products (apple and pear,
nuts, onion and others)
|
1 sample out of 571
samples tested
|
0.17%
|
|
Fisheries-wild
caught (coral trout, eel, mackerel, pink snapper, prawn,
scallop, tuna, whiting)
|
0 out of 133
samples tested
|
0.00%
|
|
Aquaculture
products (barramundi, eel, marron, red claw, yabby, yellowtail
kingfish)
|
1 out of 13 samples
tested
|
7.70%
|
The
exposure of AgVet chemicals to humans (eg. pesticides) can be reduced
through washing of all fruits and vegetables with large amount of tap
water, peeling vegetables (eg. apple, pears, potatoes, carrots), removing
the outer layer of leaves (eg. lettuce, cabbage), and trimming fat from
beef, poultry, and fish (note : many
chemicals such as high risk pesticides are fat soluble).
A regular chemicals
residue monitoring program of Bangladesh agri-produce (eg. rice, fish,
prawn, vegetable and fruit) would help to protect the health of the people
of Bangladesh and to produce high quality food for domestic and export
markets. Monitoring for residues further helps to audit the use of
currently registered AgVet chemicals and whether chemicals are used
according to good agriculture practice. Furthermore, monitoring of surface
and groundwater for high risk pesticides residues and comparing the
results with guideline reference thresholds values would help to avoid
environmental consequences in Bangladesh; this program would also ensure
beneficial uses of water for a number of purposes including irrigation,
drinking, recreation, stock and domestic supply and aquaculture.
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References
-
Kennedy,
I.R., Skerritt, J.H., Johnson, G.I. and Highley, I. E. (1998). Seeking
agriculture produce free of pesticide residues. Australian Council for
International Agriculture Research (ACIAR, ACIAR Proceedings No 85.
406p.
-
NRS
(2004). National Residue Survey Annual Report 2003-2004. Australian
Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry,
Canberra. 164p
-
WHO
(1997).Guidelines for predicting dietary intake of pesticides
residues. Geneva; Joint UNEP/FAO/WHO food contamination monitoring
programme in collaboration with the codex committee on pesticides
residues, Geneva,.
-
Wilson,J.S
and Otsuki, T. (2004). To spray or not to spray: pesticides, banana
exports, and food safety. Food Policy 29 : 131-146
The
information was compiled by Dr Golam Kibria, Ph.D in September 2005 for http://www.sydneybashi-bangla.com/
. Views expressed in this article are those of the author and are not to
be taken to be the views of any others including third parties. The author
disclaims any liability for any error, loss or other consequences which
may arise from relying on any information in this article.
Dr Golam Kibria is a Senior Environmental Scientist with the Australia’s
largest Rural Water Authority and based in Victoria
