Home to two coal power plants, a fertilizer plant, and a large oil refinery, the city of Bathinda in Punjab, India is making people sick. Forty percent of the population (nearly 90,000 people) suffers from respiratory ailments. The area also suffers from a host of other diseases including cancer, at a rate triple that of other areas, which has been linked to agrochemicals.
Doctors are urging people to use medicinal inhalers, which is culturally stigmatized. Rather than demanding strict environmental controls, doctors have asked authorities to fund an education campaign to dispel the stigma associated with inhaler use.
Over a million people live in the Bathinda District, known as the cotton belt of Punjab – as in genetically modified cotton sprayed with toxic agrochemicals. As a result, the area has also been plagued by high rates of spontaneous abortions, cancer, genetic deformities, anemia, diarrhea, vomiting, fluorosis, bone problems, and a host of skin ailments including rashes and boils.
Debt-related farmer suicides in India spike highest in Bathinda and Sangrur. Dr Vandana Shiva lays this squarely on the lap of GM seed sellers who lure farmers into an ever increasing cost for seed and pesticides. More...
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Doctors are urging people to use medicinal inhalers, which is culturally stigmatized. Rather than demanding strict environmental controls, doctors have asked authorities to fund an education campaign to dispel the stigma associated with inhaler use.
Over a million people live in the Bathinda District, known as the cotton belt of Punjab – as in genetically modified cotton sprayed with toxic agrochemicals. As a result, the area has also been plagued by high rates of spontaneous abortions, cancer, genetic deformities, anemia, diarrhea, vomiting, fluorosis, bone problems, and a host of skin ailments including rashes and boils.
Debt-related farmer suicides in India spike highest in Bathinda and Sangrur. Dr Vandana Shiva lays this squarely on the lap of GM seed sellers who lure farmers into an ever increasing cost for seed and pesticides. More...
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