question_answer

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

Modern pesticides are like a two-edged sword. On one hand, they save lives. Indeed, through their use, many millions of people in developing nations have escaped the scourge of diseases such as malaria and typhus. These chemicals have also staved off potential famine by halting crop-destroying hordes of locusts in Africa and Middle East. And they've spared millions from malnutrition and premature death by helping to boost global food production.

But on the other hand, many pesticides like Aldrin, Lindane and DDT are so poisonous that they have become a growing peril in the Third Worked. "They're getting completely out of control in developing countries," charges attorney Jacob Scherr of the Natural Resources Defense Councils, a US environment organization that monitors government agencies. "They're being used indiscriminately. Because they are constant threat to human health and environment most of these pesticides have either been pulled off from the market or tightly restricted in the US. However, there are no current figures on the amount of banned or restricted chemical shipped abroad. The US Environmental Protection Agency knows little about most of these unregistered products shipped abroad. The US is not alone in selling such pesticides to the developing nations. Most of the rest come from Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Japan.

All pesticides involve real or potential hazards. For peasants in Guatemala putting a pesticide in their water doesn't matter if it's registered or unregistered. Its poison by definition but the problem is lack of knowledge, lack of training on the part of the applicators/ lack of awareness of what these chemicals are and how dangerous they can be."

Lou Falcon is an entomologist from the University of California and a veteran of pest control projects in Central America says, "You can buy DDT or parathion over the counter in the little market shops.

They'll ladle it out just like wheat or rice." Sometimes highly toxic pesticides are sold in paper bags or used in coke and beer bottles. In Guyana, for example three inebriated peasants died when they mistakenly drank a solution of malathion from such beer bottles.

(i) Answer the following questions:

(a) Why does the author compare pesticides to a two-edged sword?

(b) What were some of the benefits of using pesticides initially?

(c) The developed world is indulging in some unethical practices against the developing nations. How?

(d) How are people in Guatemala becoming an easy prey to such toxic pesticides?

Answer:

(i) (a) The author compares pesticides to a two-edged sword because on the one hand they have helped to save many people from dying due to malnutrition and on the other they are proving to be a hazard to human health and environment.

(b) To ward off diseases like malaria and typhus, staved off potential famine by halting crop- destroying hordes of locusts, spared millions from malnutrition and premature death by helping to boost global food production (any two).

(c) The US and many other European countries including Japan are selling unregistered and banned pesticides to the underdeveloped countries and are indirectly responsible for creating health problems in these countries.

(d) They are uneducated and unaware of the danger of consuming these pesticides. These pesticides are easily available in market and sold in used beer bottles which are consumed directly.