Cotton pesticides cause more deaths in Benin

Agriculture is the main activity of nearly 80% of the rural population of Benin. The income from cotton is important for many farmers and for the national economy. But cotton pesticides can be extremely hazardous, particularly when poverty prevents users from taking necessary precautions. For the second season, as reported by Silvère Tovignan, Simplice Davo Vodouhê and Barbara Dinham, OBEPAB has investigated the adverse impacts on health and the environment.

At just eight years old, Modachirou Inoussa already helped his parents in the cotton fields, and 29 July 2000 started as a day like many others. Modachirou had worked hard and ran back to the house feeling thirsty. Finding no drink, he set off to search for his parents. On his way, Modachirou found an empty container, and scooped up some water to drink from a ditch. That evening he did not return home. A village search found his body next to the empty Callisulfan bottle innocently used to quench his thirst(1).
    In March 2000 Pesticides News reported on an investigation by Organisation Beninoise pour la Promotion de l’Agriculture Biologique (OBEPAB) into deaths and ill-health in the cotton growing areas of Benin in the 1999-2000 cotton season. The deaths were linked to the use of the pesticide endosulfan, introduced when insect resistance had built up to the widely used pyrethroid pesticides. Radio reports and awareness campaigns helped to reduce the impacts in the 2000-2001 agricultural season, but in a follow up study in the regions of Borgou and Alibori, OBEPAB found 241 cases of health problems and 24 deaths in two cotton growing regions. Eleven of the deaths were of children like Modachirou, aged under 10. 
    Like many African countries, agriculture is the main activity of nearly 80% of the rural population in Benin, and cotton production occupies an especially important place in the northern part of the country. Cotton is not only the main source of monetary income of the farmers, it is also a crop of national importance, and economic development of the country rests to a great extent on a successful cotton crop. 
    Cotton in Benin is produced with the help of diverse chemical products, both fertilisers and pesticides. But each year pesticides damage both the health of farming families and the environment. The problems arise from ‘misuse’, stemming from a lack of awareness of the hazards, and from the conditions on most of the poor, small-scale, farms, which make it extremely difficult for farmers to use highly toxic products without endangering their health and their environment. 
    These pesticide poisoning incidents are poorly recorded and there is no systematic means of collecting data. OBEPAB has investigated and documented some cases to draw attention to those involved in rural development of the use and misuse of pesticides, and of the dangers of pesticides for the working population. 

Collecting the data
The incidents reported here were investigated during August and September 2000, the main period for applying pesticides on cotton, and when farmers are most exposed. Four students in their third year of an agronomy degree, having followed a course on toxicology, were trained for one week by OBEPAB. The students were from the areas investigated: they spoke the local languages and were familiar with local customs. The training familiarised them with pesticide problems and the potential alternatives. In all, they interviewed affected families in 77 villages in 12 districts of Borgou and Alibori (see table 1). Three forms were developed for recording incidents: one for documenting information on the accidents and the products responsible; one for recording poor practices; and one specifically for recording information on the use of pesticides for fishing.

The investigations were drawn from well-informed sources, including: agricultural extensionists; rural radio – which carries reports on serious accidents to raise awareness; the societies distributing agrochemical inputs; and hospitals or health centres where the most serious cases of poisonings were treated. Doctors often record their observations in a register, and through consulting these registers with the health workers, OBEPAB was able to identify the villages and families of victims. Researchers then carried out more in-depth investigations, visiting the villages to conduct interviews. On arrival, the first people contacted were the village chiefs and the leaders of the ‘Groupement Villageois’ (village associations), who facilitated meetings with the victims or others able to provide reliable information. The 12 districts approached in Borgou and Alibori coincided with those where data were collected in the previous season, providing insight into the evolution of the problems.

The pesticides and their problems 
Although in the past farmers primarily used pyrethroid insecticides, insect resistance caused the advisory services to recommend switching to the active ingredient endosulfan, an organochlorine (see PN47, March 2000). The most widely used product is Callisulfan, supplied by the French company Calliope. Other products used are formulations of pyrethroids and the more acutely toxic organophosphates, which affect the nervous system. Table 2 sets out the commercial names and active ingredients most frequently used in the 2000-01 season, and those that could be linked to incidents.

Health impacts on farm families
The district of Banikoara accounted for 28% of acute poisonings, but no cases of death, whereas 50% of the deaths were concentrated in N’dali. This may be explained by the existence in Banikoara, the largest cotton producing area, of a rural radio station which broadcast information to increase awareness of pesticide hazards and the need to take safety precautions when handling products. 
    Of the total 265 people affected 75% were male, accounting for 71% of deaths, and 76% of acute poisonings, whereas women and girls accounted for 29% of the deaths and 24% poisonings. Proportionately, the largest group affected was children, with 11 children dying as a result of pesticide exposure – 46% of all deaths (see table 3). Those suffering health effects were predominantly aged 21-30 (37%). Children and young people are the most vulnerable.

Causes of poisoning incidents
Overwhelmingly, the main cause of accidents and deaths arose from consumption of contaminated food, which accounted for 162 incidents, including 18 deaths. Other major causes resulted from exposure through: working in a storeroom of the village association (48 cases); working in the field (43 cases including two deaths); and accidental ingestion (seven cases including two deaths). Attempted suicides accounted for five cases, and resulted in two deaths. 
    Accidental consumption resulted from eating grain treated with cotton pesticides to protect them against pests; drinking water stored in empty pesticide containers, or use of empty containers for drinking; confusion of a pesticide mixture with a drink; and consumption of food crops grown in association with cotton production and treated together with cotton in the field.
    To help conserve grain, and to discourage the birds and rodents which destroy seedlings in the fields, seeds are often coated with an insecticide, usually Callisulfan, and many villagers believe that washing the seeds with water is enough to clear any pesticide residues. The Mathieu family lived in the village of Bangourou in the commune of Ouénou , district of N’Dali. Houkpè Mathieu (35 years) had treated his sorghum seeds with Callisulfan to protect them from rats. He planted some seeds, and carried the remainder to his house. The next day, his wife, Marcelline (25 years), mixed this sorghum with another quantity and took it to the mill to be ground for household consumption. On 27 July 2000, she prepared the family meal using the ground sorghum. Two hours later, Houkpè, Marcelline and their five-year-old son Bruno suffered dreadful stomach pains. The neighbours took them to the health centre in N’Dali. Marcelline died before reaching the health centre, and Houkpè and Bruno died within five minutes of arrival. One of the family’s goats ate the remains of the meal and also died(2).
    Pesticides are readily accessible to those suffering humiliation or depression. Cases of suicide often involve young girls forced into marriage or carrying a child by an unnamed father. There are also cases where the family cannot cope with the shame of an unmarried pregnant daughter, and choose to kill her.

Symptoms and care of victims
The health effects noted by those interviewed were wide-ranging, including: loss of consciousness, total lethargy, sore and grating eyes, nausea, vomiting, convulsions, anxiety or feelings of agitation, drowsiness, hyper-salivation, dizziness, flu-like symptoms, diarrhoea, trembling limbs, extremely sore throat, burning skin, swelling of the skin (especially the arms), difficulty in breathing, difficulty in balancing, sweating, fever and a burning sensation in the throat.
    Of the 265 cases of poisoning investigated, the health centres knew only of 167, or 63%. The treatment offered included the use of atropine, glucose serum, oxygen and sometimes a stomach pump. Health centres also prescribed other medication to ease pain or avoid infection. 
    In the other cases, people estimated that the symptoms were not grave enough to justify seeking the services of a doctor, and they used indigenous remedies, which include drinking cows’ milk, massaging the body with shea nut butter, treating eyes with an extract of the plant Calotropis procera, drinking groundnut or palm oil and drinking kitchen salt.

Poor storage practices
At the level of the village association, pesticides are stored in reasonably well-constructed shops. But as the date for application approaches pesticides are distributed to farmers and become their responsibility. A survey of farmers in the villages concerned found that 88% kept pesticides in their bedroom, 9% under the grain store, 2% in an isolated place and 1% in their kitchen. 
    The practice of storing pesticides in bedrooms or in the house is explained by farmers’ concern to protect their inputs from thieves. But unfortunately, this is not without risk to their health and that of their family. Boubakari Issifou, aged seven, lived in the village of Goroubéri, district of Karimama. In September 2000, his father prepared a solution of Cotalm D to treat his cotton field. After spraying, the unused portion of the solution was poured into a four-litre container and left in a room serving as a storehouse. Six days later, the father opened the storehouse to look for something. Young Issifou was with him. Seeing the container, he confused the contents with a popular drink called ‘Hari farou’, and returned later to try it. He soon felt ill, and declared to his parents ‘the Hari farou in the container in our storehouse does not taste right.’ His parents made him vomit part of the solution and gave him fresh milk, oil and salt. Despite their efforts, Issifou died within about 19 hours of drinking the pesticide solution.

Unsafe conditions
Out in the fields, farmers are rarely able to take adequate precautions. Quick changes in the direction of the wind, or defective spraying equipment, expose them to pesticides. Protective clothing is not available or practical. Pesticide application is hard work, and users breathe in strongly while spraying.
    After application, it is difficult to isolate the equipment, empty or half empty containers and contaminated clothing. Even when precautions are taken, accidental results can be disastrous. Monsieur Issaka and his family live in the village of Nallou in the district of Nikki. On the evening of 7 August 2000, Issaka, who had treated his cotton field with Callisulfan (endosulfan), returned to the house and left his work clothes on the roof of the house out of reach of his four children, aged six to eight. During the night it rained, and the water passed through his clothes, dripping into some vessels for domestic use. The next morning their parents took water from these vessels for the children to drink and wash. Some minutes later, they began to have headaches, nausea and convulsions. They were taken urgently to the health centre of Nikki, where they were treated with Diazepam, glucose serum and oxygen. But all four children died within about 20 hours(3).

Animal poisonings
Both wild and domestic animals were affected by pesticide poisoning. Farmers said that birds (francolins, domestic or wild guinea fowl, owls), rodents and reptiles (lizards and snakes) which consumed treated seeds or insects killed by the pesticides also died. Farmers noted that after application, many of the insects living in the field and in the local environment, including butterflies, grasshoppers and ants, appeared to have been killed, as well as frogs, snakes and earthworms.
    Farmers and others living near lakes and water holes observed that in areas exposed to pesticide sprays, and especially after a fresh rainfall, they found dead fish of all ages and species floating on the surface, and evidence of dead frogs and other aquatic life. In the large water courses and rivers, these problems are less noticeable. 
    Cases were also recorded of livestock and wild animals being affected by pesticides, either by drinking water from contaminated sources, or by grazing on treated cotton stalks or grass bordering treated fields.

Use of pesticides for fishing
Of the 12 districts investigated, OBEPAB found that pesticides were used in six for fishing in rivers, streams, lakes and water holes. The team questioned 26 men who fished regularly, and 16 (61%) said they used pesticides. Of those questioned, 55% fished as their main activity: the others were farmers or herders who fished to supplement the family diet. Most could not read. They explained that pesticides allow them to catch a large number of fish in record time. Some of the lakes and water holes are private property and non-authorised users are trespassing: a rapid fish catch helps to avoid detection. Some say that other fishing techniques – a line, rod, hook or trap, are ‘out-dated’, as they are less efficient than pesticides. The method is strongly prohibited by the water and forest agencies. 
    The pesticides used are those available for pest control in cotton, and are bought from cotton farmers or the village associations. They are incorporated into small mud balls and thrown into the water, sinking directly to the bottom where the greatest numbers of fish are found. All species of fish are killed and float to the surface, where they can be easily gathered. These fish are sometimes for family consumption, and others are sold commercially, either fresh or smoked, on the edges of the lakes and in nearby markets. 

Conclusion
Pesticides intended to protect cotton are frequently misused, or applied in unsafe conditions, putting in peril the life of women, men and children in farming communities, as well as insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The problems caused by endosulfan have continued into the second season of its use, highlighting the need for stronger measures to control its import and use in Benin. Education and awareness-raising can reduce the worst cases of misuse of pesticides, and help to prevent accidents. But in many instances the situation of small-scale, poor farming communities cannot be changed, and the solution lies in developing alternative approaches which are less dangerous to human health and the environment. The international community, and particularly rural development organisations, must increase their efforts to encourage a safer and more sustainable agriculture.

Note: Names of victims and villages have been changed as permission was not obtained when conducting interviews. OBEPAB holds all original material.

1. Reports from: Kparatédji in the commune of Guéné, district of Malanville, Benin; El Adji Zibo Yaya, Treasurer of the village association of Kparatédji.
2. Reports from: Communal Health Centre of N’Dali, N’Dali police; Mr. Kora Basse Moussa, the secretary of the Tamarou Groupement Villageois
3. ‘Major health officer’ of the Commune of Biro, Monsieur Traoré Altik.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 52, June 2001, pages 12-14]