HESO 449: Ecohealth SDS

Although sustainable practices may not truly be sustainable, I can’t imagine “sustainable agriculture” being as harmful as the toxic pesticides that were shown in “The Conventional Trap” video. The farmers are committing suicide using the chemicals that are sprayed on the crops since they are getting in such huge debt from the pests constantly becoming resistant to the new pesticides and thus new ones have to be bought, which are more expensive.
However, if it is the case that supposed sustainable practices are this extreme it may not be worthwhile until there is accessible and affordable tools to use to effectively produce sustainable products for farmers in these developing countries. In the meantime, proper gear should be provided to these farmers to handle the toxic chemicals, at least.

I found the following interesting in the “Drinking Water Causes Cancer video:

– The man stated that 5 year prior, there had been a study conducted regarding the water toxicity (Arsenic poisoning). The study had uncovered the source of the toxicity (mining) and the health impacts. The connection between skin cancers and ulcers had been made to the contamination of the water source; however, what I understood from this video was that the researchers had just left medicine and skin creams for the people to use. The man claimed that even these were ineffective. It seems interesting that despite identifying the clear linkages between human actions in the environment and their adverse effect on human health, these researchers did not contribute to more environmental changes which would help create safer drinking water sources rather than just offering strictly medicinal interventions, which are usually temporary and ineffective since they don’t address the source of the problem. With the ecohealth approach, this research could have informed changes in the mining industry which may have resulted in lower levels of contamination. Conversations and knowledge sharing between the different parties involved can be a first step in addressing contamination issues. Of course, with money being a primary driving force behind industries such as mining, transdisciplinarity and equity become even greater challenges….

The Video “Drinking water that causes Cancer” demonstrated a lot of problems with Arsenic contamination and showed how little has been done in that village to address these issues. There was a mention of an investigation in the video and like Dena indicated, I was also wondering why the researchers that clearly identified this problem didn’t take further long term and sustainable action to improved it (besides giving the people of the village medications that were not even effective)? I think in order to answer this question, we need to know where the researcher were from and who conducted the study. For example, were there any NGO’s involved or was it an independent investigation funded by a mining company? People of the village are aware of the contamination and they have seen its deadly health effect first hand. They feel powerless since they don’t have the power and resources to create safer drinking water or stop the mining that causes arsenic contaminated water. An Ecohealth approach is a great way to intervene but in order for this to happen the government or other NGO’s need to take some immediate action to alleviate this ongoing contamination problem.

I just want to go a step back to underlying causes of both of the videos/topics we’re discussing in India. All of you have mentioned it, but we are, at the heart of these issues, talking about an imbalance of power. Pesticide companies, mining companies, the government, and even those pesticide sellers, they benefit to the detriment of their brothers and sisters, well they benefit financially.
I wish that these people could see on a larger scale that they are making themselves sick– they’re society, their land and water. I think that videos like this though are so important to see the reality of what we talk about in ecohealth, people’s lives. The daily trials and tribulations of people who don’t know where to find water that won’t blister their skin and sicken their children, of facing the reality of a pesticide resistant pest, and seeing that you’ve been dug into a hole you can’t get out.
I feel like only an extremely compartmentalized health group would give cream and ointment to a community drinking arsenic contaminated water. It’s just insulting and I think any organization like that should be ashamed.

For the video “the conventional trap”, we can’t change the fact that cotton still needs to be grown to meet the world’s demand but we can help them to reduce the harms of pesticides. To add onto the ecohealth approach that Nisa mentioned, we can start a community based public health intervention for pesticide education. An intervention group can approach local respected elders to get their help in teaching and training members from their own community. These trained workers can then pass on the information to their fellow community members.

These two videos are depressing and it was really difficult to finish watching them. With the power of the social media, a lot of videos like these two have surfaced on the web. While they act as a reminder to how privileged our lives are, very few people actually get involved. Have you noticed that we only see videos of “problems” and we hardly ever see anything on the attempted “solutions”? I think it would be a great help to motivate public action if we can have videos on interventions. Regardless of the intervention’s success or failure, it would be good record it and show the next group coming forward what succeeded what needs to be learned.