Niamatullah stressed in a statement to Arab News on Saturday the need to eat or use fruits and vegetables after washing them thoroughly to avoid poisonous remnants of agricultural pesticides entering human body.
The academic recommended the minimum use of pesticides at homes. He said people should block the entry of mosquitoes and fleas by securing their windows with nets instead of continuously spraying poisonous substances.
He also recommended the use of insect traps at various locations in a house and spray insecticides between long intervals.
He warned people against remaining at locations where pesticides have been sprayed recently or repeatedly and also advised washing bodies after exposure to insecticides to avoid toxic substances entering the body through the skin.
Consultant of Toxicology at the Poison Center in Jeddah Dr. Muhammad Adnan said 40 cases of poisoning come to the center annually. He stressed the importance of identifying the type of poison in order to treat poisoning cases successfully. He said over the past two years several deaths were caused by phosphine poisoning in Jeddah. “People should not forget those tragedies," he said. "The pesticides used by government agencies are generally safe except when they are used in a wrong manner.”
In one of the more highly publicized incidents, a Jeddah-based pesticide company used aluminium phosphide — a very dangerous industrial grade controlled pesticide — to fumigate at a local residential compound in February 2009. The illegal use of the pesticide led to the death of two Danish children and the near-fatal poisoning of the children's parents. Although two of the company's employees were detained for questioning, the family received no compensation for the deaths.
The US Environmental Protection Agency categorizes aluminum phosphide as a “restricted use pesticide” mainly used as an indoor fumigant at crop transport, storage or processing facilities. When the chemical comes in contact with moisture (including ambient humidity) it produces a dangerous gas that can be odorless in fatal concentration but more often has a garlic or fishy smell.
Several other incidents of families using aluminum phosphide procured illegally from local merchants occurred that lead to the death of numerous children, who are particularly susceptible to the poison.
Merchants have often sold single-use doses of aluminum phosphide with no warning labels and potentially dangerous instructions for use. The problem became so acute that the governorate of Makkah ordered a crackdown on the sale of the dangerous pesticide.
Adnan said the officials in his office were victims of poisoning when a contractor disinfected the premises without taking the necessary precautions. He recommends that anyone using a professional exterminator should demand to see the ingredients being used and to protect yourself with due diligence.
“The contractor should supply the name of the pesticide and its contents in addition to the recommended antidote against poisoning," he added. “I recommend anyone intending to disinfect his house to ask the spraying contractor to instruct him on the precautions. He should also ask the contractor how long the windows should remain closed.”
