Uzbekistan

A second major health risk is the abundance of pesticide-laden dust particles. Since the 1960s, Uzbek cotton farmers have drained their fields into the Amu Darya and Syr Darya waterways. These giant rivers have for decades carried pesticides from the cotton fields, towards the Aral Sea where they accumulate in the soil. Strong winds then collect the pesticide contaminated dust particles 

Of all the communities adversely affected by hazardous cotton pesticides, a substantial proportion are located in India home to more cotton farmers than any other country in the world. Indian cotton production is heavily associated with the intensive use of hazardous pesticides, and is responsible for over half of aU agricultural pesticides applied nationally. Within this figure Indian cotton is associated with some of the most hazardous pesticides used anywhere on earth . Characterized hy a near total lack of safety measures, low quality equipment, and with protective clothing often unavailahle or prohibitively expensive, Indian cotton production represents a highly unsafe environment within which to work f Observational studies reveal a heavy toll exerted on the health of those who work with cotton pesticides and chemical analysis has revealed traces of pesticide residues in blood samples taken from Indian cotton labourers. Cotton undoubtedly represents one of India s most important economic, nutritive and cultural commodities, but its conventional cultivation has become deeply problematic, both for those who grow it and because of the external costs of its impact on health and the en-vironmenP  

With over 8.3 million hectares under cultivation, India has more land under cotton than any other country. This cropland is tended by the world s biggest cotton farming community 

In an attempt to limit the damage caused by pest infestations, Indian cotton farmers now apply an estimated US 344 million of pesticides annually This represents 55% of the country s entire expenditure on agricultural pesticides a truly disproportionate figure given that cotton accounts for just 5% of India s total cropland . And within this figure a staggering US 235 million is spent trying to control boUworm alone . 

Meanwhile recent medical analyses of villagers from cotton farming regions in northern India has revealed a more subtle, yet equally disturbing health consequence of exposure to hazardous pesticides. Blood samples taken from residents to 4 villages in Punjab, -India s major cotton producing state - revealed traces of hazardous pesticides commonly 

The seriousness and extent of pollution relating to pesticides applied during the Soviet era supports an overwhelming case for reform of Uzbekistan s state-controlled cotton sector. However, despite the end of control from Moscow in 1991, Uzbekistan s totalitarian government has shown little interest in attempting to halt the damage caused by cotton pesticides. While the overall amount of pesticides applied has fallen due to decreased availability and increased costs , pesticides are still applied to cotton at two or three times the recommended amount  

In 2000, an international sluciy consistently found traces of highly toxic cotton-related pesticides in beef, sheep fat, chicken, fish, eggs, dairy products, onions and carrots produced in Uzbekistan-. A separate study by the World Bank ound that rost o Uzbekistan s ood products do rot reet rational ood quality standards due to cortariratior bv cotton 

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In the early 1980s mine capacity approached a level of 136,000 t/yr Mo, far more than demand. Several mines have since closed. As of the early 1990s total molybdenum capacity remained well above total demand of about 90,000 t/yr. Estimated 1993 production in units of metric ton of molybdenum was in Armenia, 450 t in Canada, 10,000 t in Chile, 15,000 t in China, 16,000 t in Iran, 1,400 t in Kazakhstan, 1,400 t in Mexico, 1,800 t in MongoHa, 1,400 t in Pern, 2,700 t in Russia, 5,000 t in Uzbekistan, 900 t and in the United States, 37,000 t. 

ALmalysky MetaUurgical Plant, Tashkent Region, ALmalyk, Uzbekistan... 

Scientific-technological complex Science and Progress" under Tashkent State Technical University 7a, Mirza Golib str, Tashkent, 700174, Uzbekistan, e-mail kabulov rambler.ru... 

Hepatitis E is associated with more than 50% of the acute hepatitis cases in endemic areas (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Mexico, the Middle East, Northern Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa). The virus is primarily transmitted by the fecal-oral route. Transmission of HEV is more prominent in underdeveloped countries where sanitation is poor. 

TurkishModel. Continued and upgraded promotion of the Turkish political and economic model of a secular, multi-party, market democracy. Turkish and US-based NGO s, policy and educational institutes, and multilateral organizations like GUUAM and OSCE can play an important role in adapting the Turkish experience to the particular socio-economic and political conditions in selected countries. The focus of such effort ought to be Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. 

Security Assistance. A Turkish-lead, U.S-supported program to provide security assistance to various Central Asian states, would certainly offer an alternative to the Russian option, or the politically unacceptable idea of direct U.S. engagement. Turkish experience in combating terrorism and insurgency, training and use of special forces in mountainous terrain and urban areas, and adept use of attack helicopters could in a relatively short time change the dynamics of actual and potential conflict in favor of the governments in countries such as Uzbekistan. 

In this case we can hardly say that the remaining HCH was being used as an exception. Here we see agricultural workers disregarding the ban. Materials from Minzdrav s 1987 examination of Uzbekistan are a good... 

The pesticide storage situation in the 1960-70s was typical of what was found in Uzbekistan only 40% of 1082 storehouses met health and hygiene requirements [A62]. Towards the end of the 1980s, only 75% of the pesticides used in the USSR were provided with storehouses [1]. A significant number of the chemical substance storehouses (20% in Russia, 23% in Ukraine) did not meet elementary health requirements. In Azerbaijan, there were no specialized storehouses for pesticides at all - these chemicals were being stored together with mineral fertilizers [19]. From that time on, very little has changed. 

The first day after cotton fields in Uzbekistan were treated with the OPPs demeton and DEF, the average daily concentration of these pesticides were tenths of a mg/m3 at a distance of 500-1000 m from the edge of the treated field, i.e. many times higher than levels that are safe for humans. 

When examining the Syrdaiya and Amurdaiya watersheds in 1979-80, it was found that DDT concentrations reached 0.119 mkg/l, and lindane concentrations reached 0.076 mkg/l [23]. In the cotton-growing regions of Uzbekistan in the beginning of the 1960s, concentrations of DDT in the canals and ditches reached 5.4 mg/1, of Aldrin reached 1.2 mg/l (600 times higher than the acceptable level), and of HCH reached 2.52 mg/l [A49, 27]. The concentration of methylmercaptophos reached 9.2 mg/l (900 times the acceptable level) in the water sources of the Khorezm Oblast of Uzbekistan [28]. 

Pesticides contaminate not only surface water, but also ground water and aquifers. By 1990 in the USSR, 15% of all pesticides used were detected in underground water [29]. Pesticides were detected in 86% of samples of underground water in Ukraine in 1986-87 (including DDT and its metabolites, HCH, dimethoate, phosalone, methyl parathion, malathion, trichlorfon, simazin, atrazine, and prometrin). In actual fact, the number of pesticides was apparently larger, but the laboratory was able to determine the content of only 30 of the 200 pesticides used at that time in Ukraine [29]. In the 1960s, in the Tashkent and Andizhan oblasts of Uzbekistan, the methylmercaptophos content in the water of studied well shafts was, by clearly underestimated data, 0.03 mg/l (MPC was 0.01 mg/l), of DDT was 0.6 mg/l (MPC was 0.1 mg/ I), and of HCH was 0.41 mg/l (MPC was 0.02 mg/l) [A49]. 

Pesticides marked influence on the health not only of those who used them, but of the entire population, was seen in all the Republics of the former USSR Azerbaijan [72], Armenia [A99], Kirgizstan [3], Belorussia [A105], Moldavia [11, 73, A42], Russia [3], Tajikistan [All, A86, A87, A95], Turkmenistan [3], Uzbekistan [57, A19, A33, A44, A49, A59, A62], and the Ukraine [3, A79]. Above, we looked at this issue from the point of view of how different groups of pesticides act. In this section we discuss two further aspects the geographical and medical-environmental (epidemiological). 

When analyzing the problem from the geographical standpoint, considering recent data, it is evident that the greatest growth in human illness linked to the immoderate use of pesticides is seen in Moldavia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan [1]. 

One of the regions of the USSR that suffered most from pesticide use was Uzbekistan, where a large amount of work took place in the 1960s without even elementary knowledge, and with chronic and mass violations of existing regulations and standards [A49]. 

Pesticide poisoning incidents from 1959-68 in Uzbekistan were analyzed. The acute poisoning analysis permitted us to divide sufferers into three groups the first indudes workers who have direct contact with pestiddes the second includes collective farm workers who worked in the fields shortly after the crops were treated and the third includes people who suffered the effects of pestiddes introduced into their bodies through water, food, and inhalation. 

At the end of the era of intensive cotton farming in Uzbekistan, 40% of the population of some regions that used pesticides intensively had disruptions to their nervous system and liver [1]. Table 3.4 gives results for the first half of the 1960s and for different types of illnesses. 

As can be seen, the cotton growing regions felt the main impact from mass OPP and OCP use. In another research paper [215] covering the health status of 2745 inhabitants of Uzbekistan working with OPPs and... 

Table.3.4. Illness in the rural population of Uzbekistan (adults and children) by nosological forms in the 1960s (per 1000 population) [49]... 

Chronic skin disease linked to pesticides affected 47.9% of 4329 cotton workers who had worked on several farms in the Tashkent Oblast of Uzbekistan in the 1960s, and had come into contact with OCPs and other pesticides [A46]. 

The average annual indicators for stillbirths in Uzbekistan are 1.5 times higher in regions with intensive pesticide use, in Kirgizia 1.6 times higher, and in Moldavia 1.2 times higher [A109]. 

In rural regions with maximal pesticide exposure, children more often suffer the following illnesses before the age of 14 [A109] iron-deficit anemias (10 times more often in Turkmenia, 4 times in Armenia, 2.5 times in Azerbaijan, 2 times in Uzbekistan, and 1.4 times in Moldavia) active tuberculosis (2 times in Moldavia, 2.3 times in Kirgizia, 1.6 times in Armenia and Azerbaijan) viral hepatitis (23.7 times in Turkmenia, 2.4 times in Armenia, 2 times in Azerbaijan, 1.2 times in Kirgizia) and acute upper respiratory tract infections (21 times in Turkmenia, 1.4 times in Kirgizia). 

In 1971-75, the health of a group of 2473 children aged 1-14 was studied in several farms of the Khorezm Oblast (Uzbekistan), where HCH, phosalone and DEF were used to grow cotton. Overall illnesses among children in the region where the air was contaminated with pesticides were three times higher than in the control region [A85]. 

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