Trying to stop children getting poisoned in Cape Town

The University of Cape Town’s Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health Research, or COEHR, is trying to reduce the numbers of poor children being accidentally poisoned by pesticides, which are sold freely on the streets of Cape Town in South Africa.

A poster explaining the project attracted plenty of attention at the recent GUNI conference on university-community engagement in Barcelona, Spain.

In 2005, COEHR was approached by an NGO concerned about the high number of street vendors being exposed to street pesticides. Research with informal vendors uncovered a link between pesticides sold freely on the streets in poor areas and young children being hospitalised with symptoms of poisoning.

These chemicals, often highly concentrated pesticides intended for use in agriculture, can be easily bought at taxi ranks, train stations and from roving street pedlars for pest control and are often decanted into juice or water bottles.

Aldicarb, a highly toxic pesticide used on nematodes in agriculture, is often repackaged and sold as rat poison. On the streets it is known as ‘two steps’ because that is all a rat can manage after eating it.

Children, especially the very young, sometimes ingest the pesticides by mistake. Cases included an eight-month-old baby from Philippi township found sitting on the floor of his home sucking an empty packet of Aldicarb, and a four-year-old boy from Bonteheuwel township who drank milk-like liquid, from a water bottle kept under the sink, that turned out to be cockroach poison.

Both recovered from acute poisoning but the long-term effects on their health are unknown as both chemicals are neurotoxins.

“This is a silent urban health risk. Selling is illegal but punishing the traders will not solve the problem. You have to work with a whole range of people including government officials, industry, health professionals and member of the community,” said Hanna-Andrea Rother, head of the Health Risk Management Programmes at COEHR.

The research team has made several recommendations for reducing the risks, including stickers advising people of alternative forms of pest control, and pamphlets with alternatives and warnings.

But the root of the problem lies in poverty and, more specifically, the combination of poor housing, sanitation and refuse collection in the poorer areas of Cape Town.

Therefore the team recommends that pest control be included in all of South Africa’s strategies for reducing poverty, and specific campaigns be conducted to promote more sustainable forms of pest control in poorer communities.