Vegetables dealers using poison to kill pests

Rawalpindi

The use of refined poison to kill pests from the vegetables are playing havoc with the lives of the people who are even not able to realise what is being done to them for some extra financial gains.

According to vegetable seller, Kashif Hameed, a bottle of designated chemical costing Rs2500-Rs3000 is generally used to kill pests from the vegetables like spinach, carrot, eggplant, broccoli, red chard, cabbage, fenugreek leaves, lettuce and mushrooms.

“The pests evolve a resistance against chemical after some years due to which new kind of chemical is needed to remove them. Non-availability of new kinds of chemical in Pakistan makes it difficult to kill all the pests from the vegetables due to which the wholesale dealers use poison for this purpose,” he said. He said water is collected in big jars and utensils and then poison is mixed with it thoroughly on low heat, adding “The vegetables are inserted into this poisonous water to kill pesticides. It helps remove pests but poison makes its way into outer layer of these vegetables.”

Kashif Hameed said one can imagine what poisonous vegetables can do to the health of the people and it is being done everywhere to get profits. He said the bottle of poison that is used to kill pests from the vegetables is available at only Rs300 due to which the wholesale dealers find it comparatively easier to get rid of pests using small amount of money.