Nothing new in this. Or very dramatic. But it is important, when you consider, the number of such interest groups that operate, indeed flourish in our country. And, more importantly, when you consider how weak opposition to them is. These groups have a direct interest in ensuring that public health related regulations are weakened – from tobacco industry to the car industry. What we need is equally strong – countervailing – pressures from the protectors of public health concerns. It is this asymmetry that leads to the problems we see before us.

Take the issue of pesticides. We have had a close encounter with this equally noxious but definitely more powerful industry grouping. It is roughly two years to this date, a medical doctor living in Padre village in Kerala wrote to us about the unusually high incidences of deformity cases and increasing numbers of cancer deaths in his village. My colleagues collected samples and our laboratory for environmental monitoring tested and found exceptionally high residues of organochlorine pesticide – endosulfan – in human blood, water and food.

The pesticide lobby then launched a virulent disinformation campaign with twin aims; to discredit the CSE study and to prove that endosulfan is safe and harmless. Since the mid 1970s, the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) had sprayed endosulfan from the air in its cashew plantations, located in densely populated Kerala highlands. But industry’s view was that the "endosulfan issue has been exaggerated". A counter scientific study – done by the Fredrick Institute of Plant Protection and Toxicology, commissioned by government, was released by the pesticide association. Not surprisingly the extracts of the report said, "results of residues of blood samples from the subject showed no residues". The government was happy to listen and the use of endosulfan continued. Then because of the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission, an eminent medical professional took on the work to study impacts. A team lead by H N Saiyed of the National Institute of Occupational Health, collected samples from the villages and found that after one year of spraying in the area, human blood and water contained residues of endosulfan. They found high congenital abnormalities, neurological problems and abnormalities in the reproductive systems – much in excess of the control populations studied. They concluded that the causative agent could be endosulfan.