CAMERON HIGHLANDS, Nov 19 — In response to an earlier study that found several types of banned pesticides at water catchment and riverine systems on the highlands, a non-governmental organistion here is taking it further by taking air samples to determine the presence of pesticides.
Spearheaded by Regional Environmental Awareness Cameron Highlands (Reach), the project took off in October.
Reach president R. Ramakrishnan said the association had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Meteorological Department to conduct the sampling.
“The air samples were taken from the biodiversity centre at Gunung Brinchang to test for presence of chemicals in the air,” he said.
Speaking to Malay Mail, Ramakrishnan said three samples had been taken since October.
“We will test for four parameters first. We will increase the parameter to 16 if necessary,” he said.
He added that due to heavy usage of chicken droppings in the highlands by farmers, it was inevitable that the level of ammonia would be high.
Malay Mail had previously reported that traces of endosulfan, edrine ketone, aldrin and DDE — a derivative of the dangerous DDT — were found in six sampling sites conducted by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
The study showed the pesticides are persistent organic pollutants.
Ramakrishnan said despite presenting the report of pesticides found in water, no action had been taken by authorities to clean up the highlands.
“As it is, we are seeing more cancer and child birth defect cases,” he said.
Ramakrishnan blamed the problem on illegal pesticides sold in Cameron Highlands by unscrupulous businessmen.
“The businessmen only sell it to their known contacts. Even I had to use a farmer contact to get the illegal pesticides,” he said.
