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23 pesticides banned

LAHORE: The Federal Plant Protection Department (FPPD) has banned 23 pesticides due to their ill-effects on human health or resistance to pests and insects.

"Mostly those products have been banned which are carcinogenic", FPPD Director General, M.D Mohsin said.

Some 1,663 pesticides products have been registered with the department since 1973.

Of these pesticides, 501 products are those which have been registered on the basis that these were already registered in the member countries of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and in China.

Mohsin said the use of certain pesticides against whitefly has been banned due to the resistance of the insect against these agro chemicals. However, these can be used against jassids.

He said that about 20 formulation plants in the country were lying idle. APP