Pesticides in rice eaten by the general public

Kathmandu. A study report has shown that pesticide residue was found in the rice consumed by the common people. About 83 percent of rice was found to have pesticide residues in the samples collected from different places. These results have come from a survey conducted on 120 commercial farmers of Mayadevi Rural Municipality and an interview conducted with 50 pesticide sellers and rice traders in the district.

The report also examined pesticide residue levels in rice samples collected from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur. In the test, about 83 percent of the rice was found to contain some kind of pesticide residues, of which about 80 percent of the samples contained two or more types of pesticide residues. It has been mentioned that more and higher amount of residues were found in the samples of Kathmandu than other districts, while such residues were found more in Basmati rice. According to the report, the amount of pesticide residues ranged from 5.09 micrograms per kilogram to 312.54 micrograms per kilogram, while the average was 22.13 micrograms per kilogram.

While tricyclazole, thiamethoxam and tebuconazole are the most commonly found pesticides, the report expressed concern that banned and toxic substances such as aluminum phosphide and chlorpyrifos are still being used. However, the conclusion of the report is that there is no immediate health risk from eating rice with such residues. During the risk assessment, both the hazard quotient and the hazard index are less than 1, so it is said that the risk from consumption is not large in the current situation.