Child died because of pesticide residues in fruit on parliamentary agenda

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Rıdvan Turan has submitted a parliamentary question about a four-year-old child who is revealed to have died because of pesticide residues on the pomegranate she ate.

On October 30, 2019, members of the Çakır family were admitted to the hospital after having a stomachache and dizziness. Saliha Çakır lost her life while other members of the family were treated.

Saliha Çakır's autopsy report surfaced a few weeks ago, revealing her cause of death.

Her father, Üzeyir Çakır, said, "It has been determined that it was because of chemical stuff. We were all poisoned by that pomegranate. Because my daughter was so young, her body could not stand it, she passed away."

In his parliamentary question, MP Turan said, "After this incident, the use of pesticides in agricultural products in Turkey and the inadequacy of inspections and the ineffectiveness of the application-control-monitoring system came under the spotlight once again."

273 inappropriate samples

Citing food engineer and academic Bülent Şık's articles, Turan said analyses on agricultural products exported by Turkey to EU countries have found dangerous and banned pesticides.

"Food products exported from Turkey are analyzed in the importing country. Reports of pesticide residue analyses on products are on the web portal known as Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF).

"Reviewing the records of the last two years, it is seen that an agricultural poison called chlorpyrifos, despite being banned by in April 2016 and defined by the World Health Organization as one of the 12 most dangerous poisonous substances for children, has been found in both products in Turkey and exported products."

In the last two years, 273 samples of products imported from Turkey were found "inappropriate" and 11 percent of them included chlorpyrifos residues, said Turan.

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Questions

Turan asked these questions to the two ministers:

What is the reason for the forensic medicine report to be announced two years later?

What are the ministry's methods for combating pesticides in Turkey?

Are the banned substances produced in Turkey? Are they sold by retailers?

What is the reason for the widespread use of pesticides?

What is the number of adults and children who got cancer, lost their health and lives because of pesticides in agricultural products? (AÖ/VK)