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13 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 JANUARY 2019 NEWS DAVID HUDSON A total of 13 patients were admitted to hospitals in Malta and Gozo due to acute and chronic pesticide poisonings be- tween 2013 and 2017. This week in Parliament Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne tabled a list of these cases according to data collected by the National Hospitals Information Systems (NHIS). Fearne emphasised that the list of 13 cases does not include patients who were examined at the Emergency Department at Mater Dei and who weren't admitted to a hospital ward for some reason or other. The NHIS data does not clarify how the patients concerned were poisoned but the report states that the individuals con- cerned suffered the effects mostly due to accidental poisoning through pesticide exposure. Fearne also tabled data on crops and products that were recalled from the market due to being contaminated with pesticide residue after PN MP Jason Azzopardi demanded the information in Parliament back in September of last year. According to the Department of En- vironmental Health, between 2013 and 2018, 19 products were taken off the market due to pesticide residue. One of these products was baby food. It was recalled because it contained a residue of Didecyldimethylammonium Chloride, an antiseptic often used as dis- infectant cleaner. The substance, though research is in- conclusive so far, has been found to cause rashes, numbness, nausea and headaches in human beings and reduced liver function and fertility in certain ro- dents according to the US Environmen- tal Protection Agency (USEPA). The data tabled by Fearne also showed that two contaminated batches of Goji berries in 2017 and 2018 were not re- called in time and were sold to unsus- pecting customers. In the 2017 case, the Goji berries con- tained traces of Propargite and in 2018, the same product contained traces of Nicotine. Back in November 2017, the Environ- mental Health Directorate within the Superintendence of Public Health issued a warning regarding Goji berries, telling the public not to consume this product since it contained Propargite. In accordance with the Food Safety Act and Regulation (EC) No. 178 of 2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Propargite was not in compli- ance with safety procedure due to this pesticide being potentially carcinogenic. The substance is likely to increase the probability of fatal tumours of the intes- tine according to USEPA. Speaking to MaltaToday, Jeanette Borg, founder of Malta Youth in Agriculture Foundation (MYAF), said that a lot has been said with regards to pesticides but little has been done. "The issue is twofold. On one hand we are being invaded by new pests across our borders and on the other hand we are not conducting enough research on the ground to tackle such pests," she said, adding that farmers needed to be seen as a solution and not a problem. Borg argued that unless more Human Resources and expertise are allocated to government departments related to plant health and pesticides, the problems would persist. "Farmers need to be given more sup- port in a system that has failed them." While farmers have undergone train- ing, Maltese produce failed the highest number of pesticide tests in Europe just last year. In 2018, the European Commission said that Maltese and Cypriot farmers were the only ones amongst the Europe- an member states to not have their pes- ticide sprayers inspected by authorities. The European Food Safety Authority found in July of last year that one in ten local products were sprayed with chemi- cals over the legal limit. Bromide was the most common chemi- cal found, a substance that is acutely tox- ic, especially in its fumigant state, with inhalations of the substance commonly causing severe problems to lungs and the skin. Around 1,000 poisoning inci- dents documented by USEPA saw effects ranging from skin and eye irritation to breathing problems, depression, irrita- bility and even death. Local tomatoes sampled in June were found with traces of pesticides way over the legal excess, in breach of the allowed maximum residue levels. Boscalid, Cya- zofamid, Lufenuron and Clorfenapyr were chemicals found in the samples, substances that have been found by USEPA to cause liver and kidney prob- lems amongst other things. At least 13 cases of acute and chronic pesticide poisonings in five years YANNICK PACE WEIGHT can be used as an indi- cator for one's propensity to tak- ing evidence-based decisions, ac- cording to the results of a study by Maltese doctors. The study, published in the Malta Medical School Gazette, compared impulsivity in subjects with a body mass index (BMI) over 30 to that of healthy volun- teers. It found that obese subjects ac- cumulated less evidence prior to decision-making, along with a trend towards "enhanced delay discounting" – the likelihood that a person opts for an imme- diate reward over a larger reward further in the future. The study's focus was an assess- ment of decisional impulsivity in the Maltese population. In introducing the work, the authors note that elevated levels of impulsivity have been clearly shown in various psychiatric conditions, especially those of addiction. They say that while evidence does suggest some overlap between addictive use of food and the use of drugs, no clear evidence has to date been made available with regards to obesity. In their investigation, the re- searchers selected 30 obese in- dividuals having a BMI over 30, as well as 30 healthy volunteers with a BMI below 26. All selected individuals were aged between 18 and 75. Subjects in the study were asked to take three different tests. The first test, which assessed impul- sive choice, involved subjects being presented with 27 ques- tions in which they are asked to choose between a small immedi- ate reward and a larger reward at a later point in time. A second test gauged whether subjects were more likely to con- sider and deliberate over alter- native solutions to problems, or whether they were more likely to respond spontaneously and without much deliberation. In this test, subjects were shown two jars with opposite ratios of red and blue beads. 80% of the beads on one jar were blue with the remaining 20% being red. The composition of the second jar was 80% red, 20% blue. Subjects were then presented individual beads from one of the two jars and were asked to infer which jar the beads had come from. The final task tested subjects' waiting impulsivity or their ten- dency to prematurely respond to a computer-generated test. Of the 30 obese subjects, 14 ful- filled the criteria for binge eating disorder. Compared to healthy volunteers, obese subjects re- ported significantly higher scores on depression, anxiety, binge eat- ing and impulsivity. The study found that there were no differences in the level of premature responding between the two groups. As regards the subjects' ten- dency to accept an immediate re- ward over a larger reward in the future, the results showed that obese subjects were more likely to take an immediate reward, however the differences were not great enough to eliminate the possibility that they were due to chance. A clear statistical difference was, however, observed in the beads test, with obese subjects requiring fewer beads before feeling comfortable enough to make a decision. The results, argue the research- ers, suggest the need to develop effective therapeutic interven- tions aimed at training individu- als in the consideration of the future consequences of their de- cisions. Malta medical study tests 'impulsivity' in obesity