Health Science Reviews

By Stephanie Petersen

A child in a modest Cape Town neighbourhood reaches for what appears to be tiny granules of dark sand that are hidden in a kitchen corner. It is not food. It is poison.

This is not fiction. Dangerous agricultural pesticides are being illegally repackaged and sold as “street pesticides” in South Africa, especially in low-income areas. They are extremely toxic, inexpensive, and unlabelled. Children are killed by these substances, which are intended to eradicate household pests.

How many children in Cape Town are dying from pesticide poisoning, and what can we learn from those deaths about how and why this is occurring? This is a tragic but pressing question that researchers from the University of Cape Town set out to address in this study.

They looked at ten years’ worth of post-mortem records (2010–2019) from Salt River Mortuary, one of the busiest in the area, to learn more. They paid particular attention to toxicology findings, autopsy reports, and forensic case details when examining unnatural deaths in people under the age of 18.

The results are alarming. During the course of ten years, 54 children and teenagers died from pesticide poisoning. The majority were either teenagers over fifteen or toddlers under five. Numerous victims showed symptoms of cholinergic poisoning, including salivation, seizures, and respiratory failure, and the deaths were concentrated in densely populated, under-resourced areas. The majority were exposed at home. Teens had committed suicide in alarming numbers.

And the most frequent murderer? Terbufos. Terbufos is a prohibited neurotoxic pesticide that was first intended for farms but is now found in homes under names like “two-step” and “rat poison.”

There is more to this study than just numbers. It concerns deaths that can be avoided. It shows the disastrous intersections of poverty, informal markets, and regulatory blind spots. These tragedies can be prevented with improved community education, policy enforcement, and surveillance.

Reference:
Davies, B., Hlela, M.B.K.M., & Rother, H.-A. (2023). Child and adolescent mortality associated with pesticide toxicity in Cape Town, South Africa, 2010–2019: a retrospective case review. BMC Public Health, 23, 792. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15652-5