A three-year-old child has died after allegedly eating the highly toxic pesticide carbofuran in Kenya, his father said.
The boy, named Kimutai, died October 26, several hours after intentionally eating the pesticide at his home in the western part of the country.
Conservationists have led a campaign to ban the odorless pesticide, which pastoralists have added to livestock carcasses to kill lions, hyenas, and other wildlife that could harm the domesticated animals.
In response, carbofuran maker FMC Corporation stopped selling the chemical—sold under the trade name Furadan—in Kenya in 2008. The company also launched a buyback program.
But conservationists say the pesticide remains on store shelves in rural parts of the country—and that Furadan's packaging does not make clear how deadly the pesticide can be.
"The labels are very difficult to understand," said Paula Kahumbu, executive director of the Nairobi-based conservation group WildlifeDirect. "For one thing, they're in English, which is often the buyer's second or third language."
(WildlifeDirect receives some funding from the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)
Toxic Tragedy
The boy's father, Nahashon Kigai said in an interview that, while he knew Furadan was toxic for pests, he had no idea it was so harmful to humans.
Kigai said he had bought Furadan a few months ago as he prepared to plant vegetables at his small farm. Carbofuran is sold in both a highly regulated liquid form and a more widely available granular form, which farmers sprinkle around their seeds when planting crops.
Kigai had put the Furadan into a small container, which his son later found.
"I am sure he ate it, because he had [the pesticide] in his hand and in his mouth," Kigai said.
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