Poisoning pattern in the cases reported by chemical examiner laboratory-Punjab, India

Punjab is one of the leading food grain producing states in India. However, in Punjab, increased productivity has been fuelled by the excessive use of agriculture based chemicals or agro-chemicals like pesticides, insecticides, herbicides etc. Common poisons used or consumed by the people of Punjab are related to agriculture based chemicals like organophosphorus compounds (OP), organochlorine compounds (OC), carbamates, herbicides, fungicides and metallic compounds like Aluminium Phosphide (AlP) and Zinc Phosphide (ZnP). The analysis of available data was conducted from 1st April, 2016 to 31st March, 2017. During this period, 1918 viscera cases were analysed for the various poisons by seven analysts. AlP and OP were found to be the most common poisons in this study. So, there is an urgent need to develop less toxic but equally effective alternatives of these agro-chemicals in Punjab.