Awareness program on poisoning

by S.M. Wijayaratne, Kurunegala Cor.

Around 120,000 people fall ill annually due to poisoning and 1,200 die according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health. About 60,000 people of this number fall ill due to poisoning by insecticides and weedicides.

Some people fall ill due to poisonous drugs and snake bites. Four-hundred awareness programs have been organised in schools and Agrarian services centres in the Kurunegala and Puttalam Districts of the NWP to educate schoolchildren and the farmers on the preventive measures of poisoning.

The Government will allocate Rs. 2.5 million for the purpose. The Ministry of Health will conduct education programs in collaboration with the Ministries of Education and Agriculture, said Director of Education, Kurunegala W.M. Balasooriya, at a meeting of school heads of Kurunegala District in Bingiriya.