“The tragic incident in India in which nearly two dozen children died after eating a contaminated school meal is a stark reminder that highly hazardous pesticides should be phased out in developing countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said” Tuesday, the U.N. News Centre reports. “In a news release, FAO stressed that the distribution and use of highly toxic pesticides in many developing countries poses a serious risk to human health and the environment, and measures to put safeguards in place to protect the population must be implemented,” the news service notes (7/30). “The FAO said many countries lacked the resources to properly manage the storage, distribution, handling and disposal of pesticides and to reduce their risks,” according to Reuters. “Although India’s government argues the benefits of strong pesticides outweigh the hazards if properly managed, the food poisoning tragedy underlined criticism such controls are virtually ignored on the ground,” the news service writes (Flak, 7/30).