Decades have been talking, telling and informing the
misuse of agrochemicals in Argentina. Since the rapid growth of soybean
cultivation, main export of the country, is related to the use of transgenic
seeds. Poor application of herbicides and pesticides has consequences for
certain sectors of the rural population with very serious health problems.
Since 2003, I have been presenting a field study on
Transgenic Soybeans in Argentina. Suffered in Colonia Lomas Senés, located in
the province of Formosa, Party Pirané, Argentina.
The number of small producers amounted to 95% of
farmers and land tenure 80% of these farmers is precarious, with too small for
the development of family plots.
Therefore to achieve greater production in the short
term, excessive chemical use in agriculture. Importantly, there are other
reasons for using agrochemicals, as competition produced by producers.
In recent years have seen the entry of several
production companies, including Farmers ANTA SA, Joint Venture (JV) and Formosa
Agricultural Project (FAP), who rent land to produce RRsoya (GM soy) and using
pesticides without control of the provincial government, nor national.
For these companies is more profitable to produce
RRsoya with the use of pesticides destroying the earth; therefore the
production system RRsoya sweeps the floor, taking advantage of the fertile and
exhausting stage. Besides this production system is cost effective because it does
not use labor, since the machines do everything, maximizing production.
Argentina adopted the model of Monsanto, but the
application of safety standards vary, as in the regulation of agriculture
predominate the 23 provinces, which have different requirements. The spraying
is prohibited within three kilometers populated areas in some provinces, but is
allowed 50 meters in others. One third of local authorities do not provide any
limit and most have no detailed policies compliance.
Famous Model Monsanto
Argentina was one of the first countries to adopt the
new model of biotech agriculture promoted by Monsanto and other US agricultural
enterprises.
Instead of rotating the potting soil and spray
pesticide, then expect that toxic substances are dispersed before planting, the
farmers make "direct seeding" and then sprayed the area without
damaging crops that have been genetically modified so that they can tolerate
certain chemicals.
Direct seeding requires much less time and money and
allows the farmer to make and cultivate crops even in lands that were
previously considered uneconomic.
Pests, however, become resistant more quickly,
especially when the same chemical genetically modified crops massive substances
are applied.
That is why farmers use glyphosate, considered one of
the world's safest herbicides, in increasingly higher concentrations and mix it
with far more toxic substances such as 2,4, D, used by the US military as was
dubbed the "Agent Orange" to deforest the jungles during the Vietnam
War.
In 2006, a division of the Argentine Ministry of
Agriculture recommended that labels warn that the use of mixtures of glyphosate
and toxic substances should be limited to "agricultural areas, away from
homes and populated areas." But the recommendation was ignored, according
to research by the Auditor General. Therefore, if the excessive use of
agrochemicals by farmers, either by lack of education and information; and
labor competition, it is added the pollution caused by the Formoseño
Agricultural Project (FAP), this resulted in the contamination of at least 23
farms of the Colony and the destruction of 100% of the soils in these fields
and water pollution.
The farms crops, have the following abnormalities:
anatomical defects of various types, besides physiological symptoms of damage
to the plants. These damages are observed in cultivated plants and broadleaf
weeds such as cotton, beans, citrus, bananas, cassava, cocklebur, cafecillo,
among others. The damage is attributed to the effect of hormone action herbicides
used on crops.
In addition to environmental damage, such as pollution
and soil depletion, air pollution, contamination of groundwater aquifers; is
important to note the damage on the health of the population and livestock.
Such damage occurs by the movement of an agrochemical
from an agroecosystem. Which can leave an agroecosystem, on the ground or
water.
Volatilization is the most common way in which
chemicals are spread between plants of a crop.
The overuse of agrochemicals, produces effects on
human health, considering that are toxic and therefore can cause accidents
peasants and how many people are in contact with the substances they contain.
Acute poisoning may be the most serious consequence that can undergo a person
exposed to them. However chronic health effects are of greatest concern because
of the large number of consumers with potential risk of suffering. Agrochemical
residues (herbicides or plagicidas) in vegetables, fruits, milk and other
agricultural products may occur.
Considering the above, the population of Colonia Lomas
Senés, has the following symptoms, to direct exposure or potential
agrochemicals: skin lesions, piodermis, ringworm, tonsillitis pultáceas,
respiratory infections, eczema appearance of skin and irritation eyepiece.
On the other hand, agricultural chemicals, may
directly or indirectly affect a wide variety of fish, wildlife and
invertebrates not directly exposed to the action of these products. Most
plagicidas, for example, contain organophosphates, which produce acute organophosphate-induced
neuropathy, organophosphate-induced leukoencephalopathy (cause mortality above
97%), muscarinic syndrome, the main symptoms are: isochoric miosis and
reactive, twitching, salivation, sweating, diarrhea, lacrimation, bronchospasm,
bradycardia.
Importantly, nitrogen and phosphorus found in most
agricultural chemicals, causing major concerns for several reasons:
First, if the nitrates drunk in the water have become
nitrites, rarely produce health damage, otherwise, ie if the fit to drink water,
has nitrates, serious cusa damage to human and animal health .
This occurs when too much nitrogen is applied to a
crop, excess nitrates can not absorb culture tends to seep below the soil by
leaching. In the long reach any aquifer or well which are sources of drinking
water.
In the Colonia Lomas Senés, sampling water housing
(craft punch) were performed as well as, a dam encircling the crops and water
drilling, well crafted, regular consumption. The inhabitants of these houses
had symptoms of intoxication which were real and chronic potential. Since high
concentrations of toxic products, produce effects such as bioaccumulation,
altered ecosystems and carcinogenic compounds in drinking water.
Second, excess agricultural chemicals cause excessive
algae growth, eutrophication of rivers and lakes, the effects of it are
unpleasant taste and odor of water, aesthetic concerns, unbalanced ecosystems
and lethal toxins. Samples of the dam of La Colonia
Lomas Senés, showed signs of eutrophication on a smaller
scale.
Given the background agrochemicals in Colonia Lomas
Senés, is vital to incorporate or develop an environmental education project,
to achieve concentización consequences involving the excessive use of
agricultural chemicals; both environmental and health.
In 2013, we continued despite all the warnings of
scientists and researchers continue to manifest cases in different provinces of
our country as a millionaire multinational business grows.
The farmhand Fabián Tomasi was not trained to use
pesticides. I had to
fill the spray tank as quickly as possible so that
would follow spraying, which often meant showering in toxic substances. Today,
at age 47, is a skeleton in life and struggles out of his home in the province
of Entre Rios.
The schoolteacher Andrea Druetta lives in the province
of Santa Fe, heart of the production area where Argentina soybean and spraying
agrochemicals within 500 meters of populated areas is prohibited. But he
sprayed soybean planting and 30 meters from his house and his children were
sprayed with poison while swimming in the pool.
After the death of her newborn baby by kidney failure,
Sofia Gatica made a complaint which led to the first conviction was in
Argentina for illegal use of agrochemicals. The verdict last year, however,
came too late for its 5,300 residents of Ituzaingó Annex. A government study
found alarming levels of agrochemical pollution on earth and in their drinking
water, and 80% of the children examined had traces of pesticides in their blood.
The US biotech made Argentina the third largest producer of soybeans, but the
use of chemicals that fostered the boom beyond the fields of soybeans, cotton
and corn. The Associated Press documented dozens of cases where farmers
provinces where toxic substances are used in ways that were not foreseen by the
regulations identified by science or that were specifically prohibited by law,
and in a context of few state controls. The wind carries toxic, which are
scattered in schools and homes while they have contaminated water sources. The
field hands substances handled without the necessary protective equipment and
people store water in containers of pesticides that should have been destroyed.
In Santa Fe, cancer rates are two to four times higher
than the national average. In the Chaco, birth defects quadrupled since the use
of this biotechnology applied to the field being shot 17 years ago.
"The change in the way we produce, frankly has
changed the profile of diseases," said Medardo Avila Vásquez, pediatrician
and co-founder of Doctors fumigated Peoples, part of a growing movement
demanding the implementation of safe standards in agriculture. "We did
lose a fairly healthy population. Now we see a population with high rates of
cancer, children born with deformities and diseases were very rare." A
nation that was once known for its grass-fed beef has been transformed since
1996, when the company Monsanto, based in St. Louis, Missouri, Argentina
convinced that the adoption of its patented seeds and chemicals increase crop
yields and reduce the use of pesticides. Today, all the soybean crop and nearly
all production of corn and cotton are genetically modified. Areas of soybean
tripled and now cover 19 million hectares. The use of pesticides declined at
first, but then rebounded and increased ninefold. Of the 34 million liters of
1990 was passed nearly 317 million today, as farmers increased their crop, up
to three harvests a year, while the pests became more resistant substances. In
general, Argentine farmers apply an estimated 4.3 pounds of chemicals per
hectare, more than twice what Americans use, according to an AP analysis of
government data and the pesticide industry.
Glyphosate, a key component of Monsanto Roundup
pesticide is one of the most used and least toxic of the world to eliminate
weeds chemicals. Is safe if properly implemented, as many regulatory agencies,
including the US and Europe. The big capitalists defend the position of a
written statement, Monsanto said it "does not condone the misuse made of
pesticides or violation of any law on the use of pesticides, regulations or
court decisions" for this have been enacted . "Monsanto takes
seriously the administration of products and communicate regularly with our
customers about the proper use of our products," Thomas told the AP
Helscher spokesman noted Monsanto.Cabe, A national law requires those who apply
chemicals that may threaten the health to take "effective measures to
prevent widespread environmental degradation, regardless of cost or outcome
measures." But the law was never applied to agriculture, according checked
the Auditor General's Office last year.
In response to numerous complaints, the President
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner created in 2009, a commission to investigate
thoroughly spraying chemicals. The commission issued a progress report in
September of that year saying "sustained performance over time of
systematic controls concentrations of herbicide degradation compounds as
comprehensive laboratory studies and field involving necessary to the
formulations containing glyphosate, as well as his (s) interaction (s) with
other agrochemicals, under current conditions of use in our country. " The
commission, however, has not met since 2010, according to the Auditor General.
Molecular biologist Andrés Carrasco, University of
Buenos Aires, says that chemical cocktails are alarming, but that glyphosate
alone can generate health disorders in humans. Found that injection of very low
dose level in frog embryos and chickens can alter the levels of retinoic acid,
which causes defects in the column similar to those detected medical
increasingly human communities where agrochemicals are used. The acid, a type
of vitamin A, is essential for cancer and trigger gene expression, the process
by which the embryo cells into organs and limbs.
"If it is possible to reproduce in the
laboratory, certainly what is happening in the countryside is much worse,"
Carrasco said. "And if it is much worse, and we suspect that is what we
have to do is put under a magnifying glass." Their findings, published in
the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology in 2010, were rejected by Monsanto,
who said "no surprise given the methodology and exposure scenarios
unreal". Monsanto said in response to questions from the AP, the analysis
of the safety of chemicals should be done only in live animals and that
injection of embryos "is less reliable and less relevant in assessing
risks to humans" . "Glyphosate is less toxic than the repellent you
put on the skin of the guys," said Pablo Vaquero, vice president of
Monsanto in Argentina and director of corporate affairs of the company in the
Southern Cone. "That said, would have to be a slip of responsibility for
the proper use of products, because no way would spray in the mouth of the boys,
and no environmental applicator should use a mosquito or crop duster without
realizing environmental conditions and threats there from use of the product
". In the fields, the warnings are vastly ignored.
Tomasi for three years was routinely exposed to
chemical pesticides to fill tanks that are used to spray crops. Now he is on
the verge of death, victim of a polyneuropathy, a neurological disease that has
no force, withered. "He prepared million liters poison without any
protection such as gloves, masks or special clothing" he said. "I
knew nothing of this. I learned after making contact with scientists. The
poisons come in cans, are liquid concentrates with a lot of precautions to take
when applying". But "no one takes precautions" Soy is sold at $
500 a tonne and farmers planted where they can, often ignoring the
recommendations of Monsanto and restrictions established in the laws of the
provinces, as sprayed without warning to the population.
In Entre Ríos, the teachers said that the set limit
not to spray within 50 meters at 18 schools were not respected and that 11 of
these fields were sprayed in the middle class. Five teachers made complaints to
the police this year. The Druetta teacher in Santa Fe reported that some
students fainted when pesticides entered the classroom and drinking water from
their village of Alvear is contaminated. Says the school lacks purified water
and a neighbor kept frozen bodies of rabbits and birds were killed after
spraying with the hope that someone will investigate. In the province of Buenos
Aires is forbidden to load or prepare equipment for spraying in populated
areas, but in towns like Rawson toxic sprayed across the street, where there
are houses and a school, and toxic substances that overflow went to stop in a
ditch.
Since 2010, he made an epidemiological study that
included house to house 65,000 people in the province of Santa Fe and found
that cancer rates are two to four times the national average, including breast
cancer, prostate and lung. High levels of thyroid disorders and chronic
respiratory problems were also tested. "It may be linked to
pesticides," said Verzeñassi. "They toxicity tests on the first
ingredient, but have never studied the interactions between all chemicals are
applied. The medical María del Carmen Seveso, who runs for 33 years intensive
care units and ethics committees in hospitals Chaco, was alarmed to see that,
as birth certificates, birth defects of babies had quadrupled, from 19.1 to
85.3 per 10,000 births, since the planting of genetically modified crops
approved a decade ago. Determined to find the causes, Seveso and his medical
team surveyed 2,051 people in six villages of Chaco. He checked that there are
more diseases and defects in villages where livestock farming villages.
In Avia Terai, 31% of respondents said having a family
who contracted cancer in the last decade, compared with 3% of the neighboring
cattle town of Charadai.
By visiting these villages surrounded by crops, the AP
found traces of chemicals.
Claudia Sariski, whose house has no water, says he
does not let his twin drink water stored in containers where there were
chemicals that have in the backyard. But his chickens do, and she uses that
water to wash clothes.
"Prepare seeds and poison at home. Not become
aware of what they are doing," said Katherina Pardo surveyor. "It's
very common, both in Avia Terai and in neighboring villages, using containers
used to supply water to the house. As there is no drinking water, people use
the same. They are very practical people."
The study detected diseases, according to the medical
Seveso, previously not common, such as birth defects, deformities of the brain,
spinal cords exposed, blindness or deafness, neurological damage, infertility
and unusual skin problems.
Aixa Cano, a girl of five years, has hairy warts all
over the body. Her neighbor Camila Veron, aged two, was born with multiple
defects. Doctors told mothers that agrochemicals could be responsible. "I
was told that was what it took, that is in the water because much venom thrown
around here," said Camila's mother, Silvia Achaval, pointing to her
daughter. "Those who say that throwing poison has no effect ... I do not
know what the point is, because there is proof." It is almost impossible
to prove that exposure to a particular chemical may have caused cancer or birth
defects in a person. But, like other doctors, Seveso says government rigorous
research results in Chaco necessitate.
His 68-page report, however, was shelved for a year at
the Ministry of Health of Chaco. Finally, a copy of which was distributed by
internet filtered. "There are things we do not talk, things are not
heard," Seveso said. Scientists say that only larger studies, long-term,
may dismiss agrochemicals to cause these diseases. "That is why we epidemiological
studies of heart disease, problems with cigarette and all sorts of
things," said Doug Gurian-Sherman, a former regulator of US Environmental
Protection Agency is now working with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"If you have evidence that serious health problems, do not expect to have
absolute proof to take action."
They spent all these years and no one takes
responsibility, the evidence is not only laboratory and scientific, but
experiential, namely:
1. Fabian Tomasi a farmhand who worked many years in
handling chemicals used on crops, photographed on March 29, 2013 at his
residence in Basavilbaso in Argentina Entre Rios. Tomasi says he was never
trained in handling these substances nor given protective equipment. Today you
have polyneuropathy and is emaciated. (AP Photo / Natacha Pisarenko)
2. In this photo taken March 31, 2013 sees Camila Veron,
2 years, affected by severe innate organic disorders and disability in front of
his house. Avia Terai, Chaco province, Argentina. Doctors said Camila's mother,
Silvia Achával, which is possibly due to agrochemicals. It is almost impossible
to prove that exposure to a particular chemical caused cancer or congenital
deformities an individual, but ... more
4. Aixa Cano of five years and who has hairy warts all
over the body, foografiada at home in Avia Terai, Argentina Chaco province, on
April 1, 2013. Doctors can not explain the origin of warts, although suspect
may be linked to the use of chemicals on crops in the area. (AP Photo / Natacha
Pisarenko)
The photo of September 25, 2013 shows a sign of
protest addressed to the President of Argentina Cristina Fernandez and the
governor of Córdoba, José de la Sota. It hangs on the fence where Monsanto
builds the largest in Latin America production plant seeds. All soybean and almost
all corn and cotton in the country have been genetically modified in the last
17 years, since the US company promised greater ... more
Agrochemical containers discarded photographed in a
recycling site quimil, Argentina province of Santiago del Estero, on May 2,
2013. Argentina today consume 382 million liters of chemicals, compared to 41
million in 1990. (AP Photo / Natacha Pisarenko)
Lic. Miriam Giambuzzi
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