In March 2012 a dozen villages and towns in the Province of Córdoba decided to impose tougher regulations than those required by national law to control the aerial spraying of crops with herbicides. It was one of the first signs that the local campaign, Paren de Fumigarnos (Stop Spraying), was achieving results. The campaign has been greatly strengthened by the evidence, provided by doctors and other health professionals and detailed by Dr Eva Sirinathsinghi below, of the serious harm done by spraying to public health.
Pesticide Illnesses and GM Soya
A coalition of doctors, health professionals and researchers demand ban on aerial spraying based on evidence documenting increase in pesticide?related illnesses since the introduction of GM soya
By Dr Eva Sirinathsinghi*
A network of 160 physicians, health workers and researchers in Argentina are demanding a ban on aerial spraying of pesticides based on increases in cancer and a range of pesticide?related illnesses since the introduction of genetically modified (GM) soya. These illnesses affect development, reproduction, the skin, as well as the immune, respiratory, neurological, and endocrine systems. The network met in August 2010 and again in 2011.
Following the 2010 meeting an important report was compiled linking agrochemical exposure to significant increase in illnesses including birth defects and cancers in and around areas where agrochemicals are used. Increasing illness parallels the introduction and spread of GM soya tolerant to Monsanto’s glyphosate?based herbicide, Roundup.
The striking link between illness and pesticide use presented at the first meeting led the Network Of Physicians Of Drop?Sprayed Towns to propose a complete ban on all aerial sprayings of pesticides, a complete ban of pesticides of toxicological types Ia (defined as extremely hazardous) and Ib (highly hazardous), and a ban on other pesticide use within 1 kilometre of residential areas. They also questioned the current agro?industrial and transgenic production model, stating that other options for agro?ecological production should be promoted and developed by the State University.
The second meeting called on local and national government to ensure people’s right to good health instead of the rights of agribusiness and private proprietors that currently prevail, and repeated their call for a complete ban on aerial spraying.
The Argentinean communities’ fight for judicial, healthcare and governmental recognition for health problems associated with pesticide use goes back 10 years. A summary compiled by non?governmental organisations and community residents is contained in the ‘Declaration of Caroya’. It documents the “reduction in the average age and height” of residents in crop?sprayed towns “due to malnutrition”, and “decrease of the body’s natural defences.” In addition, “birth defects, mutagenesis, miscarriages, depression and suicide, disorders of the central nervous system and other neurological pathologies; disabilities, spina bifida, lupus, leukemia and other types of cancers; chloracne and other skin problems; asthma, allergies, and other respiratory and lung?related problems; male sterility and impotence; hormonal disruption and other hormonal disorders; diminished childhood development; prolonged febrile syndrome without focus; children’s increased vulnerability to pollutants; anemia,multiple sclerosis, cerebral ischemia, death..”
Alarming increases in birth defects, cancers, and other illnesses
Public health officials have ignored ‘alarming notes coming from healthcare officials’ and consequently very few epidemiological studies have been conducted. However the physicians (most of whom have been serving the same populations for over 25 years) have striking observational data that correlated with presentations and stories from people in the communities for a range of diseases associated with agrochemical exposure. They highlighted a systematic link between the unusual observations of recent years with this exposure.
The province of Chaco, where Dr Maria del Carmen Serveso heads a hospital intensive care unit, presented a devastating overview of rising illnesses in many towns. The illnesses include renal failure, birth defects in children of young mothers, cancers even in very young people, miscarriages, difficulty in becoming pregnant, respiratory problems and acute allergies; all linked by health teams to chemical contamination from agroindustrial farming recently imposed on the area replacing small?scale cotton farming and native forests. Respiratory illnesses were found to correlate with paraquat exposure.
One of the few epidemiological studies performed by Dr Gladys Trombotto, a geneticist from the University of Cordoba Maternity and Neonatal Unit, assessed 110,000 births over 10 years, and found a 2? and 3?fold increase in congenital and musculoskeletal defects respectively between 1971 and 2003.
Child cancer data presented by Dr Otaño backed up what other physicians found in their own observations – incidence of birth defect rates increased significantly. He recorded 15.7 cases/100 000 in 2007 compared with the pre?existent level of 10.5 cases/100 000 in 1985.
The strong correlation of pesticide exposure with incidence of illness was exemplified by the observation made in 2005 by members of the Córdoba’s Ituzaingó neighbourhood, showing a higher rate of cancer in residents living closer to the fields that are sprayed.
The doctors suspect that the scale of damage to human health caused by agrochemicals is not fully recognised. The numbers of miscarriages may be higher than recorded levels, and other neurological and psychological problems are not currently being assessed. Preliminary and small?scale tests of children under a year of age suggest the existence of such illnesses in agrochemical use zones.
Epidemiological studies conducted outside Argentina
Studies conducted in other countries were also discussed at the meeting. A study performed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US found a 5?fold increase in congenital birth defects when mothers, who lived near wheat crops treated with 2,4?D became pregnant . Another study, found a link between atrazine application and birth defects. Nine out of 11 studies showed a positive association between exposure to pesticides and miscarriage, foetal death, stillbirth, and neonatal death; and identified critical windows of exposure associated with early or late abortions.
Scientific research correlates with clinical testimonies
Assays on DNA damage, an underlying cause of cancer, were done on blood samples of residents of Río de los Sauces, Saira, Gigena, Marcos Juárez and Las Vertientes, an area where 19 % of women reported at least one spontaneous abortion. They found significant increase in DNA damage in agrochemical communities. The most common pesticides used are glyphosate, cypermethrin, 2,4?D, endosulphan, atrazine and Chlorpyrifos. Data from studies linking glyphosate to birth defects in frog and chick embryos raised concerns about similar clinical outcome in children of exposed parents, as attested to by the doctors at the conference.
Extensive and ever increasing pesticide use and aerial spraying in Argentina
The geographers at University of Cordoba, Argentina estimate that 12 million people in Argentina are directly exposed to glyphosate alone, and this figure does not include the population from large cities in the sprayed areas. Pesticide use has reportedly gone up from 35 million litres in 1990 to 285 million in 2009, due largely to the huge increases in GM soya farming covering approximately 22 million hectares over many regions of the country. Along with an increase in area cultivated with GM soya is an increase in the amount of glyphosate sprayed on crops. Glyphosate spraying went from less than 2 litres per hectare in 1996 to 20 litres per hectare in 2010, most likely due to the development of resistance to the herbicide.
Other countries in South America are also employing extensive aerial spraying of pesticides. Paraguay was in the news recently for pesticide spraying that resulted in the instant death of 50 fully grown cows, as well as snakes, fish, and various bird species. All water treatment plants are thought to be contaminated.
To conclude
Over 12 million people in Argentina are currently exposed to agrochemicals, with cancers, birth defects and other serious illnesses on the rise. Doctors have compiled comprehensive evidence linking these illnesses to pesticides, calling on their government to ban all aerial sprays until their safety can be adequately proven. In view of the devastation effects of glyphosate and glyphosate-tolerant crops on soils, crops, and livestock documented in the United States, an outright ban on the herbicide is fully justified, and long overdue.
* This article was originally published by ISIS