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  • From: Larry London <london@metalab.unc.edu>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: PANUPS: Disaster in Paraguay (fwd)
  • Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 11:15:38 -0400 (EDT)

http://metalab.unc.edu/london InterGarden
london@metalab.unc.edu lflondon@worldnet.att.net
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 16:27:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: panupdates@igc.apc.org
To: panups@igc.apc.org
Subject: PANUPS: Disaster in Paraguay

===========================================
P A N U P S
Pesticide Action Network Updates Service
===========================================

Pesticide Disaster in Paraguay

June 21, 1999

An international trade union federation has called upon a U.S.-based
seed company to assume responsibility for the environmental and
public health disaster created in Paraguay by its local subsidiary. The
International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering,
Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is demanding that
Delta & Pine Land, the world's largest cottonseed producer, remove
pesticide-contaminated cotton seed that its subsidiary dumped near a
rural community in Paraguay. Delta & Pine Land is in the process of
being acquired by the Monsanto Company through a share swap to be
completed later this year.

Last November, 30,000 sacks of expired cottonseed, weighing
approximately 660 tons, were dumped near a small village 120
kilometers from the capital Asuncisn. The seeds were treated with high
concentrations of toxic pesticides, including the organophosphates
acephate and chlorpyrifos. The label on the seed sacks states that the
acephate compound (trade name: Orthene 80 Seed Protectant) "contains
material which may cause cancer, mutagenic or reproductive effects
based on laboratory animal data. Risk of cancer depends on duration
and level of exposure." The sacks were spread over one-and-a-half
hectares and were covered with only a thin layer of soil. The disposal
site is on private land in the center of a rural population of three
thousand and less than 170 meters from a primary school with 262
pupils.

Symptoms of pesticide poisoning such as vertigo, nausea, headaches,
neurological disorders, memory loss, insomnia and skin rashes,
appeared immediately in the surrounding population and worsened
after the first rains.

On December 28, a local resident died. His official death certificate
states that he was treated by the attending physician for "acute
poisoning due to pollution caused by toxins of the Delta & Pine Land
seed deposited on the property of Julio Chavez." According to his
widow, he fell ill on December 26 and by the next day could no longer
get out of bed. Mr. Ruiz, a father of five, was thirty years old at the
time of his death.

Medical testing of the residents has produced irrefutable evidence of
acute pesticide poisoning. The Ministries of Agriculture and of Public
Health have acknowledged the results of the tests but have not taken
action. The IUF has met with the Minister of Health and the president
of Paraguay, and has helped to organize demonstrations and support for
the victims of the contamination. Still, the government refuses to act.

In August, the case will be the subject of an inquiry in Asuncisn
organized by the Ethical Tribunal against Impunity in Paraguay with
the support of the Latin American Regional Secretariat of the IUF.

The IUF is demanding:

* Immediate action to remove the toxic seed and decontaminate the
area;

* Immediate and comprehensive medical treatment for the victims;

* A program of long-term medical and environmental surveillance,
including regular monitoring of water supplies;

* Adequate compensation for the victims, their families and the wider
community;

* Full and public disclosure of the circumstances surrounding the
dumping.

The thirty thousand sacks of seeds buried in the area were part of a
larger shipment of 84,000 bags of Delta & Pine Land cotton seeds
authorized for importation by the Paraguayan Ministry of Agriculture
and Livestock in 1997. There is no information about the location of
the remaining seed. The IUF is trying to determine if the seeds were
already past their expiry date at the time of export from the United
States and whether they were exported rather than destroyed in the U.S.
where costly disposal procedures would have been required.

The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant,
Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is an
international trade union federation composed of 329 trade unions in
118 countries with an affiliated membership of 2.6 million members. It
is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Source: IUF press release, June 15, 1999.

Contact: International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant,
Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), Rampe du
Pont-Rouge, 8, CH-1213 Petit-Lancy, Switzerland; phone (41-22) 793
22 33; fax (41-22) 793 22 38; email iuf@iuf.org; web site
http://www.iuf.org.

===========================================
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
49 Powell St., Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
Phone: (415) 981-1771
Fax: (415) 981-1991
Email: panna@panna.org
Web: www.panna.org

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