permaculture

[Larry London <london@metalab.unc.edu>]

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

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

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49 Powell St., Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
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Fax: (415) 981-1991
Email: panna@panna.org
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