Pubdate: Fri, 03 Aug 2001
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2001 Associated Press
Author: Andrew Selsky, The Associated Press

ADDITIVE TO HERBICIDE SPRAYED ON COLOMBIAN DRUG CROPS WITHDRAWN FOR LACK OF 
TESTING

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Adding to the debate over the safety of a massive 
U.S.-financed fumigation of drug crops, a British company confirmed Friday 
it has stopped supplying an additive used in the herbicide, saying it has 
not been properly tested.

Planes contracted by the U.S. State Department have blanketed at least 
123,000 acres of cocaine-producing crops with the herbicide glyphosate 
since late last year.

A Bogota judge, acting on complaints from Amazonian Indians that the spray 
is harmful, last week ordered a halt to the fumigation of Indian lands in 
the Colombian Amazonian region, but allowed other spraying to continue.

U.S. officials have insisted the herbicide is safe. In much of the world, 
it is sold as the common weedkiller Roundup, made by the U.S. chemical 
company Monsanto.

But the crop dusters had been using an additive called Cosmo Flux to make 
the glyphosate less likely to drift in the wind as it floats down from the 
planes, and to make it adhere better to the drug crops. Cosmo Flux uses a 
substance called Atplus 300F, sold by the British company Imperial Chemical 
Industries.

Company spokesman John Edgar said his firm and the Colombian company 
Cosmoagro, which produces Cosmo Flux, decided to withdraw use of the 
additive from the fumigation campaign because of a lack of information 
about its effects when mixed with glyphosate.

"We had not tested it for that purpose," Edgar said in a telephone 
interview from London.

A Cosmoagro official confirmed that Cosmo Flux was no longer being sold as 
an additive for the fumigation campaign.

U.S. Embassy officials were not immediately available for comment late Friday.

A Jan. 23 State Department report to the U.S. Congress indicated Cosmo Flux 
was safe, saying "all of the ingredients ... are acceptable for use on food 
products when label instructions are followed."

The head of the Colombian anti-narcotics police, Gen. Gustavo Socha, who 
oversees the aerial spraying, said he was unaware of the development.

"No one has notified me that they're not going to sell us something," Socha 
said in a telephone interview.

Socha said other companies have offered to sell chemicals as part of the 
fumigation campaign, adding: "We have had absolutely no problem (with 
suppliers) and I don't believe we are going to have a problem in the future."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager