Pubdate: Wed, 29 Aug 2001
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Copyright: 2001 St. Petersburg Times
Contact:  http://www.sptimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419

HALT COLOMBIA DRUG WAR SPRAYING

The U.S. effort to help Colombia eradicate illegal crops of coca and 
heroin poppy is making people sick -- literally.

Children are developing sores on their skin, and adults are stricken 
with diarrhea from herbicide contamination of their drinking water.

Poor farmers complain that their potato and onion crops are dying.

Meanwhile, the drug lords simply relocate their coca crops to areas 
not yet poisoned by aerial fumigation.

The Bush administration should listen to Colombian governors, 
farmers, human rights activists and others who see evidence that the 
herbicide spraying is harming people's health and poisoning their 
water and food supply. At the very least, the U.S. and Colombian 
governments should call a halt to the program until scientists can 
determine whether these environmental and health concerns are 
legitimate.

As part of Plan Colombia, a $1.3-billion plan to fight drugs, the 
United States is assisting the Colombian national police in aerial 
spraying of Roundup Ultra, an enhanced version of the domestically 
popular weedkiller. When the original formulations of Roundup were 
ineffective, planners mixed it with soapy additives to make it more 
lethal to the coca plants. Unfortunately, there is evidence that the 
new mix may harm legitimate crops and people as well. The aerial 
spraying inadvertently drifts into areas where such crops as coffee 
and bananas are grown.

Even worse, villagers in the path of the herbicide campaign are 
reporting skin rashes, headaches, eye infections, stomach problems 
and fevers.

Doctors have noticed an increased incidence of leukemia in babies 
born since 1994 when the spraying began.

These problems and the spraying may be unrelated. But until we can 
find out for sure, the spraying should be placed on hold.

Drug-producing areas have been fumigated occasionally since the early 
1990s, but health complaints became widespread only after Colombian 
officials ignored manufacturers' warnings and began using Roundup 
Ultra with the soapy additives.

Manufacturers of one additive, Atplus 300f, were so concerned that 
their product had not been tested for use in aerial spraying, they 
halted its use. Such additives can be highly corrosive by themselves, 
and Monsanto, which makes Roundup Ultra, warned explicitly on its 
label that these chemicals should not be mixed with the weedkiller.

Before spraying continues, authorities should investigate reports 
that that the mixture enhanced to penetrate leaves may also be more 
likely to penetrate human skin. Because the formula used in Colombia 
is far different in concentration and makeup from the domestic 
variety used in health tests, Monsanto's reassurances about Roundup's 
safety offer little comfort.

The State Department has even admitted that the herbicide's main 
ingredient causes eye and skin irritation.

Yet U.S. officials have accused local people of fabricating their 
ailments or suggested that their illnesses may be caused by the 
chemicals used to process coca. There may be something to that. Coca 
production has contributed to deforestation of the land, and the 
toxic chemicals use to convert coca into cocaine are often dumped 
into rivers and streams.

Rand Beers, who directs drug policy for the State Department, has 
said if studies confirm a link between serious illness and Roundup, 
the spraying policy might be reconsidered. That is not good enough.

Nor will compensation for lost crops, while helpful, undo the 
potential damage done by introducing this potent chemical into the 
environment.

If spraying this mixture at the concentrations used in Plan Colombia 
is truly benign, then the U.S. and Colombia have nothing to fear from 
an independent investigation by scientific experts.

While the health and environmental studies are being conducted, the 
Bush administration and the Congress should seize the chance to 
reconsider how the United States is waging war against illegal drugs 
in Colombia.
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MAP posted-by: Josh