Pubdate: Sat, 21 Sep 2002
Source: Daily Camera (CO)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily Camera.
Contact:  http://www.thedailycamera.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/103
Author: Christopher Brauchli
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

UNHEALTHY WEAPONS IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

The Essence of Lying Is in Deception, Not in Words. -Modern Painters

Although we've been telling the Colombians that it's harmless and some 
people in the administration probably believe what they are saying 
notwithstanding ample evidence to the contrary, we are only going to 
continue using it until a substitute can be manufactured in sufficient 
quantities to meet our needs.

Our needs are to rid the world of cocaine and Colombia is a good place to 
start.

The United States has been engaged in aerial spraying of glyphosate in 
Colombia for several years in an effort to eliminate the coca plant from 
Colombia. The effort has not been without its side effects.

One was to wipe out most of the crops in the town of La Hormiga. In that 
town, according to its Secretary of Human Development: "They've fumigated 
everything, fields and plantain rows and yucca and everything that people 
need to live on." Such reports are troubling to some folks in Congress who 
wonder if the United States should be destroying crops belonging to people 
in other countries, even when it's being done in order to reduce the amount 
of cocaine available to us and other privileged countries.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has questioned the safety of the aerial program. 
He may have heard about the town of La Hormiga. He might even have heard 
about Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., who visited Colombia in 2000 to see how 
the eradication program was going.

While watching the Colombian National Police demonstrate its new approach 
to fumigating coca Mr. Wellstone and his staff found themselves fumigated.

Their fumigation happened just after the U.S. Embassy in Colombia had 
circulated materials to reporters describing the "precise geographical 
coordinates" used to spray coca fields.

According to embassy officials, a computer program sets precise flight 
lines with a 170- foot width, leaving little room for error.

Mr. Wellstone and his staff occupied that little room. The antinarcotics 
director for the Colombian National Police said: "We did not spray on the 
people or on the senator." When contradicted by someone who observed the 
episode he said: "What hit him was because of the wind, not because they 
had the intention."

In early 2002 Mr. Leahy froze $17 million needed to enable Colombia to buy 
the herbicide mixture.

For the funds to be freed, the State Department was required to certify 
that the eradication program meets the regulatory controls required in the 
United States and does not threaten the public's health or the environment. 
Mr. Leahy said that: "There are reports of health problems and food crops 
destroyed from the fumigation. Spraying a toxic chemical over large areas, 
including where people live and livestock graze, would not be tolerated in 
our country. We should not be spraying first and asking questions later." 
On Sept. 6, the certification was released.

It was reassuring, except for the part about the eyes.

In its report to Congress, the State Department's antinarcotics bureau 
concluded that the herbicides used and the manner in which applied "do not 
pose unreasonable risks or adverse effects to humans or the environment." 
That came as good news to the Colombians, who up until that report may have 
been somewhat concerned about its health effects. For good reason.

According to a 1993 report published by the School of Public Health at the 
University of California, Berkeley, glyphosate was the third most commonly 
reported cause of pesticide illness among agricultural workers. Another 
study from the School of Public Health found that glyphosate was the most 
commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape maintenance 
workers. (Both studies were based on data collected between 1984 and 1990.) 
Directions on the application of glyphosate products in the United States 
warn users not to use "this product in a way that will contact workers or 
other persons, either directly or through drift." The military advised 
soldiers who do the spraying to shower after each flight to cleanse 
themselves of any residue or herbicide.

Some Colombians might have read those studies and wondered why Americans in 
Colombia kept telling them it was safe. In any event, that is all history.

The State Department report concludes all is well except for the bit about 
the eyes. In preparing its report, the State Department consulted with the 
Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency. 
Agriculture Secretary, Ann Veneman, said the health risk from spraying was 
"minimal" which is good enough when the spraying is taking place in a 
far-off place.

The EPA said that the product is widely used in the United States with "no 
unreasonable adverse effects" although it did admit that it had the 
potential for what was called "acute eye toxicity." However, the risk to 
the eyes was said by the EPA to be limited to the "handlers and mixers of 
the concentrated formula as opposed to the general public." The general 
public probably refers to those who get sprayed. On a scale of one to four 
with one being the most toxic, the spray mixture had a "category three" 
toxicity level.

Notwithstanding the report's good news, an announcement accompanying it 
said that the State Department intends to order a new formulation with 
lower potential for acute toxicity early in September and promises to use 
it as soon as it becomes available.

The spraying will not, however, be halted until it's available.

By year's end there will be 18 crop-dusting planes carrying out the aerial 
spraying in an effort to help the state department achieve its goal of 
killing up to 300,000 acres of coca this year. While the old stuff is being 
used, peasants may want to keep their eyes closed when wandering about out 
of doors.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager