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Herbicide Used on Argentina Soy Bean Crops May be Causing Birth Defects, Miscarriages
Pesticides and herbicides being used on Argentina’s genetically modified soy crops are believed to be behind the health issues many in the surrounding areas are experience.
The BBC recently spoke with a woman in the Ituzaingo community who went through the heartache of 17 miscarriages, and seen countless woman experience similar strain, many believing the
Susana Marquez miscarried time and time again before finally being able to conceive and give birth to her now seven-year-old daughter. Her daughter Lourdes, however, was not born a healthy baby girl. She is currently battling a serious heart condition which may stunt her growth.
Marquez and others in the neighborhood have been watching closely the case against two farmers and a pilot currently on trial for violating local regulations that prohibited the use of chemicals near residential areas.
Public prosecutor Carlos Matheu has stated that should the court return with a guilty verdict, he will ask the government agency in charge of regulating chemical use to review how it classifies chemicals’ toxicity.
According to researcher Andres Carrasco of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research and director of the Molecular Embryology Laboratory, the pesticides used Argentina’s soy crops, even in “doses lower than those used in fumigation, cause defects.”
Carrasco told LAHT, “The companies say that drinking a glass of glyphosate is healthier than drinking a glass of milk, but the fact is that they’ve used us as guinea pigs.” Adding, “In communities like Ituzaingo it’s already too late, but we have to have a preventive system, to demand that the companies give us security frameworks and, above all, to have very strict regulations for fumigation, which nobody is adhering to out of ignorance or greed.”
Published in Notitas de Noticias
2012-08-07 14:47:58
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