IUF Calls on Delta and Pine Land to Clean
Up Toxic Disaster in Paraguay
Story Filed: Friday, June 25, 1999 4:47 PM EST
WASHINGTON, June 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The International Union of Food, Agricultural,
Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco
and Allied Workers' Associations has called upon the U.S.-based Delta and Pine Land
Company to assume responsibility for the
environmental and public health disaster created in Paraguay by its local subsidiary.
Delta and Pine Land, the world's largest cotton
seed producer, is in the process of being acquired by the Monsanto Company through a share
swap to be completed later this year.
Last November, Delta and Pine Paraguay dumped 30 thousand sacks of expired cotton seed --
660 tons -- in the area of
Rincon-i-Ybycui, a rural community 120 kilometers from the capital Asuncion. The seeds
were treated with high concentrations of
toxic pesticides, including the organophosphates acephate and chlorpyrifos.
Organophosphates are powerful poisons which attack
the central nervous system. The label on the seed sacks states that the acephate chemical
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." This toxic cocktail, extending
over one-and-a-half hectares, was covered with
only a thin layer of soil. The disposal site is on private land in the center of a rural
population of 3,000, less than 170 meters from a
primary school with 262 pupils.
Health problems were immediately reported. The well-known symptoms of pesticide poisoning
-- vertigo, nausea, headaches,
neurological disorders, memory loss, insomnia and skin rashes -- appeared immediately, and
worsened as the first rains brought with
them a malevolent odor which hung over the area. Instead of water, toxic sludge oozed from
the wells and pumps.
The poison claimed its first victim on December 28, the day of the death of Agustin Ruiz
Aranda. Ruiz Aranda had been active in the
Commission for the Defense of the Environment and Human Rights formed by the local
community to draw attention to the dumping
and demand government action. 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 and Pine Land seed deposited on the
property of Julio Chavez." In May, his widow
told the IUF that "on December 26 my husband attended what would be his last meeting
with the commission. He felt very ill. On
December 27 he could no longer get up from his bed. We did not have a single guarani
(Paraguayan currency) to buy medicine,
much less to get to the city. On Monday noon he lost the capacity to speak. When he died,
his flesh was like a wet, twisted rag
stuck to the bone." Thirty years old at the time of his death, Ruiz Aranda left
behind five children.
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
Ministry of Education has refused support
for the school organized by the villagers when it became necessary to abandon the polluted
schoolgrounds. 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, despite the publication of no less
than 45 articles on the situation in Ybycui in the
nation's largest circulation newspaper Diario Noticias.
In August, the case will be the subject of an inquiry in Asuncion organized by the Ethical
Tribunal against Impunity in Paraguay with
the support of the Latin American Regional Secretariat of the IUF. The Ethical Tribunal is
well known for its work in defense of the
victims of the Stroessner dictatorship and for its discovery, in 1992, of the dictator's
"Archive of Terror" which documented the
coordinated police operation of the Southern Cone dictatorships known as "Operation
Condor."
Rincon-i-Ybycui is a poor, isolated part of the country where life has always been
difficult for the population of small producers of
manioc, fruits and vegetables. Delta and Pine Land has chosen this neglected corner of the
world to dump its poisonous waste. The
company must now face the consequences of its disregard for human life and the
environment. 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.
The company must also make a full and public disclosure of the circumstances surrounding
the dumping. The 30,000 seeds buried in
Ybycui were part of a larger shipment of 84,000 bags of Delta and Pine Land cotton seeds
authorized for importation by the
Paraguayan Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in 1997 after the ministry had imported
sufficient seed for the 1997-98 planting
season. Where is the rest of the seed? Has it also been similarly dumped on unsuspecting
communities? Were the seeds already
past their expiry date at the time of export from the United States, i.e. were they
exported with the intention of dumping as an
alternative to the more costly methods of controlled waste destruction required by U.S.
law? Answers to these questions are
urgently necessary if more disasters are to be avoided.
Delta and Pine Land Co. is in the process of merging with the agro-chemical, seed and
biotechnology giant Monsanto. Delta and
Pine Land jointly holds the patent rights, and the exclusive licensing rights, to the
notorious "Terminator" technology, a technique of
genetic modification which ensures that seeds will not germinate if planted a second time.
The Terminator patents are designed to
ensure that farmers will not be able to save their seed, as they have done for thousands
of years, but will instead be totally dependent
on Monsanto to plant their crops. The Terminator has been described by farmers'
organizations, trade unions, and consumer and
environmental groups as an unprecedented threat to food security and bio-diversity. The
IUF supports the international campaigns to
have this dangerous technology banned from commercial production.
Monsanto (corporate slogan "Food-Health-Hope") claims to be advancing food
production and sustainability and creating "new
possibilities for better nutrition and health." The company's history as a major
corporate polluter raises serious doubts about these
claims. In 1995, Monsanto was named in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic
Release Inventory as having released
37 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the environment. Monsanto is indelibly linked to
the environmental disasters of Times
Beach, Mo., a town so thoroughly polluted with Monsanto dioxin that its entire population
had to be evacuated, and the poisoning of
Vietnam with the defoliant Agent Orange. With the proposed merger with Delta and Pine
Land, Monsanto will be able to add the
poisoning of Rincon-i-Ybycui, Paraguay to its history of corporate abuse of the
environment.
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.
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Copyright © 1999, U.S. Newswire, all rights reserved.Company
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