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Peru: Bayer Responsible in Pesticide Deaths

by CBGnetwork

A Peruvian congressional committee recently concluded there is significant evidence of criminal responsibility by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Bayer company in the poisoning deaths by the pesticide methyl parathion. In October 1999, 24 children died and 18 more were poisoned but survived. Several of these children will suffer significant long-term health and developmental problems as a result of the poisoning. Bayer imports and distributes both methyl and ethyl parathion in Peru.

Bayer widely promoted its methyl parathion formulation, known as Folidol, throughout Peru, targeting its marketing on use in Andean crops cultivated primarily by small farmers, the great majority of whom speak Quechua only and are illiterate. Bayer packaged Folidol, a white powder that resembles powdered milk and has no strong chemical odor, in small plastic bags, labeled in Spanish and displaying a picture of vegetables. The labels provided no understandable safety information, such as pictograms, for the majority of users in these remote villages, and little indication of the danger of the product.

The efforts of the Tauccamarca families and allied Peruvian nongovernmental organizations have been backed by a wave of public support over the poisonings, and have won important regulatory changes. In February the Peruvian National Agrarian Health Service issued a resolution (RJ 039 2002) suspending the imports of all pesticides classified by the World Health Organization as Ia (extremely hazardous) or Ib (highly hazardous). The families have also written to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan requesting that he exclude Bayer from the UN Global Compact, a UN partnership with corporations who pledge to abide by human rights and environmental principles, based on BayerÕs actions and inactions with regard to the childrenÕs deaths and poisonings in Peru. <

For more information contact Erika Rosenthal, Pesticide Action Network Latin America (Red de Acci—n en Plaguicidas y sus Alternativas en AmŽrica Latina), Tel: (510) 550-6752; erosenthal@earthjustice.org. CBG Network is at CBGnetwork@gmx.net.