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Peru: Bayer Responsible in Pesticide Deaths

by CBGnetwork

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

Bayer widely promoted its methyl parathion formulation, known asFolidol, throughout Peru, targeting its marketing on use in Andeancrops cultivated primarily by small farmers, the great majority ofwhom speak Quechua only and are illiterate. Bayer packaged Folidol, awhite powder that resembles powdered milk and has no strong chemicalodor, in small plastic bags, labeled in Spanish and displaying apicture of vegetables. The labels provided no understandable safetyinformation, such as pictograms, for the majority of users in theseremote villages, and little indication of the danger of the product.

The efforts of the Tauccamarca families and allied Peruviannongovernmental organizations have been backed by a wave of publicsupport over the poisonings, and have won important regulatorychanges. In February the Peruvian National Agrarian Health Serviceissued a resolution (RJ 039 2002) suspending the imports of allpesticides classified by the World Health Organization as Ia(extremely hazardous) or Ib (highly hazardous). The families have alsowritten to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan requesting that he excludeBayer from the UN Global Compact, a UN partnership with corporationswho pledge to abide by human rights and environmental principles,based on BayerÕs actions and inactions with regard to the childrenÕsdeaths and poisonings in Peru. <

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