Today, Wednesday, November 17, the Land Workers Union (UTT) will hold a “Fair” together with the employees of the Pediatric Hospital Garrahan nucleated in the Association of Professionals and Technicians (APyT), of that institution, to denounce environmental damage and serious illnesses caused by the use of glyphosate in children, among other issues.
The activity, which will take place at 11:45 am, will take place in one of the Health Center’s classrooms and on its terrace, at Combate de los Pozos al 1800, in the Buenos Aires district of Constitución.
The amount of agrochemicals that are applied in the country is constantly increasing and growing, due to the extension of genetically modified seed crops. Currently, these plantations cover 30 million hectares of territory where more than 12 million people and three million children live. Precisely, this is the population most exposed to environmental pollution due to the excessive use of pesticides. The harm to child health is exacerbated by the products most used in fields such as chlorpyrifos, atrazine, imidacloprid, 2-4D, paraquat, carbofuran and glyphosate.
“Our lives are at permanent risk, the agro-industrial production model places economic interests above health and the large agribusiness companies that support the agro-export model are ready for anything. Ecocide is already underway and is destroying diversity in the countryside. Therefore, we must denounce its consequences for the promotion of a new agrifood model based on agroecology to take care of the health of those who produce and those who consume.”, expressed Lucas Tedesco, UTT’s national reference.
In turn, Licensee Norma Lezana, general secretary of the Garrahan Association of Professionals and Technicians, said: “Our organization is committed to defending the labor rights of health team workers, but this stance is connected with the global defense of public health as a right threatened by a food system crossed by the profit logic of large corporations that transform food into a market good. Health professionals have to denounce this situation and at the same time contribute to the construction of an alternative matrix that gains weight in the social agenda. This is also our commitment.”.
Argentina leads the world ranking in the amount of glyphosate the field uses. Currently, the average is 15 liters of this pesticide used per hectare per year, a number that places Argentina in first place globally. Several reports indicate that many pesticides analyzed by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have been classified as carcinogens with different levels of evidence. Glyphosate, the most used pesticide in Argentina, is ranked in the second level of cancer risk.
In Argentina, asthma is a health problem that causes more than 400 deaths and more than 15,000 hospitalizations per year. And in the cities of the fumigated territories, asthma is the most frequent chronic childhood disease. Agricultural neonatologists who receive referrals from these different regions observe an increase in the frequency of children born with congenital malformations. The usual rate of congenital anomalies is always less than 2% of births. However, many health professionals, obstetricians and pediatricians from Santa Fé, Chaco, Tucumán, Misiones, Córdoba and Bs.As. report much higher rates and that, even in a few years, they triple this prevalence.
ACTIVITIES
11:45 am Panel – “Effects of pesticides on child health” and presentation of UTT’s agroecological proposal
1:30 in the afternoon. Agroecological production fair / Radio Abierta
Esplanade Hospital (Combate de los Pozos 1881, CABA)
Press Contacts
Lucas Tedesco 11 2860-4533
License Norma Lezana 11 3856-0617
Maritsa Puma 221 565 4434