Court in Cordoba bans pesticide fumigation of soy fields near urban areas.
The poison that devastated the district of Ituzaingó
After ten years of complaints from residents of the district Ituzaingó of Cordoba, which is surrounded by soybeans fields, a judge has banned the spraying of pesticides near urban areas. Of five thousand inhabitants, 200 have cancer, and every single family has at least one person who is ill.


By Dario Aranda

The neighborhood of Ituzaingó Annex on the outskirts of Córdoba, is made up of low houses, gray asphalt and boys playing in the street. It was once like many other districts, but eight years ago it won notoriety for the large number of cancer patients and children with malformations. Its inhabitants looked around and began to find the cause of so much suffering: to the east, north and south there were soybean fields only separated from their homes by a street, so pesticides spray came floating right to the very doors of their houses. The organization Mothers of Ituzaingó, born as diseases multiplied, revealed the cases and reported soy growing businessmen and political leaders, for complicity. They were called "the crazy ladies", but they became pioneers in reporting the contamination of the agricultural model. Nearly a decade after the first reports, the Córdoba court has, for the first time, prohibited soybean producers from spraying near the neighborhood, establishing this as a criminal offense and has pointed a finger at glyphosate, a pesticide considered a pillar of the soy industry.

“Spraying in urban areas violates provisions of the Provincial Agricultural Chemicals Act and constitutes a criminal offense of environmental pollution, which is punishable by up to ten years imprisonment,” explained Carlos Matheu the District III public prosecutor, who identified the criminal status as "willful pollution of the environment in a manner dangerous to health." The measure, which could set a precedent for dozens of complaints from around the country, blocks the use of pesticides to at least 500 meters away from urban areas and, if aerial spraying is practiced the minimum distance required is 1500 meters. The ruling focuses on two agrochemicals: endosulfan and glyphosate.

Endosulfan is a potent insecticide used for pest control in cotton, tobacco, sorghum wheat and soybeans, among others. Among its main vendors is Agrosoluciones, a unit of the multinational Dupont dedicated to the agro-industry. Agrochemical companies do not mention its effects on health, although the Pesticides Action Network (PAN) — made up of 600 organizations from 90 countries — says that, "the effects of endosulfan include congenital deformities, hormonal disorders, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, cancer and skin, vision, hearing and respiratory tract problems."

Glyphosate is the most widely known pesticide in Argentina. It is marketed under the name of Roundup by transnational corporation Monsanto, the international leader in pesticides and the target of many complaints about environmental pollution and damage to people’s health. Large companies recognize that soy producers use at least ten liters of Roundup per acre. In the 2007-2008 season, soybean monoculture in Argentina covered some 17 million hectares, and Argentine fields were sprayed with 170 million liters of the disputed herbicide in a single year. It is applied in liquid form on the weeds, which absorb the poison and die within a few days. The only thing that grows in Roundup-sprayed soil is the transgenic soybeans, modified in laboratories for this purpose. Monsanto advertising classifies Roundup as harmless to humans.


Five thousand people live in Ituzaingó Annex, 200 of them suffering from cancer. The Mothers of Ituzaingó describe the situation, saying, "There are cases of young people between 18 and 25 years old with tumors in their heads. Kids only 22 and 23 years old have already died. There are more than thirteen cases of leukemia in children and young people." "On every block there are women with scarves on their heads because of chemotherapy, and children wearing facemasks because of leukemia," laments Sofia Gatica, who has been living here for twenty years and is connected to the organization. She suffered the death of her newborn baby (due to a rare malformation of the kidney), and now her 14 year old daughter is in the middle of a detoxification treatment (municipal studies confirmed that is living with two pesticides in her blood).


The Undersecretary of Health in the Municipality of Córdoba, Medardo Avila Vázquez, was the driving force behind the cautionary measure in February 2008. "When we saw the planes spraying above the houses, we reported it as a case of poisoning," he explained. Matheum the prosecutor, ordered studies in the patios and yards of the homes and confirmed the presence of endosulfan and glyphosate. They also raided farm warehouses, found with drums of pesticides and (in addition to curbing spraying) and tried soy producers, the owners of the aircraft, and fumigator pilots. "It is unprecedented in Córdoba. Ten years ago, NGOs and neighbors reported poisonings from the soybeans, and is the first time that the courts acknowledged they were right, that the right to health and life is given priority over the right to conduct business," concluded the official.


A survey of the Rural Reflection Group (GRR), which promotes a campaign to stop pesticide spraying, surveyed ten villages that have reported pollution. One witness case was the Ituzaingó Annex neighborhood, where they confirmed skin and respiratory allergies, neurological diseases, incidences of malformations, spina bifida, kidney malformations in fetuses and pregnant women, and problems of osteogenesis.



In March 2006, the Municipal Environment analyzed the blood of 30 neighborhood children: in 23 pesticides were present. "In every family there is a cancer patient, of all kinds, but especially breast, stomach or throat cancer. Each time they spray you get a dry throat, your nose burns and many students are left with white eyes, and they live on Decadrón," Sofia Gatica said and then went down a list of consequences: babies without fingers, with organs changed, missing jaw bones, and with hormone changes. "On my block there isn’t a single family without someone sick. And they are trying to move because they know that anyone can become a victim," she lamented.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) also came to Ituzaingó, invited by the municipal government and concerned about the seriousness of the case. In August 2007 they began to analyze the existing surveys, conducted interviews and confirmed the allegations. "We conclude that Ituzaingó Annex can be regarded as a contaminated site. The most important pollutants are pesticides and arsenic, mainly in the soil. The presence of pesticides in water tanks possibly reflects the involvement of the soil-air pathway." Among the indispensable actions they recommended was the need to “increase control over clandestine spraying at distances less than those permitted by law."


The Mothers of Ituzaingó recognize the court ruling (made last December 30th but released only this week) came "when the whole neighborhood has already been poisoned,” but they were excited to think that you can set a precedent: "There are hundreds of communities who are suffering from the toxic effects of soy farms’ agrochemicals. It is about time justice starts to act. "