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DOH: aerial spraying must be stopped; farmers remind Sec. Yap of his promise to end poison rain |
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News Release, National Task Force Against Aerial Spraying
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
MANILA- The Department of Health (DOH) has finally issued a statement on the highly controversial aerial spraying in banana plantations urging the Department of Agriculture (DA) to stop the practice due to publich health hazard.
DOH said that there is voluminous evidence that pesticides used in aerial spraying cause various health effects to workers and communities living near plantations. DOH explained further that “drift is unavoidable whenever pesticides are applied. Based on existing studies, drift is greatest from aerial applications, where almost 40 percent of pesticides applied is lost to drift. In this case, the residential areas and schools near the plantations are exposed to considerable risks to the effect of drift because of the location.”
With this development, representatives of the Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (MAAS) who are still in Manila to push for the banning of aerial spraying being used by banana plantation companies, reminded Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to fulfill his promise to issue an administrative order on whatever the official stand of DOH on aerial spraying.
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PASSION FOR REASON: Bishop's plea on Aerial Spraying |
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Raul C. Pangalangan, Op-Ed Column, Philippine Daily Inquirer
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
THE BISHOPS HAVE RIGHTLY OPPOSED aerial spraying in banana farms on the basis of the ancient unassailable claim of justice: “Do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you.” They essentially dare the banana plantation owners and banana exporters: Are you yourselves willing to be exposed to these chemicals, the same way you expose others?
Aerial spraying entails the use of low-flying air planes to shower pesticides over the plantations, exposing the farm workers, the neighboring residents, and the down-stream and down-wind communities to health hazards. Four bishops have called it “immoral” because it “infringes upon human health and dignity.” On a related matter, the bishop of Infanta, Quezon, has likewise joined hands with the Agta-Dumagat indigenous peoples who will be displaced by the Laiban Dam that San Miguel Corp. and the MWSS propose to build in the Sierra Madre.
I’m glad the bishops have chimed in on these raging social disputes, though I wonder why we wait for men of the cloth to speak before conscienticized men and women cut from the same cloth take to the streets.
But there is hope. Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez has filed a bill banning Dithane, a fungicide to deter leaf diseases but which the US Environmental Protection Agency has found to cause cancer. Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri has proposed a total nationwide ban. Sentrong Albernatibong Lingap Panligal headed by UP law professor Arnold de Vera has asked the Supreme Court to uphold a Davao City ordinance banning aerial spraying in the city’s sprawling agricultural areas. (The Court of Appeals had earlier struck down the ordinance.)
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PBGEA urged to heed DOH, clerics position to ban aerial spray |
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Mindanao Daily Mirror
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
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DAVAO CITY - Multisectoral groups belonging to the Change Davao Movement hit the Pilipino Banana Growers Association for their continued insistence to do aerial spraying in banana plantations even when the Department of Health has already issued an official statement supporting the call to ban such agricultural practice.
"As a public health issue, the DOH position must be obeyed by the plantations," stated Philip Tagab, a youth convenor of Change Davao Movement (CDM), an electoral and political reform advocacy group. CDM has identified aerial spraying as an electoral issue and will ask voters to support candidates who will be for the ban on aerial spraying.
In a statement last week, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque reaffirmed their agency's stand supporting the findings of the study on the Health and Environmental Assessment of Sitio Camocaan, Hagonoy, Davao del Sur. The study found pesticide in the villagers' blood samples confirming pesticide contamination.
"Aerial spraying is immoral and violative of a person's right to a healthy environment," stated Tom Villarin, of the Akbayan! partylist group, a member of CDM.
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Study: Aerial spray hazardous to humans |
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Jade C. Zaldivar, Sunstar Davao
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
RESULTS of a Department of Health (DOH) study said aerial spraying is hazardous to humans.
An official statement from DOH contained the decision of the DOH executive committee in their meeting last August 24 that approved and adopted the recommendations of the study done in 2006 by the DOH, Philippine Society Clinical Occupational Toxicology Inc., and UP-National Poison Management and Control Center.
The statement was signed by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Undersecretaries Alexander Padilla, David Lozada Jr., Mario Villaverde, and assistant secretaries Nemesio Gako, Lydia Fernandez, Elmer Punzalan, and Paulyn Jean Ubial.
The recommendations urged the Department of Agriculture to stop "aerial spraying."
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