Colombia Agency Recommends Suspension Of Coca Fumigation

The Ministry of Health on Tuesday recommended that the government immediately suspend the use of glysophates in aerial fumigations due to reports that suggest it is a carcinogenic.



Minister of Health Alejandro Gaviria said a World Health Organization report represented an "inescapable warning of possible adverse health effects," resulting from the use of glysophates and has contacted the National Drug Council which will have the final say regarding its use.



The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer last month published a summary of its forthcoming monograph on glyphosate, and classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic in humans."



Glysophate, a broad-spectrum herbicide, has been used since 2000 as one of the main weapons to combat the production of coca – the plant used for creating cocaine.



Statistics from the Program to Eradicate Illicit Crops, or PECIG, show that more than 1.5 million hectares of coca plantations have been fumigated since 2000. Glysophate has been used for four decades in the country in the struggle to eradicate coca cultivations and between 2000 and 2010, the Colombian government reportedly spent $668 million annually to combat the production of illicit drugs.



"The Ministry of Health and Social Protection, under its remit and obligation to protect public health and taking into consideration advice provided by the Constitutional Court, recommends the immediate suspension of the use of glysophates in aerial fumigations to eradicate illicit crops as defined by the (PECIG)," wrote the Ministry of Health in a document sent to the Ministry of Justice.   



The production and distribution of cocaine in Colombia is a central cause of the continuing internal conflict and has been a major source of income for rebel groups active in the country, in particular the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.



Currently engaged in peace dialogues with the government since November 2012, the FARC has approved President Juan Manuel Santos' desire to launch a policy of manual crop replacement and the cessation of aerial fumigations in coca growing areas. The program has already been launched in the southern department of Putumayo.



The Colombian Antinarcotics Police and the United States Embassy control the distribution and use of the glysophate herbicide.



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