July 15, 2006 - Day 4 - Pesticide Conference 1998

This may be a little bit unusual for meeting your expectations for a daily journal about one person’s approach to having cancer, but the fact that I attended a conference on Pesticides, Health and The Environment in Costa Rica in February of 1998 should not go un-mentioned.  I went because our little organic fertilizer company was attempting to develop a presence in a country that was building its organic profile and our products fit their needs well.  I coordinated a business trip to coincide with this international gathering of scientists because Agenda 21 of the United Nations targeted agriculture for review because of the un-intended consequences of chemical fertilization practices around the world.

The Bruntland Commission, named after, I think the former President of Norway or Sweden, reminded the world that ‘the earth is one, but the world is not’ meaning that we better come to an understanding about some of these issues that effect all of us, regardless of where we live or our socio-economic status.  Health, pesticides and the environment is one of those global issues.

The opening plenary was an eye popping session especially when the experts started with the health of children.  Two thirds of the health problems of children are environmentally caused.   The gathered assembly acknowledged that the toxicity of air, soil and water was growing yearly and no one segment could be protected from this increasing on-slaught. In addition, they began to weave in how pesticides are affecting health, especially cancer rates.  One person specifically targeted conventionally grown coffee in South America as having a high pesticide residue.  Dr. David Pimentel of Cornell University gave the dollar expenditures, the tonnage rates, and crop health statistics as related to the proliferation of chemicals in our agricultural systems worldwide.  I just scribbled as fast as I could in my recycled notebook.

My pen picked up speed as the spoke of the public’s financial impact of pesticide use in the USA; and remember this conference was eight years ago: 

1. health -  1 billion
2. environment – 8 billion
3. worldwide estimate to both – 100 billion

Cancer was the furthest thing from my mind 8 years ago.  I had always made the connection between health, environment, and the proliferation of toxic substances that we had to deal with from home to community, but the personal connection was to be years in the making.

One quick story:  In driving through the countryside of Costa Rica to examine organic practices we noticed a group of teenage boys seated on the ground taking a break from their back breaking work in this particular coffee field.

We stopped and chatted for awhile noticing that none wore masks or gloves, there were no peligro (danger) labels on their tanks, and yet they were spraying bright orange, and I mean bright and blue liquids on the coffee plants.  My host, an agronomist and scientific researcher, asked about the products and the boys had no idea what they were spraying.  El jeffe de la granjo (spelling most likely off here), the boss of the farm, just gives them their assignment and their lunch and tells them to go to work.  The coffee plantation was owned and operated by an American company to boot. The orange and blue pesticides were extremely toxic and carcinogenic.

At the conference I had just heard that ‘child poisoning is on the increase in Latin and South America.” In addition, this chemical I saw firsthand, which was called DBCP was made in America, banned in America and sold in South and Latin America.  My host told me it caused sterility.  Names like chloridmeform and methamidophos – or something resembling that spelling are known to cause cancer, yet we export these with impunity.

I guess for me reading labels and finding words that I can not spell, much less pronounce is part of my cancer prevention strategy.  Nothing comes into my home or garden with the potential for further compromising my health, or any member of my family, Period! I only wish that we would care enough about any worker in the field to rid the world of carcinogens, or at the very least educate the worker and provide protection for them.

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