NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Doctors, scientists and environmentalists in Argentina, and across Latin America, are demanding a ban on Monsanto products.

Over 30,000 doctors and health professionals in Argentina are the latest to add their voice to the fight against Monsanto, asking the federal government to ban its products after recent studies found they may contain carcinogens, press reports stated Tuesday.

Other social organizations and researchers across Latin America have also spoken out against Monsanto’s products, signs of a larger and more ambitious campaign to ban the agrochemical company from the whole region.

The demands come after the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report last month with the findings that glyphosate, the active chemical in Monsanto product Roundup, “probably causes cancer.”

The chemical is also sold by other companies under the names Cosmo Flux, Baundap, Glyphogan, Panzer, Potenza and Rango.

According to Argentina’s union of medical professionals, Fesprosa, glyphosate, “not only causes cancer. It is also associated with increased spontaneous abortions, birth defects, skin diseases, and respiratory and neurological disease.”

“In our country glyphosate is applied on more than 28 million hectares. Each year, the soil is sprayed with more than 320 million liters, which means that 13 million people are at risk of being affected, according to the Physicians Network of Sprayed Peoples (RMPF),” said Fesprosa in a press statement earlier this month.

The union, which represents over 30,000 doctors and health specialists in the country, also asked for the chemical to be banned from the country, and force agribusinesses to change their structure in order to not be dependent on chemicals. This includes stop using genetically modified plants.