This October 13, the Permanent Phytosanitary Committee on Animals and Plants (PAFF Committee) of the European Union to deal with the renewal of the pesticide glyphosatethe most used herbicide in Europe and the world.
However, the minimum of 15 countries of the 27 members of the European Union was not achieved, neither to approve nor to reject the authorization by 10 more years of the agrotoxicwidely questioned due to its serious consequences for human and socio-environmental health.
He Brussels Committee He expects a decision to be made in the Court of Appeal in the first half of November, before the current approval valid until December 15 expires.
As reported The country, Spain declared itself in favor to renew glyphosate, while important countries such as Germany and France abstained. The proposal presented by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) endorses the use of pesticides without considering the evidence presented in recent months by the project SPRINT (Sustainable Plant Protection Transition: A Global Health Approach 2020/2025).
In the sampling carried out in 2021 for this study, the researchers found increased exposure to glyphosate and its derivatives such as AMPA in relation to other agrotoxics. Furthermore, the mixture with other pesticides (synergy) generates greater damage and harm to healthand air transport in its various forms from the place where the pesticide is applied, implies pollution levels higher than those that had been considered in regulatory policies.
Among the main conclusions, the SPRINT scientists insisted on the unsustainability of current pesticide useand the need to establish stricter regulations even for export products and not only those produced in Europe, since when analyzing samples from Buenos Aires, ArgentinaThey found even greater exposures to glyphosateamong others.
SPRINT is part of a more general project that seeks to reduce in Europe the use and impact of the most dangerous pesticides, to reduce them by 50% by 2030. In countries like France and Germany, social pressure from below against pesticides is gaining ground with strong mobilizations in recent years.
Even Macron has had to speak out against glyphosate. From 2022, a Fund was created by the government to pesticide victims. One of the young people compensated is Théo Grataloup, 16 years old, who already had to undergo 54 operations to survive due to serious malformations of the larynx and esophagus. Recently the Commission d’indemnisation des enfants victimes d’une exposition prenatale aux pesticides (Compensation Commission for children victims of prenatal exposure to pesticides) recognized the link between the malformations he suffers and his mother’s exposureSabine Grataloup , to glyphosate during pregnancy.
Despite the abundant scientific evidence and the growing struggle of the fumigated peoples of the world, behind the dangerous glyphosate lies the company Bayer-Monsantothe main interest in continuing to manufacture and sell the product to continue adding to its large profits, regardless of the human and environmental health costs that this polluting model implies.
But a growing environmental awareness within the working class is auspicious to deeply question this society and fight from below to impose alternatives in defense of our health and the environment. Our lives are worth more than your profits.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
