Glyphosate impact on human health denounced at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Between October 30 and November 10, 2023, the 188-session period of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH by its acronym in Spanish) was held in Washington, DC. There Dr. Damián Verzeñassi, integral medicine specialist and Director of the Institute of Socio-environmental Health of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Rosario National University, Argentina, exposed the impact of agrotoxics on human health and specifically on reproductive health, as they have extensive work generating evidence on the impact of pesticides in Argentina with the Centre for Reproductive Rights. Latin America is the region in the world where the highest volume of pesticides is used, including those banned by the European Union, the institutions pointed.

Damián Verzeñassi and his work team, between 2010 and 2019, interviewed 143 thousand people from forty localities in the four states with the highest rate of exposure to pesticides in the country. They identified an increase in various threats to the health of these populations:

-There is a 2.5-fold increase in the risk of dying from cancer in the population aged 15-45 years.

–Increasing incidence of thyroid disease.

–First-trimester spontaneous abortions increased from 3.1% in 1996 to 14.3% in 2018.

In a public statement, Dr. Damián Verzeñassi said that “this production model damages territories, pollutes, destroys diversity and generates forced migrations. The presence of agrotoxins in people’s bodies is evidence of the violation of the principle of the Human Right to Physical Integrity. The presence of agrotoxins in fruits, vegetables and food is a violation of the Right to Food. Illnesses suffered by people, violation of the Right to Health. The contamination of the environment, violation of the Right to a Healthy Environment. We have said it and we reaffirm it: there cannot be healthy people and communities in sick territories“.

Dr. Verzeñassi also asked for the permanent ban on the use of glyphosate, as well as a ban on the application of pesticides by aerial spraying.