Kamayan
Environment Forum, July17, Topic: Aerial Spraying in Davao




Start:     


Jul 17, '09 10:30a




End:     


Jul 17, '09 2:00p




Location:     


Saisaki Restaurant, Kamayan, Edsa, near SEC
Ortigas




 

 

YOU ARE
INVITED to join the Kamayan Environmental Forum held every 3rd Friday monthly,
10:30am-2pm at Kamayan-EDSA, near SEC Ortigas. It is convened by Clear
Communicators for the Environment (CLEAR) and Sanib-Lakas ng Aktibong Lingkod
para sa Inang Kalikasan (SALIKA), sponsored by Kamayan Triple V.

 

Please join us and participate in our lively
discussions. You can also invite your family, friends, co-workers, and those
who want to learn more about what should be done to care for the environment.
ALL ARE VERY MUCH WELCOME.

 

 

 

BANANA PLANTERS IGNORE DOH ON HAZARDS
OF AERIAL SPRAYING

(e-mailcast on July 13, 2009)

 

A year and a month ago, the Kamayan
para sa Kalikasan forum focused its live discussion on the issue of aerial
spraying of pesticides on banana plantations in Davao City, with downwind
communities getting poison rain and suffering various skin and respiratory
ailments.  This issue dragged on, with
the banana plantation owners enjoying the effect of an injunction slapped by
the Court of Appeals on the city government to desist from enforcing its
ordinance that had banned the practice. Now, aside from the Davao City LGU and
the Davao Regional Trial Court, an executive department has also taken the side
of the victimized communities. But the plantation owners have displayed their
arrogance by ignoring it, involving even mediapersons in their propaganda war
to enjoy their "business as usual" mode.

 

THE BANANA PLANTERS ARE UNDISTURBED BY
SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH  FINDINGS
OF HEALTH HAZARDS CAUSED BY THEIR CONTINUED AERIAL SPRAYING OF PESTICIDES.

 

The DoH  findings regarding the effects of pesticides
in Camocaan village, Davao del Sur  were
even assailed by a columnist who was apparently misinformed by the banana
plantation owners. There was an item in Conrado Banal¹s column in the
Philippine Daily Inquirer last May, which assailed the DoH report recommended
the banning of aerial spraying of these pesticides.

 

Banal said the study found
"statistically negligible" levels of fungicide in Camocaan. But
nowhere in the report could the words "statistically negligible" be
found. In fact, the report says the opposite: in one of the soil samples in
Camocaan,
the levels of ethylene thiourea, a potential carcinogenic fungicide byproduct,
exceeded the levels allowed by the US 
Environmental Protection Agency. The DoH report also found that among
the randomly selected patients living outside the plantation, the levels of
this potential carcinogenic chemical in their blood were dangerously high. But
Banal did not mention these findings.

The quote and arguments Banal used in
his column were exactly the same quote and arguments that several other
columnists had used, verbatim, in their own columns. We can¹t help but think,
therefore, that a PR practitioner has been hired to misinform opinion makers
who, therefore, end up misinforming the public about aerial spraying.

 

Banal also said that the study¹s
sample was too small, and that we could not make conclusions based on 38
patients. It appears that Banal does not clearly understand the methods of
statistical randomization, which professional researchers and survey groups
use.

 

Complaints against aerial spraying are
not new. In fact, in response to public clamor, and absent the proper
intervention of concerned national government agencies, Bukidnon province
banned aerial spraying way back in 2001. North Cotabato also banned the
practice in 2004, and in 2007 Davao
City followed suit.
Despite the ban, banana plantations in Bukidnon and North
Cotabato continue to thrive, thus belying the claim that banning

aerial spraying will kill the banana
industry.

 

The Pilipino Banana Growers and
Exporters Association (PBGEA), the source of the misleading information about
the DoH study, is "going bananas" on the issue of aerial spraying. It
continues to defy public and government clamor to abandon aerial spraying and
to adopt instead viable and less dangerous alternatives. It is a pity that
columnists like Banal allow themselves be used by corporations that focus only
on their own endless quest for profit.

 

For this reason, the organizers of the
Kamayan para sa Kalikasan decided to bring back this issue to the discussion
table. Led by SALIKA President George Dadivas, they have invited Hon, Akbayan
Rep. Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel, Dr. Lynn Panganiban of DOH, Davao-based
campaigner Lia Esquillo, National Task Force Against Aerial Spraying chair Rene
Pineda and a representative of PBGEA to attend as resource persons in the forum
session to be held this coming 3rd Friday, July 17, 10:30am-2pm at the Kamayan
Restaurant along EDSA in Mandaluyong City. 
Marie Marciano will moderate.

 

Please come to the forum to ask your
questions and voice your concerns!




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