It’s always fun to get roses on Valentines Day! But who would ever think when buying roses that they have been sprayed, rinsed and dipped in “a battery of potentially lethal chemicals”.
Does anybody remember that movie we watched last year in Mr. Slajert’s class called “Maria Full of Grace?” Maria worked in that crowded greenhouse cutting roses all day long and dipping them in chemicals. The working conditions were awful and she ended up losing her job. That’s how it really is in Bogota, Colombia. Working with roses provides an alternative to selling cocane, which many end up doing (like Maria in the movie) However, this so-called “positive”alternative hurts workers’ health and Columbia’s environment.
Pesticide usage is a huge problem in Bogota, Columbia. Almost all of the chemicals used for roses are classified as “extremely” or “highly” toxic by the World Health Organization. Making the problem worse, unlike the U.S., Columbia has no government regulations about pesticide use inside greenhouses, where toxicity levels tend to rise. On Nov. 25, 2003, 200 workers at Flores Aposentos were hospitalized after fainting and developing sores inside their mouths. The company was only fined $5,770 for this mass poisoning.
TO GO WITH STORY SLUGGED COLOMBIA TOXIC FLOWERS- A worker cut roses at the Inversiones Morcote flower farm in Bogota, Monday, Jan. 22, 2007. Inversiones Morcote is certified by Germany-based FLO-Cert GmbH for pursuing socially and environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. Some US consumer advocates complain that Colombia’s cut-flower industry, the second largest in the world, is ignoring market trends and relying too heavily on the use of pesticides.
(AP Photo/ Fernando Vergara)
Some of us wrote about pesticides as an indoor air pollutant for our indoor air quality assignment. The EPA lists this under health effects:
Irritation to eye, nose, and throat; damage to central nervous system and kidney; increased risk of cancer. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, muscular weakness, and nausea. Chronic exposure to some pesticides can result in damage to the liver, kidneys, endocrine and nervous systems, as well as an increased risk of cancer.
Links between chemicals and individual illnesses are hard to prove because chronic pesticide exposure has not been studied in enough detail. However, researchers have found some disturbing information:The Harvard School of Public Health examined 72 children ages 7-8 in a flower-growing region of Ecuador whose mothers were exposed to pesticides during pregnancy and found they had developmental delays of up to four years on aptitude tests. Philippe Grandjean, who led the Harvard study published last year, said “Every time we look, we’re finding out these pesticides are more dangerous than we ever thought before and more toxic at lower levels.” For example, a woman named Carmen Orjuela began suffering dizzy spells falls while working at a flower farm in Bogota, Columbia. During the season of Valentine’s Day, she said her employer forced workers to enter greenhouses only a half-hour after they had been fumigated. (It is recommended that workers wait 24 hours before entering greenhouses sprayed with toxic pesticides) Carmen Orjuela said that those who refused to enter the greenhouse were told they could leave because 20 people were waiting outside to take their job. A study from Colombia’s National University confirmed that Carmen Orjuela’s illness was “directly related to an important exposure to potentially toxic chemical substances.”
So what’s the solution to these dangerous pesticides? Organic flower production. Companies need to start having environmentally responsible practices.
motryak said
ugh yet another instance of underpaid workers risking their health for american consumers. go for the organic, i’m pretty sure the reason it costs so much more is not only because it doesnt use the cheaper alternative of pesticides, but also because they follow labor regulations…so its worth it, even if it is a little more expensive.
sgoetz said
This kind of saddens me that the Columbian government allows this sort of thing to happen. That’s a really hard decision whether or not to keep your job or get sick. I think that maybe they should use better planning to ensure the workers’ health, such as not letting them into the greenhouse for 24 hours after it has been fumigated. Perhaps also research could be done on organic pesticides that don’t harm humans quite as much.
macton said
Yea, I definitely remember watching that movie last year! This is really sad and something has to be done to stop this terrible stuff from happening. Clearly they need to stop using these pesticides/stop exposing the workers to them and I think they should use the organic flowers even if they do cost more. When it comes to human life and money, human life should also rank as top priority to money.
mcrane said
I definately remember Maria Full of Grace. That movie was so sad. I remember the scenes where Maria was in the greenhouse cutting all of the flowers and they were getting sprayed with pesticides, but I did not think about how that could be harmful to her health. Pesticides that are toxic should not be used in the production of goods even if they cost less. The cost of producing flowers should never overshadow the means of production and how those means can impact the health of workers. Although organic flowers may be more expensive, they do not harm workers by exposing them to toxic chemicals.
abbyr said
I never actually saw Maria Full of Grace, but it seems like a very serious issue. I dont understand why the government lets this happen to its people. I mean, is dipping flowers in the pesticides, which cost less money, worth harming someone?