Last flight looms for US-funded air war on drugs as Colombia counts health cost

Aerial spraying of glyphosate – labelled ‘probably carcinogenic’ by the WHO – has been key to coca eradication efforts for 20 years
The Guardian (UK)
Wednesday, May 6, 2015

fumigationcolombiaFor more than two decades crop dusters have buzzed the skies of Colombia showering bright green fields of coca with chemical defoliant as part of a US-funded effort to stem the country’s production of cocaine. Farmers across the country have long complained that indiscriminate spraying also destroys legal crops, and that the chemical used – glyphosate – has caused everything from skin rashes and respiratory problems to diarrhoea and miscarriages.