HALT COLOMBIA DRUG WAR SPRAYING

The U.S. effort to help Colombia eradicate illegal crops of coca and
heroin poppy is making people sick -- literally.

Children are developing sores on their skin, and adults are stricken
with diarrhea from herbicide contamination of their drinking water.

Poor farmers complain that their potato and onion crops are dying.

Meanwhile, the drug lords simply relocate their coca crops to areas
not yet poisoned by aerial fumigation.

The Bush administration should listen to Colombian governors,
farmers, human rights activists and others who see evidence that the
herbicide spraying is harming people's health and poisoning their
water and food supply. At the very least, the U.S. and Colombian
governments should call a halt to the program until scientists can
determine whether these environmental and health concerns are
legitimate.

As part of Plan Colombia, a $1.3-billion plan to fight drugs, the
United States is assisting the Colombian national police in aerial
spraying of Roundup Ultra, an enhanced version of the domestically
popular weedkiller. When the original formulations of Roundup were
ineffective, planners mixed it with soapy additives to make it more
lethal to the coca plants. Unfortunately, there is evidence that the
new mix may harm legitimate crops and people as well. The aerial
spraying inadvertently drifts into areas where such crops as coffee
and bananas are grown.

Even worse, villagers in the path of the herbicide campaign are
reporting skin rashes, headaches, eye infections, stomach problems
and fevers.

Doctors have noticed an increased incidence of leukemia in babies
born since 1994 when the spraying began.

These problems and the spraying may be unrelated. But until we can
find out for sure, the spraying should be placed on hold.

Drug-producing areas have been fumigated occasionally since the early
1990s, but health complaints became widespread only after Colombian
officials ignored manufacturers' warnings and began using Roundup
Ultra with the soapy additives.

Manufacturers of one additive, Atplus 300f, were so concerned that
their product had not been tested for use in aerial spraying, they
halted its use. Such additives can be highly corrosive by themselves,
and Monsanto, which makes Roundup Ultra, warned explicitly on its
label that these chemicals should not be mixed with the weedkiller.

Before spraying continues, authorities should investigate reports
that that the mixture enhanced to penetrate leaves may also be more
likely to penetrate human skin. Because the formula used in Colombia
is far different in concentration and makeup from the domestic
variety used in health tests, Monsanto's reassurances about Roundup's
safety offer little comfort.

The State Department has even admitted that the herbicide's main
ingredient causes eye and skin irritation.

Yet U.S. officials have accused local people of fabricating their
ailments or suggested that their illnesses may be caused by the
chemicals used to process coca. There may be something to that. Coca
production has contributed to deforestation of the land, and the
toxic chemicals use to convert coca into cocaine are often dumped
into rivers and streams.

Rand Beers, who directs drug policy for the State Department, has
said if studies confirm a link between serious illness and Roundup,
the spraying policy might be reconsidered. That is not good enough.

Nor will compensation for lost crops, while helpful, undo the
potential damage done by introducing this potent chemical into the
environment.

If spraying this mixture at the concentrations used in Plan Colombia
is truly benign, then the U.S. and Colombia have nothing to fear from
an independent investigation by scientific experts.

While the health and environmental studies are being conducted, the
Bush administration and the Congress should seize the chance to
reconsider how the United States is waging war against illegal drugs
in Colombia.