Conclusions from the use of herbicides in Colombia

• Adverse effects of the spray campaigns in Colombia have been widely reported by affected.
• Communities, Colombian government authorities, and outside observers. Many of these effects are, in fact, predictable based on publicly available information about toxicological properties of glyphosate herbicides and standard guidelines for these herbicides’ use.
• The crop losses and environmental impacts, also broadly reported, are natural outcomes of the widespread aerial spraying of powerful and concentrated herbicides.
• Although certain reported effects of the spraying, such as widespread livestock deaths and some of the most serious human health impacts, are not clearly explained by known toxicological properties of the chemicals known to be used in the spray campaigns, several “unknowns” in the situation may contribute to these effects.
• The great number of reports that have been made regarding the health and environmental impacts of spraying, the diversity of the sources, and the detail of the documentation, justify, in our opinion, calls for a moratorium on spraying. Such a moratorium would allow time to review crop eradication policies and study health and environmental effects.