DOH urged to reconsider call for aerial spray ban

HAGONOY, Davao del Sur, Philippines – Residents of a village here have called on the Department of Health (DOH) to reconsider its call for a stop to aerial spraying of fungicide in view of its serious repercussions to the banana industry and to their livelihood.

The appeal of the residents of Sitio Camocaan, Barangay Aplaya was aired by Mayor Franco Calida, community officials and sectoral representatives in a “People’s Inquiry” forum hosted by the municipal government and attended by DOH representatives led by Prof. Allan Dionisio of the UP Poison Management and Control Center.

Dionisio was the lead investigator of a DOH study four years ago that found ethylene thiourea (ETU), a byproduct of fungicide degradation, in the blood samples of three Camocaan residents probably due to aerial spraying.

The same study though also found ETU in the blood samples of residents of Sitio Baliwaga where no aerial sprayings were conducted, leading the local folk to question the call for an aerial spraying ban.

Sitio Baliwaga is in Sta. Cruz town, which is far from a banana plantation but where residents were found to have more health problems than those in Sitio Camocaan.

Dionisio admitted that they do not know anything about aerial spraying, alleging that the banana companies, at the time of their study, did not cooperate. A banana industry representative debunked this as “baseless.”

“How can they recommend a ban on aerial spraying when they are totally ignorant of how it is done,” said Pastor Tamayo, a long-time Camocaan resident who used to work as a flagman at the nearby banana plantation and whose house is right in the line of sight of aerial spraying operations.

Tamayo said he is dumbfounded by the suggestion of DOH’s Dr. Annabelle Yumang for banana plantations to shift to ground spraying which he said is a “stone-age technology and very wasteful as it puts more fungicide on the ground than on the banana leaves where the Black Sigatoka fungi are found.” 

Dionisio denied suggestions that they undertook a health and environmental assessment of Sitio Camocaan at the behest of Dr. Romeo Quijano of the Pesticide Action Network.

Quijano’s reports of sick and dying residents due to aerial spraying were reportedly the basis for the DOH study, which militant groups subsequently used to rally for public support for an aerial spraying ban.

”We have nothing to do with Quijano’s group,” Dionisio said.