A short tale of facadery, the last three years of persistent pesticide warriorship, and the missing "reglamento".

People often come to Costa Rica and feel blown away by the green landscape, the abundant wildlife, and what they perceive as fresh (and in their minds, "organic") food. This can sometimes be true, but is also a huge facade. Many people know of Costa Rica as an eco tourism hot spot, and through effective marketing, believe Costa Rica to be green in every way, whatever that means to them. Although one of the most progressive Central American countries preserving legally 30% of their lands for conservation, is also a country still under environmental duress in many areas and from many issues. For instance, we don't have appropriate infrastructure in some areas for a the many moving in. There does not seem to be a good waste plan as we have an inordinate amount of illegal dumps. This has contributed to local pollution problems as contrasted to what we experienced anyway from what washes up upon our shores from the outside world. Yet this might be the greatest shocker. We have one of the HIGHEST amounts of pesticides in the world. Higher than China per capita.

A post of this nature has been a long time coming, at least 3 years since joining Pesticide Warriors. This is a pesticide watch group and the activist arm of Costa Rica Libre de Toxicos. A link to this activist group is found on the scrolling banner of the first page of our website.

Glysophate containing products have been a major focus of the work, but Pesticide Warriors is concerned about all human toxins. Especially when we are sprayed by them. And I mean this not in an abstract way but actually sprayed while out in the field trying to educate someone who thinks they are benign or non-toxic. This post is particularly inspired by Goal 24 because one of our board members recently was sprayed doing just such a thing. Let's take a look at what Goal 24 is.

We all know Wikipedia is not perfect but here's what it has to say about this GOAL 24.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyfluorfen

Herbicide: GOAL 24 EC (Oxyfluorfen)

“The primary toxic effects are in the liver and alterations in blood parameters (anemia).[2] It is classified as a possible human carcinogen.[2]”

“Environmental impact:

Oxyfluorfen is classified as an environmental hazard under the GHS due to being "very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects".[1]
Oxyfluorfen is toxic to plants, invertebrates, and fish. Birds and mammals may also experience subchronic and chronic effects from oxyfluorfen.[2] It is persistent in soil and has been shown to drift from application sites to nearby areas.[2] It can contaminate surface water through spray drift and runoff.[2]”

Just a reminder that we are mammals and that these products that are sprayed en masse can penetrate aquifers and other water sheds. Prolific usage, as is here and globally, allows the product to not stay in the place that it has been sprayed but gets washed into the rivers with rain. We know where rivers go (to our oceans).

Pesticides are a country-wide problem here. We have been told it's all throughout Central America. Environmentalists know it is a worldwide issue. Sometimes these chemicals are sprayed for food production. Sometimes, as in our area, they are also used en masse because it is simply a less back breaking, or, sadly, cheaper solution for various "needs". This post is not meant to be an exhaustive investigative piece, just a short tale and summary of what actions we have taken as a community of 39 pesticide warriors who have onboarded with the mission of Costa Rica Libre de Toxicos and our leader, Stephanie Smith. Stephanie is a documentarian who, fed up with pesticide usage at California schools decided to investigate further... That is a whole story in and of itself that, of course, she will one day tell.

Fast forward, Stephanie found a rural area of Costa Rica to relocate to. She had hoped her family could start afresh. Only weeks after moving here, she realized she could not escape this global problem. Instead of deciding to move again, she chose to start an awareness and action organization to combat it. Over the first 2 years of Costa Rica Libre de Toxicos we had some wins. Major ones. Including an acuerdo and a national sanitation warning that went out because of it. Her organization has 39 dedicated people who act as local watchers and she has over 800 people who like the organization's facebook page. For a small town, this is huge.

For a short while it seemed we could relax. We saw less spraying, for whatever reason (probably related to the multi-year excuse of the virus). Recently it has started up again. And, as mentioned before, Susan (Green Wave board member) was sprayed. So what's going on?

Aside from putting blame on the manufacturer, which I can cover in a future post, we can summarize our main issue as being a lack of enforcement. In fact, we were told by our local environmental head that there could be no enforcement without a "reglamento" (a law). Although the "alerta sanataria" (sanitation alert mentioned previously) was helpful and brought on National headlines, he emphasized that without a reglamento to support it, this too was unenforceable. Game over? Heck no! Emails were written, in-person requests were submitted but we could not get a reglamento written. We need a reglamento. What will it take?

It might take meetings with more important people here in the country. If we don't know them already, we're going to find them. It might take making a bigger stink with local and National press and blogs; including on the international level (that's where anyone can come in, including you - dear reader).

Let me now present to you a list of actions we (the activist members of Costa Rica Libre de Toxicos, and mostly by Stephanie and Susan) have taken:

1. Creation and distribution of informational flyers which included human health effects, listing environmental dangers, and referenced (what we thought were applicable) laws.
2. Left the flyers in churches, ferreterías and grocery stores.
3. Posted digital flyers in community chats and forums.
4. Spoke to school teachers and local Ticos to see if they would join with us to talk to property owners that were spraying. (We were never successful in getting people together who wanted to stand up and speak to private property owners).
5. Set up a booth at the rodeo and photographed the police holding our flyer.
6. Visited local stores and asked them not to sell the products.
7. Offering to pay local farmers to not spray. 
8. Presentations to our local council.
9. Met with each individual city council member to gain their support and signature on a document calling for a moratorium of spraying near schools.
10. Gave a presentation to the Biological Corridor Protection group.
11. Asked if our watershed could be tested for the presence of glyphosate (and told it could not).

12. Reached out to various universities to see if they could help us test the water (and got no where).

13. Met the local Education Minister, and the local Agriculture representative.
14. Spoke to all the candidates running for local office.
15. Captured on video the current mayor promising on video to make it his priority.
16. Developed a protocol for the community to file denuncias (official complaints).

THE PROTOCOL (To be sent to Costa Rica Libre de Toxicos)

1. Photo/video of spraying.
2. Location pin
3. Health information: how were you affected? Short and long term symptoms if any. Includes headaches, upper respiratory symptoms, rashes etc.
4. Name/telephone of owner of known.

Summary paragraph goes here.