Argentine city of Rosario bans use of glyphosate
The city council of Rosario, Argentina's third-largest city, banned the use and application of the herbicide glyphosate in all its variants, both for agricultural use as well as for public spaces and private gardens.
The ban, introduced by city councilors Osvaldo Miatello and Pedro Salinas, was unanimously approved on Thursday, making the city of 1.2 million the first in Argentina to ban glyphosate and the largest jurisdiction to have done so in Latin America.
The resolution calls on the Municipal Secretariat of Environment and Public Space to find alternative measures for weed and pest control in the city's 13 major parks and other public areas, as well as to enforce the ban among the numerous private orchards and gardens in the city.
Residents or businesses found to be using glyphosate will be fined up to 500,000 pesos ($28,000).
"The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned for years that glyphosate is potentially carcinogenic," City Councilman Osvaldo Miatello pointed out. "It's incumbent on the maker (Monsanto) to prove that it's not, and until they do, caution dictates that we act based on considerations to potential risks to public health."
Pesticide and herbicide use has risen around ten-fold in Argentina since 1990, and now totals around 100 million gallons annually - of which 64% is glyphosate.
Argentina's National Research Council (CONICET) published a study last year in Enviromental Monitoring and Assessment, that showed high levels of glyphosate and its byproducts in the entire Paraná River basin - which includes Rosario and much of Argentina's soy belt.
Rosario's glyphosate ban follows a number of others' such as Barcelona, Madrid, Hamburg, Edinburgh, Minneapolis, and well as national bans in Holland, Malta, and Sri Lanka.
France has prohibited its use in public open spaces, and will ban its use in private gardens as of 2019. The European Parliament is currently debating its ban across all 28 EU nations.
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Rosario, Argentina.