Chile
Awareness among legislators, rural workers, and the general public on phase-out of highly hazardous pesticides
Alianza por una Mejor Calidad de Vida organized a series of workshops and staged a media campaign with a national TV network to create public awareness about the dangers of pesticides in food. This included developing brochures tailored to the communities most affected by the use hazardous pesticides. An expose of pesticide poisoning cases of rural and seasonal female workers was also shared with the public. In addition, they worked closely with a prominent member of the National Congress to introduce legislation that would phase out the most hazardous and highly toxic pesticides.
Mercury: Byproduct and Source of Contamination of Large-Scale Gold and Silver Mining
Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales (OLCA) conducted a literature review and community based research in order to produce a report detailing the contamination and pollution coming from two open pit gold and silver mines in Chile. Among other results, OLCA found that both these mines use a very toxic process (cyanide) for extracting these metals, which has been found to leech mercury and cyanide into the environment. Additionally, workers at these mines were found to have symptoms consistent with mercury poisoning.
Chile GDA
Global day of action on POPS in Chile.