Images of women absent from posters on safe tobacco growing

By LINA SAGARAL REYES
Special Correspondent , Mindanao Gold Star Daily (Feb 15)

Conclusion

CLAVERIA, Misamis Oriental – At the bamboo farm shed by the field of near-mature Virginia tobacco in Barangay Madaguing, contract-grower Gliceria Mission and husband Felipe show Gold Star Daily colored posters rendered on tarpaulin and red banners warning non-entry to an area newly sprayed with pesticide.

On the tarps are pictorial images of the short-term and long-term health consequences of wrong pesticides use, including asthma, sweating, skin allergies as well as liver cirrhosis, tumor, and cancer.

Each farmer contracted by the Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC) since 2013 had received a batch of informative materials like these tarps, and comic booklets and brochures on good agricultural practices, the text are written in Tagalog and Visayan.

“It is for the men who spray the plants as no women are in the pictures,’’ noted Gliceria as all the individuals in the illustrative photographs are males.

Gliceria was quick to add that males are given priority because men apply the pesticides using stainless steel sprayers that are heavy to carry for women.

But a development communicator who was asked to comment said that the absence of women also makes invisible the health impacts unique to their gender.

“Women images should be represented as they are still exposed even if they are not sprayers,’’ said Virginia Pacunio-Guanzon, a specialist in environmental management, and consultant on development communication.

She added, “Despite their being not directly involved in the spraying of pesticides, women are still at-risk to exposure to the chemicals. Women, especially pregnant and lactating mothers, are more vulnerable to diseases of the reproductive organs due to chemicals. They are still around in the farm, and when the men spraying pesticides return home, it is the women who wash the clothes of the husbands and sons.’’

As pointed out by a study at the Claveria campus of the University of Science and Technology in Southern Philippines (USTP), women farm workers here are involved in tasks such as transplanting, weeding and harvesting.

Also, researchers in a Brazil-based study in a tobacco-growing community pointed out that women are primary study subjects on the health and environmental impacts of tobacco production because of “their role in tobacco production, combined with their essential role in caring for the family, especially related to health.’’

The study also noted that previous women-centered studies have shown “a general trend for women to feel and express more concerns than men, and that this perception is mediated by the social context.’’

Pacunio-Guanzon also stressed these women’s roles in the context of the family. “In fact, everyone in the family, including the children, should be part of the picture and all must exercise safety precautions. The probability is high that the children, even if they do not participate in tasks, are hovering at the edges of the farm and the mother is bringing lunch or breakfast to the workers,’’ said Pacunio-Guanzon, also the executive director of the non-government organization Peace and Sustainable Development Movers.

All but flubendiamide are among the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) International List of Highly Hazardous Pesticides but none of them are considered highly hazardous chemicals by the World Health Oraganization (WHO).

PMFTC technicians and spokespersons could not be interviewed to comment as requests for appointments at the field facility in Barangay Ane-I, Claveria were not approved and calls to the head office in Makati were unanswered.

Ruthela Mabalo, 73, a comprador at the Bagsakan, the tobacco trading center in Laguindingan town in Misamis Oriental, examines a mano (a sheaf of 100 batek leaves) before she decides to buy them from a farmer-seller. (photo by Lina Sagaral Reyes)

Meanwhile, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) has established measures to protect human health and the environment from the harmful effects of tobacco agriculture.

In October last year, the eighth Conference of the Parties (COP) of the WHO-FCTC recommended strategies to implement Article 17 and 18, such as to encourage farmers to switch to other crops, and to implement health and environmental protection policies related to tobacco farming.

According to the Southeast Alliance on Tobacco Control (Seatca), a group that helps countries in protecting farmers from the tobacco industry and assists countries in Southeast Asia to implement the WHO-FCTC said that “as a signatory to the FCTC, the Philippine government is obliged to adopt these measures.’’

Seatca further said, “the Philippine government must step up its efforts to truly assist farmers find alternative livelihoods. After all, there are already studies that non-tobacco crops are more profitable and are less toxic to the environment.’’

But on the ground, not much have been done yet in Claveria nor in Misamis Oriental. In its April 2018 implementation report to the WHO-FCTC, the government has noted that it was implementing a study on the health impacts on tobacco farmers in the Ilocos region, where 67 percent of tobacco production is located.

(Reporting for this story was supported by a grant from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the South East Asia Press Alliance.)

This story originally appeared at the Mindanao Gold Star on February 15, 2019 http://mindanaogoldstardaily.com/images-of-women-absent-from-posters-on-safe-tobacco-growing/