A report from the Argentine doctors’ organization, Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns,
challenges the theory that the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil is the cause of the increase
in the birth defect microcephaly among newborns.
The increase in this birth defect, in which the baby is born with an abnormally small
head and often has brain damage, was quickly linked to the Zika virus by the Brazilian
Ministry of Health. However, according to the Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns, the
Ministry failed to recognize that in the area where most sick people live, a chemical
larvicide that produces malformations in mosquitoes was introduced into the drinking
water supply in 2014. This poison, Pyriproxyfen, is used in a State-controlled programme
aimed at eradicating disease-carrying mosquitoes.
The Physicians added that the Pyriproxyfen is manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical, a
Japanese “strategic partner” of Monsanto. Pyriproxyfen is a growth inhibitor of mosquito
larvae, which alters the development process from larva to pupa to adult, thus generating
malformations in developing mosquitoes and killing or disabling them. It acts as an
insect juvenile hormone or juvenoid, and has the effect of inhibiting the development of
adult insect characteristics (for example, wings and mature external genitalia) and
reproductive development. It is an endocrine disruptor and is teratogenic (causes birth defects), according to the Physicians.