Children in Peru by Erika Rosenthal After a nine month
investigation, a Peruvian Congressional Subcommittee has found
significant evidence of criminal responsibility by both the
agrochemical company Bayer and the Peruvian Ministry of
Agriculture in the poisoning of 42 children in the remote Andean
village of Tauccamarca in October 1999. The children were
stricken after eating a school breakfast contaminated with the
organophosphate pesticide methyl parathion. Twenty-four children
died before they could reach medical treatment; 18 others
survived with significant long term health and developmental
consequences. The pesticide was heavily marketed under the name
of Folidol to small farmers throughout the Andean region of
Peru, the great majority of whom speak Quechua only and are
illiterate. Bayer packaged the pesticide, a white powder that
resembles powdered milk and has no strong chemical odor, in
small plastic bags, labeled in Spanish and displaying a picture
of vegetables. The labels provided no usable safet