The climate emergency in Latin America is intensifying a long-standing yet underrecognized health crisis: reproductive harm due to agrochemical exposure, particularly for rural women. As shifting climate patterns threaten to exacerbate these harms, it is crucial to bring these issues into the focus of climate action. The region’s human rights framework — including landmark cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and reports by special procedures — has already addressed the realities of agrotoxins and their impact on health rights. In light of human rights obligations, building on these legal advancements by developing climate policy, like national adaptation plans, is essential to give effect to paragraph 12 of the Paris Agreement’s Preamble, which calls for respecting and promoting human rights, gender equality, and the empowerment of women.
Agrotoxins, or pesticides, are substances with chemical or biological ingredients intended to repel, destroy, or control any pest and/or to regulate plant growth. Latin America is a top contributor to global agrotoxin use. Brazil and Argentina are among the countries that consume the most agrotoxins, with 377,176 and 241,294 tons respectively in 2020. In Uruguay, 97% of food consumed between November 2015 and August 2016 contained pesticide residues, and in Mexico, 140 agrotoxins banned in other countries are used, 111 of which are classified as highly dangerous. Cumulatively, the Americas accounted for 51% of global pesticide use in 2020, a concerning increase from 44% in 2000.
Agrotoxins contribute to the climate emergency by producing significant amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG) during multiple stages of their production and use, such as during their manufacturing, packaging, transport, application, and disposal. Their use accounts for almost 40% of the GHG emissions produced by the agricultural industry and causes environmental degradation that makes ecosystems less resilient to disasters caused by the climate crisis.
Exposure to agrotoxins has been associated with reproductive health damage that disproportionately affects women and girls in rural areas. Exposure to agrotoxins such as glyphosate is linked to fertility disorders, low birth weights, and increased rates of miscarriage and premature birth. Other effects include damage in fetal development, germ cell mutations, late effects on child development, endocrine disruption, and precocious puberty, among others.
The climate crisis, exacerbated by agrotoxin use, also puts reproductive health at risk. Environmental degradation such as air pollution and wildfires are associated with negative birth outcomes, respiratory diseases in pregnant people, and preterm birth and low birth weight, with disproportionate impacts on impoverished and marginalized communities. Climate disasters create barriers to reproductive health care access by causing damage to facilities and overwhelming infrastructure and health personnel. The climate crisis has also been linked to the increase in the prevalence of gender-based violence, including sexual violence against and human trafficking of girls and women.
Despite these severe impacts, further evidence can be developed to clarify intersections between the damages to reproductive health caused by agrotoxins in relation to climate emergency. In particular, there is a need to identify the disproportionate impact on populations that have historically faced discrimination. Furthermore, the known risks associated with agrotoxins as well as the environmental precautionary principle should lead to climate policies that promote the prevention of exposure and decisive reduction in agrotoxins’ use.
Climate policies must effectively address the intersections between agrotoxins, climate change, and reproductive health. Recent progress has been made in utilizing a human rights approach to acknowledge the connection between these issues. For example, the recent report, “Gender and hazardous substances,” issued by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on toxins and human rights not only recognizes the situation, but also recommends measures such as further studying the intersectional impacts of toxicity, focusing on reproductive health consequences, and calling for the prohibition of harmful substances.
These steps can only be achieved by using advocacy efforts by civil society organizations and other actors to make visible these connections and to extend climate action frameworks to protect the human rights of people and communities affected by agrotoxin exposure. In the Inter-American System, for example, there are ongoing initiatives that could have an impact on the discussion globally. One, based on a written opinion in the Consultative Opinion OC-32 on “Climate Emergency and Human Rights,” could lead to an interpretation of the scope of “climate justice” and “gender equality” under paragraph 12 of the Paris Agreement’s Preamble; this could be translated into specific actions based on the health risks linked to climate-agrotoxin interactions. Additionally, the case Yaneth Valderrama v. Colombia, being heard before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), could lead to the first interpretation on the obligations of the States under the Inter-American Convention to respond to the human rights violations caused by exposure to agrotoxins and related environmental degradation. Yaneth, a woman from a rural area in Colombia, was four months pregnant when she was sprayed with glyphosate deployed by the Colombian government as part of crop control. She had a miscarriage two days later, and died six months after the spraying.
The recognition of human rights implications related to environmental health presents an opportunity to integrate these concerns into climate policy. By incorporating human rights principles into national adaptation plans, governments can better anticipate the compounded risks of agrotoxin exposure in the context of climate change, leading to more protective measures for vulnerable populations.
Cristina Rosero is a lawyer with a master’s degree in human rights, globalization and democracy. She is currently Senior Legal Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
