Cancer, lung disease, miscarriages: are Uruguay’s rice workers paying too high a price to bring in the crop?

The sector is a key driver of the Uruguayan economy, but widespread and ill-controlled use of agrochemicals is affecting employees’ health – despite official assurances

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ulio de los Santos, now 50, noticed something was wrong when he began losing his strength and experiencing pain in his legs and kidneys. He couldn’t hold tools and could barely stand. His visits to the doctor became more frequent until he ended up in intensive care, where his wife was told to prepare for the worst.

He survived, but today depends on more than 30 medications and a ventilator.

In 2018, doctors had diagnosed De los Santos with an occupational illness caused by exposure to agrochemicals. Uruguay’s human rights institute recommended relocating his family from the area where he worked in the east of the country – a place where a school sits less than 300 metres from plantations and where crop-dusting planes pass overhead.