The Poisons
In the province of Misiones, Argentina, where the tobacco industry is one of the main economic activities, a dark network persists: the combination of labor under unfair conditions, millions of liters of agrochemicals, multinational companies, and congenital malformations.
A chronicle with this story won the Second Chronicle Award by Fundación Tomás Eloy Martínez and published by Marea Editorial in a book called: “La realidad, esa ficción. Crónicas novísimas”.
Jorge Finke walks through a tobacco plantation, he is a tobacco producer living in the town of Dos de Mayo, a few kilometres far from San Vicente, at the Misiones province, Argentina, January 2014.
A sign interrupts the way in Salto Encantado Provincial Park, located in the town of Salto Encantado, an area known for planting tobacco, Misiones province, Argenitna, June 2013.
Lucas Krauser, 7 years-old boy with microcephaly and cerebral palsy, watches his dad play with a soccer ball at the San Vicente town, Misiones province, Argentina, January, 2014. His diagnosis was at 3 months and his father Luis Krauser was raised among tobacco crops and works on a tobacco plantation.
Jesica Sheffer glances at the camera in her home in Fracran, Misiones province, Argentina, January 2014. She suffers from a malformation in the tendons that does not allow her to stand upright.
A gas mask used by tobacco workers lies on ground at the San Vicente town, Misiones province, Argentina January 2014. Ever since the agrotoxins situation became public, tobacco companies have started to force their registered workers to use special protections suits that they sell themselves.
A shed to dry tobacco, San Vicente, Misiones province, January 2014.
Jesus Manuel De Olivera, ten years old rest in his bed at his house in San Vicente, Misiones, Argentina, January 2015. He has cerebral palsy and a psychomotor retardation with epilepsy.
A tobacco worker uses agrochemicals on his farm in San Vicente, Misiones, Argentina, January 2015.
The silhouette of a catholic cross at sunset In the San Vicente cemetery, San Vicente city, Misiones province, Argentina, January 2014. At the children sector of the cemetery, rest some of the victims of agrotoxin use.
María Isabel Borozski, 19 years old, holds her daughter Tatiana Borozski at her house in Puerto Argentino, San Vicente, Misiones province, Argentina, January 2014. Tatiana takes phenobarbital regularly, a drug used with the epileptic
A car crosses a national route in San Vicente, Misiones province, Argentina, January 2014.
The youngest daughter of a social worker from San Vicente runs to her house on the outskirts of the city, San Vicente, Misiones province, Argentina, January 2015.