ÜDS-Fen 2003-1 Soru=55

As it is clear from the passage, one of the drawbacks of spraying opium and coca fields with herbicide is that ----.

It seems that a programme designed to destroy
Columbia's huge illegal drugs business could be
poisoning farmers and damaging the environment.
Backed by 1.3 billion of US government funds, drug
enforcers routinely identify fields of coca plants and
opium poppies, and spray them from the air with
herbicide. Around 120,000 hectares have been
sprayed with the herbicide "glyphosphate". But
although glyphosphate is considered to be relatively
safe for humans and the environment, the
Colombian government has received over a
thousand complaints from people who claim to have
suffered ill effects after coming into contact with the
chemical. Reported symptoms range from skin and
eye irritations to coughing and vomiting. Some critics
suspect additives to the spray are responsible.
Others on the ground complained that the spray had
killed food crops when it drifted onto them from
nearby fields.