22
Aug
Comments Needed: Tell EPA to Revoke Endosulfan Tolerances!
(Beyond Pesticides, August 22, 2008) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting comments on letters sent from the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) requesting that EPA revoke all tolerances for the toxic pesticide endosulfan. In addition, EPA is accepting information on endosulfan residues on commodities consumed by Alaskan natives.
PANNA’s August 12 letter stated: “We are particularly concerned about the effects of endosulfan on prenatal and child development. Peer-reviewed science demonstrates that endosulfan is both an endocrine disruptor and a neurotoxicant.”
The letter followed up on a February 2008 petition signed by 13,300 people across the country, a legal petition filed by the National Resources Defense Council that same month, three letters sent to the Agency on May 19, 2008 signed by 111 nonprofit environmental groups, 55 scientists, and 5 coalitions of Indigenous groups and tribes, and a lawsuit filed on behalf of PAN, environmental and farmworker groups on July 24.
“Endosulfan poses a threat to the health of children in the U.S.,” the letter concluded. “This antiquated DDT-era organochlorine has already been phased out of agriculture in the European Union and at least 20 other countries. It is high time for the U.S. to take the health of our future generations seriously and ban all uses of endosulfan.”
Endosulfan also made news after ten tons of the pesticide spilled in the Philippines during a typhoon, complicating efforts to recover the 800 people who died in the wreck.
TAKE ACTION: Tell EPA you support a full revocation of all tolerances for endosulfan. The comment period is open through October 20, 2008, and you can view the Federal Register notice here, or by entering Docket ID# EPA-HQ-OPP-2008-0615 at regulations.gov. You can also submit comments by mail addressed to: Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) Regulatory Public, Docket (7502P), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001 or by delivery to: OPP Regulatory Public Docket (7502P), Environmental Protection Agency, Rm. S-4400, One Potomac Yard (South Bldg.), 2777 S. Crystal Dr., Arlington, VA.
EPA will not address the cancellation of endosulfan until early 2009; a separate comment period will be established for that possibility.
Endosulfan residues are valid and safe
August 27th, 2008 at 11:23 amsafe. There is no benefit in
revoking these limits. Endosulfan
has an important role to play
in the conservation of predators
and pollinators. It is easy to
degrade residues chemically or
through microbes. You abuse the
public trust by asking for this
kind of blackmail without
scientific justification.