31
Oct
Environmental Groups Are Victorious in Lawsuit that Pushes EPA to Protect Endangered Species
(Beyond Pesticides, October 31, 2019) Last week the U.S. District Court in San Francisco ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must assess the risk eight toxic pesticides pose to protected organisms: atrazine, carbaryl, methomyl, and simazine as well as rodenticides brodifacoum, bromadiolone, warfarin and zinc phosphide.
The plaintiffs, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) asserted that EPA and its then administrator Scott Pruitt violated duties under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by not consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service in registering these pesticides. The history of this case extends over 8 years. Last year, the court rejected EPA’s attempts to dismiss the lawsuit.
According to CBD’s press release, “Under the agreement the agency must complete assessments of four pesticides, including atrazine, the nation’s second most-used pesticide, by 2021. Assessments of four rodenticides, including the widely used rat poison brodifacoum, must be finalized in 2024.”
Stephanie Parent, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said “This important step is only the start. We still have work to do to make sure the EPA addresses the harms of all pesticides, as the law requires.
EPA was created after Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring brought attention to the detrimental impact of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Instead of heeding the original call of duty that its name implies, advocates say EPA is ignoring the harm these toxic chemicals cause to people and the environment until brought to heel by the courts.
“It is inappropriate that environmental groups are forced to expend time and resources in order to get EPA to simply do its job as the law requires,” says Barbara Dale, Public Education Manager at Beyond Pesticides.
Some alarming “fun” facts on a few of these toxic chemicals:
>> Atrazine is the second most widely-used herbicide in the U.S., and it is a known endocrine disruptor. Even at low levels it chemically castrates frogs. Beyond Pesticides wrote about this chemical last December, “During peak use, atrazine levels in drinking water [in the Midwest] have been recorded at three to seven times above the legal limit. In addition to the well documented impact on the environment, recent studies have linked prolonged pesticide exposure to not only shortened gestation and preterm birth for women, but also neurodevelopment delays in children.”
>> Carbaryl is classified as a likely carcinogen by EPA. The production of carbaryl can involve using methyl isocyanate (MIC) as an intermediary; a leak of MIC during production of carbaryl caused the Bhopal disaster, the most lethal industrial accident in history with over 500,000 injuries and 20,000 fatalities – 8,000 of which were instant. Wikileaks revealed in 2012 that Dow Chemical engaged an intelligence research organization to spy on activists involved in advocating for victims of the Bhopal disaster.
>> Anticoagulant rodenticides such as brodifacoum travel up the food chain and cause secondary poisonings to mammals and birds.
Beyond Pesticides advocates for a regulatory approach to pesticides that prohibits high-risk chemical practices. Rather, the federal regulatory framework should focus on safer, effective alternatives, such as organic agriculture, which prohibits the vast majority of toxic chemicals.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
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April 5th, 2020 at 3:00 pm