(Beyond Pesticides, August 17, 2007) The widespread presence of pesticides and other agricultural runoff has been confirmed in the world’s largest coral reef system. Degradation of the system threatens not only a natural treasure but also the region’s economy. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is the subject of a recent report by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Entitled the “Annual Marine Monitoring Report 2006,” the study confirms extensive contamination in eight of the ten major tributaries into the marine park, much of which is fertilizer and pesticide runoff from the area’s farmland. Local environmental groups are calling for government protection of the reef from these pollutants, and tourism interests worry that damage to the reef will reduce the number of visitors to Australia. According to World Wildlife Foundation-Australia program leader Nick Heath, “Reducing pollution load is possible and will help us save the Reef, as well as the 60,000 tourism jobs based around the Reef.” According to the report, “Water quality in the Great Barrier Reef is principally affected by land-based activities in its adjacent catchments, including vegetation modification, grazing, agriculture, urban development, industrial development and aquaculture. Nutrients, sediments and pesticides are the pollutants of most concern for the […]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 13, 2007) Greenland sharks, which inhabit some of the least populated regions on Earth in seemingly pristine Arctic waters, contain high amounts of human-manufactured industrial waste in their bodies, including toxic pesticide byproducts. The findings are available online in Marine Pollution Bulletin (in press), entitled “Dioxins and PCBs in Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) from the North-East Atlantic.” According to the team of researchers at Stockholm University, the highest measured concentration found is for the world’s most toxic dioxin, TCDD, a compound found in the herbicide Agent Orange, which the U.S. military used during the Vietnam War. The herbicide was used for other applications from 1961 to 1971. The study also names another set of discontinued chemicals, polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, as the main source of the contaminants found in the Greenland sharks. PCBs were banned in the 1970s, which illustrates how persistent such compounds are in the environment and how long-living, top predator species may carry them for decades. Project leader Dr. Åke Bergman, Ph.D., an environmental chemist at Stockholm University, told Discovery News that he and his team decided to focus on Greenland sharks since their normal lifespan may exceed 100 years, based on an annual […]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 9, 2007) China reports it is cracking down on the use of recently banned pesticides and is taking additional actions in an effort to counter concerns about the country’s food safety. The major exporter has been the subject of frequent reports of contaminated products, including several foods imported by the U.S. Reuters reports that according to a new poll, U.S. consumers are extremely wary of products made in China, and nearly two-thirds said they would support a boycott of Chinese goods. In reaction to the potential loss of export markets and the upcoming Beijing Olympics, China says it will spend more than $1 billion improving food and drug safety over the next three years. The Chinese government will specifically launch a campaign to crack down on the use of banned pesticides that are still being manufactured and remain in use. The campaign is in response to news reports that “a dozen or so” pesticide producers were still making highly poisonous pesticides such as methylamine and phosphamidon. Prior to the recent ban, 1,500 pesticide manufacturers, approximately half of the industry, produced the chemicals. However, pesticides that are still approved for use in China are also raising concerns as […]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 8, 2007) For the first time, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report in July on children’s heightened vulnerability to chemical exposures at different periods of their growth and development. The organization cites over 30% of the global burden of disease in children can be attributed to environmental factors, including pesticides. The report, Principles for Evaluating Health Risks in Children Associated with Exposure to Chemicals, is a new volume of the WHO’s Environmental Health Criteria series. It highlights the fact that for children, the stage of their development when chemical exposure occurs may be just as important as the magnitude of the exposure. In respect to pesticides, the report cites several studies that tie pesticide exposure during key periods of development to neurobehavioral problems, Parkinson’s disease, and immunotoxicity, including respiratory diseases. “Children are not just small adults,” said Dr. Terri Damstra, Ph.D., WHO’s team leader for the Interregional Research Unit, in WHO’s press release. “Children are especially vulnerable and respond differently from adults when exposed to environmental factors, and this response may differ according to the different periods of development they are going through.” Air and water contaminants, pesticides in food, lead in soil, as well […]

Update: See Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),  United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2008.  The report notes that not only can organic agriculture feed the world but it may be the only way we can solve the growing problem of hunger in developing countries. UNEP and UNCTAD state that its extensive study “challenges the popular myth that organic agriculture cannot increase agricultural productivity.” In an analysis of 114 farming projects in 24 African countries, UNEP reports that organic or near-organic practices result in a yield increase of more than 100 percent. (Beyond Pesticides, July 24, 2007) After a three-year study of worldwide organic versus conventional farm yields, researchers have found that organic farming can produce as much as, and even exceed the crop and animal yields of conventional farming. These findings dispute the myth that organic methods are less productive. University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment professor Ivette Perfecto, Ph.D., and Catherine Badgley, Ph.D., research scientist with the University’s Museum of Paleontology, conducted the study. Their findings are derived from a database of information from farms in both developed and developing nations. The full study, “Organic agriculture and the […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 18, 2007) Since 2000, the United States has financed aerial spraying of glyphosate over Colombia’s coca crops, the raw material of cocaine, as part of the “War on Drugs.” Scientists from Pontificia Catholic University in Quito, Ecuador, have completed a study of 24 residents living within three kilometers of the Colombian border — an area targeted by the coca spraying – and have found a wide variety of ailments. The study’s subjects suffer from symptoms that include intestinal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, headaches, dizziness, numbness, blurred vision, skin irritation, rashes, and difficulty breathing. In addition, the damage to their chromosomes was 600 to 800 percent greater than that of people living 80 km away, which can signal possible conditions like cancer and reproductive effects like miscarriages. The U.S. has increased the spraying each year since 2000, including the addition of a fourth spray team in 2006. In 2006, the Colombian National Police’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate (DIRAN) sprayed more than 424,055 acres of coca. Extensive research in recent years regarding glyphosate’s toxicity to placental cells and aquatic life, among others, has prompted the U.S. Congress to seek guarantees that Colombian wetlands would not be sprayed, but the program continues to […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 17, 2007) A study conducted by Canadian researchers show that high concentrations of POPs, or Persistent Organic Pollutants, can be observed in humans and other air-breathing animals even though they may not accumulate in fish. This suggests that current risk assessment methodologies need to be changed for identifying potential POPs in birds and mammals. POPs are synthetic, toxic chemicals that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate in food chains and are common contaminants in fish, dairy products and other foods. These compounds are generally accepted to be hydrophobic and fat-soluble. Screening for these bioaccumulative compounds is normally conducted with laboratory tests using fish. However researchers Barry C. Kelly, and Frank Gobas, Ph.D., at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia report that this methodology may overlook a significant number of pollutants that pose health risks to air-breathing animals. The study entitled “Food Web—Specific Biomagnification of Persistent Organic Pollutants” (Science 2007, v317, p236) examines the biomagnification of moderately hydrophobic compounds with octanol-water partition coefficients (Kow) between 100 and 100,000 (currently, compounds with Kow greater than 100,000 are generally categorized as bioaccumulative compounds and tend to be hydrophobic and fat-soluble) and compounds with high octanol-air partition coefficients (Koa). The compounds […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 13, 2007) A European Union (EU) court banned the toxic weedkiller paraquat Wednesday, accepting arguments from the Swedish government that it does not meet EU health standards. Paraquat is the main ingredient in Swiss-based Syngenta’s Gramoxone – one of the world’s three most widely used weedkillers. Paraquat has been linked to reproductive effects and to Parkinson’s disease. Although paraquat had already been banned in 13 countries, including Sweden, Denmark, and Austria, in 2003, the Commission of European Communities (CEC) had issued an order approving the use of paraquat. Sweden challenged this order and the judges, in a previous decision, ruled that the CEC’s action showed a “disregard” of proper procedures. In the new ruling, the Court of First Instance criticizes EU regulators for not checking more carefully whether paraquat could harm humans and animals before authorizing it for sale in 2003. The court said the European Commission – which regulates herbicides and pesticides – was mistaken when it found no signs that the chemical could cause nervous system diseases such as Parkinson’s and that regulators failed to review existing studies on paraquat – even though the chemical producers that asked for approval had not mentioned the adverse […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 12, 2007) More than 5,000 agricultural workers from Central America have filed lawsuits in the United States, claiming that a pesticide used on banana trees has rendered them sterile. The pesticide, dibromochloropropane (DBCP), was used by workers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama to kill worm infestations in the trees’ roots. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, DBCP, which was largely phased out on U.S. crops by 1979, causes male reproductive problems, including low sperm count, and is a “probable human carcinogen.” The first of the five lawsuits, originally filed in 2004, which began jury selection two days ago, accuses Dole Fresh Fruit Co. and Standard Fruit Co. of “negligence and fraudulent concealment while using the pesticide.” In addition, it argues that Dow Chemical Corp. and Amvac Chemical Corp., which manufacture DBCP, “actively suppressed information about DBCP’s reproductive toxicity.” The suit filed by attorney Duane Miller states that Dow and Amvac were aware of the health risks of DBCP in the 1950s. “Defendants, however, continued to market, sell, and use pesticide products containing a DBCP outside of the United States, including Nicaragua,” it says. In addition, Miller claims the pesticide seeped into the water […]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 28, 2007) This week the European Commission’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety voted on elements of a proposed framework that fills in regulatory gaps on pesticides, and adopts stricter rules than originally proposed, including a ban on aerial spraying. European Union’s existing legislation on pesticides only deal with two stages of the life cycle of pesticide products: the “placing on the market” stage and the “end of life-cycle” stage. To deal with the period in between – when pesticides are actually being used – the Commission, in July 2006, put forward a report, Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides. The first piece of legislation generated by the strategy is a draft framework directive on the sustainable use of pesticides, on which the Environment Committee voted. Measures proposed in the strategy report include: National action plans by Member States to identify the crops, activities or areas most at risk from pesticides, together with targets for tackling the problems; Training for professional users of pesticides and awareness-raising for the public; Rules on inspections of pesticide equipment and on the handling and storage of pesticides; Special measures to protect water from pesticide pollution; Special […]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 25, 2007) In a new report published by the David Suzuki Foundation, environmental lawyer David Boyd finds that over 6,000 Canadians are acutely poisoned by pesticides each year, and more than 46 percent of those cases are children under the age of six. Entitled Northern Exposure: Acute pesticide poisonings in Canada, the report analyzes records of poisonings that occurred immediately after exposure, rather than chronic symptoms, such as cancer and neurological diseases. Based on its results, the Suzuki Foundation has made recommendations for personal and municipal actions to reduce poisonings. While much of Canada has been active in reducing pesticide exposures through bans on the cosmetic use of lawn pesticides, including one spanning all of Quebec, the report’s announcement laments the country’s failure to accurately document poisonings. According to the Suzuki Foundation’s release, “This is only the tip of the iceberg: many poisonings are misdiagnosed or completely unreported. Currently, the federal government does not systematically monitor exposure to pesticides.” According to the report, the “incomplete and inconsistent Canadian system” of reporting that shows an estimated 2,832 child poisonings lags far behind “the more comprehensive American system [that] records more than 52,000 such cases” of exposure incidents. Ironically, […]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 23, 2007) Organic agriculture may play a role in the fight against world hunger. Researchers say a large-scale switch to organic is expected to meet food demand while greatly reducing the expensive and harmful synthetic chemicals that have been introduced globally via industrial agriculture. Professionals gathered at the United Nation’s International Conference on Organic Agriculture and Food Security on May 3-5 in Rome. Covering a vital issue, the conference represents a change in the paradigm of food security. Due to figures that indicate crop yields can initially fall with the conversion from industrial to organic farming (a decrease that often evens out over time), the organic farming movement has largely been on the sidelines in regards to discussions about feeding the hungry. However, studies discussed at the conference reveal the potential of organic agriculture to meet these needs. Researchers from Denmark have predicted that food security in sub-Saharan Africa would not be seriously harmed if 50 percent of agricultural land in the food exporting regions of Europe and North America were converted to organic by 2020. The potential rise in world food prices from such a shift can be mitigated by improvements in the land and other […]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 22, 2007) In a study published in the latest issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, scientists found that seafood products from southern China contain high concentrations of DDT and hexachlorocylohexane (HCH). While banned in China since 1983, humans are being exposed to organochlorine pesticides (OCP) at rates high enough to pose health threats. The study responded to high rates of DDT and HCH found in sediment, water and biota in the Pearl River delta and neighboring coast, where land is being rapidly industrialized, urbanized, and transferred from agriculture to commercial development. Researchers tested 212 seafood products, including shrimp, crabs, and mollusks, from 11 coastal cities for 21 OCPs, including DDT, HCH, heptachlor, dieldrin, and endosulfan. The highest concentrations of DDT were found in four species of shellfish, although concentrations varied widely depending on sampling location. The study reported, “These results suggest that bioaccumulation of DDTs in seafood products was highly species-specific, probably due to different feeding habits and habitats.” By taking a large sample of one indicator species, it also concluded “the coastal region of southern China is probably one of the most DDT-polluted areas in the world.” Researchers also found HCH to be more widely prevalent […]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 16, 2007) Americans, whether we know it or not, are increasingly having imported food for dinner. While concerns over international agricultural practices, including pesticide use, have peaked recently, food imports are making their way with little inspection into the U.S. marketplace. USA Today reports approximately 25,000 shipments of foods regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) arrive daily from over 100 countries. Shipments have increased by more than four times and doubled in value since 1996 according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. FDA has not been able to keep up with this pace. It is reported that FDA inspects about 1% of the imported foods it regulates, down from an already low 8% in 1992. Too understaffed and underfinanced to inspect the vast majority of imports, this signals a large green light for produce and seafood to enter the U.S. market without having to sweat inspections (meat and poultry products are regulated separately through the U.S. Department of Agriculture). “The public thinks the food supply is much more protected than it is,” William Hubbard, a former associate commissioner who left in 2005 after 27 years at the agency, told the New York Times. “If […]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 25, 2007) Public health and environmental activists call on the world community today to respect life, protect children, stop hazardous pesticide use, including DDT, and adopt what they call “sustainable programs that attack poverty and the conditions that give rise to insect-borne diseases such as malaria.” Africa Malaria Day is commemorated on April 25, a day set aside by African governments committed to rolling back malaria and meeting the United Nations malaria-related Millennium Development Goals. Last September, the World Health Organization came under heavy criticism from public health and environmental groups when it announced its new policy to promote the use of DDT for malaria control in developing countries. Environmental and public health advocates warn that good intentions are in this case misguided. According to the Washington, DC-based non-profit organization Beyond Pesticides, advocating a reliance on pesticides, especially DDT, as a silver bullet solution for malaria protection is extremely dangerous. When the underlying causes of pest problems are not adequately addressed, then a sustained dependence on toxic pesticides like DDT causes greater long-term problems than those that are being addressed in the short-term. “The WHO is misleading the world on DDT, which is a known cancer causing […]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 12, 2007) A new study has found the proportion of boys born over the past three decades has unexpectedly dropped in both the United States and Japan. In all, more than a quarter of a million boys are missing, compared to what would have been expected had the sex ratio existing in 1970 remained unchanged. The study’s authors hypothesize that the skewed sex ratio may be linked to prenatal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as pesticides. Although the researchers do not know why boys are taking a hit, they suspect contributing causes could include widespread exposure to hormone-mimicking pollutants by women during pregnancy and by men before they conceive children. “We hypothesize that the decline in sex ratio in industrial countries may be due, in part, to prenatal exposure to metalloestrogens and other endocrine disrupting chemicals,” the authors note in the study, published this week in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer reviewed journal of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals include some pesticides, dioxin and methylmercury, a pollutant from coal-fired power plants and many industrial sources that is commonly found in seafood. The study also flagged a host of other possible factors, […]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 30, 2007) A committee of experts advising the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has recommended adding endosulfan and tributyl tin compounds (TBT) to a list of substances that are considered so harmful they can only be traded in special circumstances. On March 27, 2007, the United Nations said that the toxic chemicals would only be allowed to be exported to countries that have explicitly chosen to permit them, a measure aimed at protecting humans and the environment in developing countries. Endosulfan, a chemical sprayed onto food crops and cotton, and TBT, used in “antifouling paint” for ships’ hulls, are already banned in many countries. However, they may be traded freely in countries lacking tight environmental regulations. According to David Santillo who works at the research center for Greenpeace at Britain’s Exeter University, “It’s great that these two have been added to the list so countries have the choice whether to import them or not.” Endosulfan has been linked with testicular cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and defects in male sex organs. According to a recent study conducted in Costa Rica’s mountain forests, findings show that surprisingly high concentrations of pesticides are […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 27, 2007) Pesticide run-off is polluting larger areas of the Great Barrier Reef than originally thought, leading scientists to call for better land care practices. For the first time a new series of satellite images show that sediment plumes, containing pesticides and other pollutants from Australian river systems, travel to the outer Great Barrier Reef, and beyond. Originally, it was thought that the plumes only affected the inner Great Barrier Reef Lagoon and the inner reef corals. The images, taken during the heavy rains in far north Queensland by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s MODIS satellite, show the pollutant plumes are travelling up to 135km offshore. Recent studies have shown agricultural chemicals are so poisonous to coral that it can prevent spawning, even when only present in minuscule amounts. This was found to consequently hinder the reef’s ability to regenerate and protect itself. Arnold Dekker, Ph.D., a scientist with the Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), said the images would change the way scientists analysed reef pollution and that they showed land care practices needed to be improved in order to save the reef from destruction. “This is the first time it’s been really […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 13, 2007) As Valentine’s Day approaches, dozens of roses and bouquets are being stocked at stores nationwide. The intentions may be sweet but many of the flowers are not — most of them have been treated with toxic chemicals. Pesticides are used on most conventionally grown flowers. A good portion of this use takes place in the waterlogged savannah surrounding the capital of Colombia, which has the world’s second-largest cut-flower industry after the Netherlands, producing 62 percent of all flowers sold in the United States. With 110,000 employees — many of them single mothers — and annual exports of US$1 billion, the industry provides an important alternative to growing coca, source crop of the Andean nation’s better known illegal export: cocaine. But these economic gains come at a cost to workers’ health and Colombia’s environment. Colombia’s flower exporters association has attempted to respond by launching the Florverde program, but with limited success; its members have reduced pesticide use by 38 percent since 1998, to an average of 97 kilograms (213 pounds) of active ingredient per hectare (2.4 acres) per year. However, 36 percent of the chemicals used by Florverde farms in 2005 were still listed as “extremely” […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 18, 2007) A new study conducted in Costa Rica’s mountain forests indicates that surprisingly high concentrations of pesticides are accumulating far above the low altitudes at which they are used. Previously thought to be safe from pesticides applied to distant agricultural areas, some remote mountain forests of Costa Rica were found to have pesticide levels almost ten times greater than those in low-lying areas closer to farms and plantations. The study, led by University of Toronto, Scarborough professor Frank Wania, Ph.D., measured air and soil pesticide levels at 23 sites across Costa Rica in order to produce a model to predict potential accumulation of chemicals at high altitudes. The insecticide endosulfan and the fungicide chlorothalonil were found in the largest concentrations, with up to 1 part per billion (ppb) of chlorothalonil and 3 ppb endosulfan in soil. The high concentrations can be explained by a process in which polluted air above the farms and plantations is pushed up into the mountains, where it then cools and becomes polluted rainwater or fog. The hydrophilic nature of modern pesticides makes the occurrence of this phenomenon much more likely; as Crispin Halsall, Ph.D., of Lancaster University (U.K.) explains, “Most currently […]