(Beyond Pesticides, June 15, 2009) The Oregon House of Representatives has voted for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in schools by passing Senate Bill (SB) 637. The bill, which has already passed the Senate, needs only to pass a concurrence vote in the Senate and be signed into law by Governor Ted Kulongoski. Once passed, SB 637 will require all public and private K-12 schools and community colleges to adopt IPM plans. “The use of integrated pest management can help reduce pesticide exposures and also provide additional benefits by reducing pests and their associated allergens, possibly reducing asthma triggers. Many schools practicing integrated pest management have documented improved pest management, cost savings, and reductions in pesticide applications by as much as 90 percent,” said Senator Suzanne Bonamici. “Senate Bill 637 improves student health and achievement with cost-effective pest management policies for schools.” The bill states: “‘Integrated pest management plan’ means a proactive strategy that: (a) Focuses on the long-term prevention or suppression of pest problems through economically sound measures that: Protect the health and safety of students, staff and faculty; Protect the integrity of campus buildings and grounds; Maintain a productive learning environment; and Protect local ecosystem health; (b) Focuses on […]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 12, 2009) An independent review is challenging government noncomplicance with a 1998 Marin County, California law that prohibits the use of certain highly toxic pesticides by any department. The research by an independent citizen has uncovered dozens of violations of the county’s own law until as recently as 2007. Local groups have called for an investigation by the Board of Supervisors, as well as more protective wording put into a revision of the county’s pesticide policy. The county law states that no department may use “any ingredient classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a human carcinogen, probable human carcinogen, possible human carcinogen, reproductive toxin, or developmental toxin.” According to a report by Corte Madera resident Paul Apfel, county employees violated that law at least 92 times between 1999 and 2007, using thousands of gallons of chemicals. “We have verified that the county has used a class of chemicals that the IPM [Integrated Pest Management] ordinance identifies should only be used under the exemption process,” said County Administrator Matthew Hymel. “Part of the confusion is that these chemicals were not on the state list but they were on the EPA list of possible carcinogens.” Fred Crowder, […]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 29, 2008) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced May 27, 2009 modified safety measures for soil fumigant pesticides, falling short of safety advocate efforts to adopt more stringent use restrictions and chemical bans. The new regulations follow a July 10, 2008 proposed rule, which resulted from three years of deliberation. Safety advocates said last July that while substantially better than the past, the proposed regulation fell short in protecting people, workers and the environment and from that perspective this weeks regulation is a disappointment. Advocates believe that the country can do better to phase out uses of highly hazardous chemicals that have devastating impact on exposed workers and communities in which they are used, and advance green technologies and organic practices. Fumigants, which are among the most toxic chemicals used in agriculture, are gases or liquids that are injected or dripped into the soil to sterilize a field before planting. Even with plastic tarps on the soil, fumigants escape from the soil and drift through the air into schools, homes, parks and playgrounds. Strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, carrots and potatoes are some of the major crops for which fumigant use is high. The agency says these measures will […]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 21, 2009) The Connecticut and Illinois legislatures have passed bills increase the protection of children at day care centers from toxic lawn chemicals. While providing different degrees of protection, both bills, which build on their existing state school pesticide laws, passed with overwhelming support in both chambers of their General Assembly. The bills passed both legislatures on unanimous votes with the exceptiion of five dissenting votes in the Connecticut House of Representatives. Connecticut State Representative Terrie Wood said, “We know that contact with pesticides and chemicals are not compatible with healthy living. It is time to err on the side of caution and ban these pesticides from use any place our children and grandchildren learn and play.” The Connecticut bill, Pesticide Applications at Child Day Care Centers and Schools, extends the states’ existing law that prohibits the application of pesticides on kindergarten through 8th grade schools’ grounds to include day care center grounds as well. In addition, the bill requires only licensed pest control operators apply pesticides in day care center facilities or on their grounds. There is an exemption that allows general use pesticides to be used in an emergency situation when a pest, such as […]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 19, 2009) Nearly six months after federal scientists began issuing restrictions to protect salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest and California, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has yet to take even the first step toward implementing these protections. This delay follows almost a decade of legal wrangling in which a coalition of environmental and fishing groups, led by the non-profit public interest law firm Earthjustice, won a court order. Tell EPA to stop its foot-dragging and protect salmon and steelhead from toxic pesticides. The six pesticides that scientists have reviewed so far are some of the most dangerous chemicals used today. All six””chlorpyrifos, diazinon, malathion, carbaryl, carbofuran, and methomyl””are neurotoxic and pose serious risks to both humans and wildlife. While many of these pesticides have been phased out for residential use, they continue to expose wildlife and farmworkers through their use in agriculture. Thirty-one more chemicals will undergo review by scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in the next three years. The new restrictions require EPA to prohibit application of the six pesticides in or near salmon and steelhead habitat. They also require EPA to prohibit application when the weather may cause the […]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 13, 2009) Last week, nine new hazardous chemicals were added to the list of chemicals to be banned under the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Lindane, a pesticide commonly used in head lice treatments in the U.S. and whose use has already been banned in many countries, was added to the list for phase out. The U.S. Congress has never ratified the Stockhom Convention because of controversy associated with ratification legislation that would weaken federal pesticide law rather than adhere to more protective international standards. Meanwhile, environmental and public health groups in the U.S. have been urging U.S. officials to ban lindane due to its toxic and bioaccumulative effects. More than 160 governments (including those countries that have ratified the Stockholm Converntion) agreed last Saturday to include the nine pesticides and industrial chemicals to the list of 12 other persistent organic pollutants (POPS) in order to strengthen a global effort to eradicate some of the most toxic chemicals known to humankind. The nine chemicals are: ”¢ alpha hexachlorocyclohexane – produced as an unintended byproduct of lindane; ”¢ beta hexachlorocyclohexane -produced as an unintended byproduct of lindane; ”¢ hexabromodiphenyl ether and heptabromodiphenyl ether- used in flame […]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 12, 2009) The Environmental Protection Agency has revoked regulations that permit residues of the pesticide carbofuran in food. This follows a voluntary withdrawl of 22 uses by the chemical’s manufacturer FMC Corporation in Sepember 2008. Carbofuran is a toxic insecticide that does not meet current U.S. food safety standards. EPA’s action will eliminate residues of carbofuran in food, including all imports, in a move to protect people, especially children, from dietary hazards. The action will also force the removal this pesticide from the market. The final carbofuran tolerance rule becomes effective December 31, 2009, a time frame that EPA says growers need to use up existing stocks and transition to alternatives. Phase out periods of known hazards (without notice to the public at point of sale) have long been criticized by adocates who argue that recalls be adopted in similar fashion to other consumer products that are pulled off the market at the time a danger is defined. EPA is proceeding to cancel the remaining carbofuran registrations, or licenses, which will address risks to pesticide applicators and birds in treated fields. In 2006, EPA identified significant dietary, ecological and worker risks from the use of carbofuran and […]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 6, 2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), is imposing use restrictions for the insecticide methoxyfenozide on cranberries in Wisconsin because of its potential effect on the Karner Blue butterfly. The Karner Blue butterfly is a federally listed endangered species. It remains to be seen whether, short of a ban, the complex and difficult to enforce restrictions on use and application methods will adequately protect the endangered species. The limitations for methoxyfenozide are contained in a series of county-specific Endangered Species Protection Bulletins (Bulletins) as part of EPA’s Endangered Species Protection Program (ESPP). EPA entered into consultation with USFWS after determining that use of methoxyfenozide on cranberries in Wisconsin may affect the listed Karner Blue butterfly. USFWS recommended a number of use limitations that, when implemented, should result in use that is not likely to adversely affect the Karner Blue butterfly, according to the bulletin. Limitations include not applying the pesticide within the designated pesticide use limitation area, ground applications- only which must be made using a drift retardant and nozzles, and when the wind speed is between 2-10 mph. These limitations are effective within specific areas […]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 1, 2009) The California State Senate’s Health Committee last week passed legislation that provides public health agencies and emergency responders timely access to complete ingredient lists of aerial pesticides. Senate Bill 759, authored by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), requires the disclosure of inert or inactive ingredients in pesticides before they are approved for use by state regulators. The bill passed committee with a 8-2 bipartisan vote. “In case of an emergency, it is critical that our health care professionals can easily access a complete list of pesticide ingredients so they can properly treat anyone who was exposed to them,” said Senator Leno. “Current law keeps emergency responders in the dark by permitting pesticide manufacturers to shield many of the ingredients they use from public disclosure,” he said. Federal regulation requires pesticide manufacturers to disclose the ingredients of industrial chemicals only if they are classified as “active” ingredients. More than 99 percent of the ingredients in certain pesticides are designated as inert or inactive, so they are never disclosed to the public. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), many consumers have a misleading impression of the term “inert ingredient,” believing it to be water or […]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 29, 2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced earlier this month that it is finally ready to move forward with preliminary testing of 67 active and inert pesticide ingredients for possible endocrine disrupting effects. But, according to prominent researcher and author Theo Colborn, PhD, these tests are outdated, insensitive, crude, and narrowly limited, and will fail to detect many serious effects on human development. In an eye-opening opinion-editorial published in Environmental Health News, Dr. Colborn, founder and president of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, and Co-author of Stolen Future, says that EPA’s testing protocol is “a pitiful skeleton” of what it needs to be. The tests to be used by EPA were first recommended in 1998. Since then the science has made progress and become more sophisticated. Current research is based on different assumptions than the toxicological assumptions that first drove the EPA test designs. However, EPA has not updated its protocol. Each of EPA’s tests and assays was designed under the surveillance of corporate lawyers who had bottom lines to protect and assorted toxicologists who were not trained in endocrinology and developmental biology. For over a decade, EPA ignored the vast wealth of information on endocrine […]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 17, 2009) Thirteen years after the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) ordered EPA to develop a screening process for endocrine disrupting chemicals, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a final list of chemicals to be included in Tier 1 testing for endocrine disrupting effects of pesticides in use. While the list has been reduced from the 73 chemicals announced two years ago, trials will begin this summer to determine human risk from some of the chemicals to which we are most commonly exposed. “Endocrine disruptors can cause lifelong health problems, especially for children,” stated EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “Gathering this information will help us work with communities and industry to protect Americans from harmful exposure.” EPA’s recent announcement of these chemicals can be found on EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) page. According to EPA, “The Agency deleted 6 chemicals from the draft list of 73 based upon recent information showing that the chemicals are no longer expected to be found in 3 exposure pathways.” To be included on the initial list, EPA established that chemicals need to be found in three of EPA’s four exposure pathways: food, drinking water, residential use, and occupational exposure. Azinphos-methyl […]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 10, 2009) In the U.S., lindane is a pesticide approved for use in children’s lice shampoo, but not on pets or plants. In much of the rest of the world, including Mexico, all uses of lindane have been banned for years. Parents, health professionals, and Arctic communities — whose food and breast milk are contaminated with a chemical they do not use — are urging US officials to close this loophole. Government delegates will gather in Geneva early next month to decide whether lindane will be added to a list of chemicals targeted for a global phase out under the international Stockholm Convention. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Joshua Sharfstein, a coalition of groups are calling on the agency leaders to support listing of lindane under the international treaty without exemption for lotions and shampoos (“pharmaceutical uses”). The letter also urges FDA to “take definitive action in ending pharmaceutical use of lindane domestically, as has already been accomplished in California.” “These lindane shampoos and lotions have already been banned in California and in many countries around the world,” says Kristin Schafer, Associate Director for […]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 9, 2009) On April 2, 2009, Greenpeace USA, joined by Beyond Pesticides and others, sent a letter (Senate, House) urging Congress to pass comprehensive chemical security reform. Beyond Pesticides believes chemical security is an important step, but only one piece of larger chemical reform, which would ban toxic chemical production when safer products and practices exist. According to the coalition, U.S. pesticide and other chemical plants remain one of the sectors of America’s infrastructure most vulnerable to accidents and terrorist attacks. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has identified approximately 7,000 high-risk U.S. chemical facilities. However, unless Congress replaces a flawed temporary law with a comprehensive chemical security program, millions of Americans will remain at risk. The statute Congress passed in 2006 temporarily authorized “interim” regulations that are wholly inadequate to protect communities. Furthermore these rules expire on October 4, 2009 leaving the 111th Congress only six months to enact truly protective legislation. Congress must pass comprehensive legislation before the temporary law expires. Among the fatal flaws in the “interim” statute: — It prohibits the DHS from requiring the most ironclad security measures. DHS cannot require any specific “security measure,” including the use of safer and more […]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 8, 2009) The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) and Beyond Pesticides are asking that you take action to help secure everyone’s right to know about “secret” hazardous ingredients found in commonly used farm and household pesticide products. Please e-mail Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lisa Jackson at [email protected], no later than May 1, urging EPA to respond to NCAP’s petition and mandate that pesticide manufacturers list hazardous “inert” ingredients on pesticide labels. “Inert” refers to ingredients in a pesticide formulation that have been added to the active ingredient to serve a variety of functions, such as acting as solvents, surfactants, or preservatives. However, the common misconception is that “inert” ingredients are physically, chemically, or biologically inactive substances. EPA allows pesticide manufacturers to put harmful chemicals into pesticide products without telling the public — chemicals linked with cancer, genetic damage, and reduced fertility, despite admitting the policy is misleading. EPA has stated that “many consumers have a misleading impression of the term ”˜inert ingredient,’ believing it to mean water or other harmless ingredients.” A December 2006 commentary in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ journal Environmental Health Perspectives calls for improvements in pesticide regulation and […]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 18, 2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a new online database that collects information on more than 500,000 synthetic chemicals from over 200 public sources. The Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource (ACToR) database provides access to hundreds of data sources in one place, enabling easy access for environmental researchers, scientific journalists and the public. However, more than half of these chemicals do not have any detailed testing data. ACToR, which is actually a collection of databases, was developed to support the ToxCast program of the EPA National Center for Computational Toxicology (NCCT). ToxCast was designed to develop faster methods to evaluate the potential toxicity for thousands of chemicals using computer modeling and advanced molecular biology techniques. More than 200 sources of publicly available data on environmental chemicals have been brought together on ACToR and made searchable by chemical name and other identifiers, and by chemical structure. Data includes chemical structure, physico-chemical values, in vitro assay data and in vivo toxicology data. Chemicals include, but are not limited to, high and medium production volume industrial chemicals, pesticides (active and inert ingredients), and potential ground and drinking water contaminants. Sources of information include EPA, U.S. Food and […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 27, 2009) Twenty-six leading corn insect scientists at public research institutions submitted a comment to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which charges that patent-holding companies, including Monsanto, Syngenta, and others, interfere with their genetic engineering (GE) research on crops. The statement says, “Technology/stewardship agreements required for the purchase of genetically modified seed explicitly prohibit research. These agreements inhibit public scientists from pursuing their mandated role on behalf of the public good unless the research is approved by industry. As a result of restricted access, no truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions regarding the technology, its performance, its management implications, IRM, and its interactions with insect biology. Consequently, data flowing to an EPA Scientific Advisory Panel from the public sector is unduly limited.” The names of the 26 scientists were withheld from the public docket “because virtually all of us require cooperation from industry at some level to conduct our research.” The stewardship agreements, which are intended to ensure that farmers honor the companies’ patent rights, do not allow planting GE crops for research. These have been in place for years, but according to the New York Times, scientists have now spoken out […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 26, 2009) On February 24, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency settled with an Oakland, California, importer for $61,000 for allegedly selling and distributing illegal mothballs, a violation of federal pesticide laws. The importer is accused of distributing unregistered naphthalene mothballs from imported from Taiwan. Venquest Trading, imported unregistered naphthalene mothballs from Taiwan and distributed them to retailers in California and the Pacific Northwest on 241 separate occasions. EPA’s Pacific Northwest region first discovered the company’s violations during a marketplace initiative to uncover illegal pesticide products. The agency’s Pacific Southwest office later conducted an inspection and uncovered violations at Venquest’s Oakland warehouse. “Without proper labeling and registration, these illegal pesticides pose a serious threat to human health, particularly children’s health, who can mistake the mothballs for candy,” said Katherine Taylor, associate director of the EPA’s Communities and Ecosystems Division for the Pacific Southwest region. “Importing unregistered pesticides is a serious violation, as the registration process ensures we know what the pesticide contains, and that it is properly labeled with precautionary statements and directions for use.” EPA has fined more than a dozen companies over the last several years for selling illegally imported mothballs. Importers, dealers and retailers can […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 20, 2009) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will conduct an “internal pilot” in conjunction with the agency’s Design for the Environment Formulator Program (DfE) to further explore a policy change that would allow claims of environmental preferability in regard to non-porous hard surface disinfectants and sanitizers. The agency’s plans were announced at a February 3 meeting of the Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee (PPDC) Work Group on Comparative Claims in Washington, DC. “EPA’s announcement of the internal pilot is a positive step forward in developing an Agency policy that meshes with the demands of today’s green marketplace,” said Bill Balek, Director of Legislative Affairs of the Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association (ISSA). According to Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, “Comparative claims and “green” standards can help consumers avoid poisonous pesticide products. EPA should through this program embrace its mission to provide the public with full disclosure of all pesticide product ingredients, potential hazards, inluding those known and untested, and information on product efficacy. Additionally, to maximize positive outcomes, this program should also assist the public with information on unnecessary and ineffective antimicrobial pesticide use, bacterial resistance, and “green” practices, such as cultural practices that can eliminate the […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 18, 2009) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting through February 23, 2009 public comments on a petition to cancel all registrations for the herbicide 2,4-D and to revoke all of its tolerances. The petition was filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in November and published by EPA on December 24, 2008. As the most commonly used “home and garden” chemical, millions of U.S. households especially vulnerable children and pets, are exposed to this toxic chemical. Beyond Pesticides fully supports the cancellation of this dangerous pesticide which has been associated with a host of adverse human impacts, such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, endocrine disruption, reproductive and developmental effects, as well as water contamination and toxicity to aquatic organisms. The highly toxic chemical can be replaced by cost-competitive and effective management practices widely used in organic agriculture and lawn care. As long as 2,4-D remains on the market, the public will continue to be exposed to, and suffer the effects of this chemical whose health impacts have long been ignored by EPA. Public health and environmental advocates believe it is time that EPA put science and the health of the public and the environment first and ban […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 6, 2009) President Obama’s new administration has introduced changes across the federal government, and those at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been on display with the confirmation of new Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. In her recent testimony at her Senate confirmation hearing and open letter to EPA employees, Ms. Jackson pledges a return to scientific integrity and agency transparency. “Science must be the backbone for EPA programs,” she says in a memo to EPA staff. “The public health and environmental laws that Congress has enacted depend on rigorous adherence to the best available science. The President believes that when EPA addresses scientific issues, it should rely on the expert judgment of the Agency’s career scientists and independent advisors. When scientific judgments are suppressed, misrepresented or distorted by political agendas, Americans can lose faith in their government to provide strong public health and environmental protection.” This promise contrasts the previous administration’s strained relationship with EPA scientists, which resulted in last spring’s report entitled, “Interference at EPA: Science and Policies at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.” Francesca Grifo, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’s Scientific Integrity Program, said at the time, “Nearly 900 EPA scientists reported political […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 5, 2009) Former chief environmental correspondent for The New York Times Philip Shabecoff and freelance journalist Alice Shabecoff will be making a rare public talk at Bridge to an Organic Future, the 27th National Pesticide Forum, April 3-4, 2009 in Carrboro, NC. They will be speaking Friday evening at the conference and signing copies of their new book, Poisoned Profits: The toxic assault on our children, during a reception immediately following their presentation. See registration information below. Based on more than five years of investigative research and reporting, Poisoned Profits reveals the cumulative scientific evidence connecting the massive increase in environmental poisons to the epidemic of disability, disease, and dysfunction among our nation ´s children. The authors conclude that the poisoning of the environment is as grave a threat to the future as any problem confronting our nation. Yet even as individual parents and pediatricians struggle to fight illness, one child at a time, the public remains in the dark about the enormity of this crisis. Why? Because, according to the authors, corporations control the system, molding laws to their liking. The book shines a light on the motives and means of corporate-paid lawyers, “product defense” companies, […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 3, 2009) A corporate tomato grower faces an unprecedented penalty of more than $931,000 for misusing pesticides and jeopardizing the health and safety of workers in its New Jersey farm fields and packing houses, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Acting Commissioner Mark N. Mauriello announced January 30, 2009. In its enforcement action, the DEP cites Ag-Mart Produce Inc., headquartered in Cedarville, Cumberland County, with hundreds of violations that include denying state environmental inspectors access to facilities, losing track of a highly toxic insecticide, failing to properly ventilate areas during pesticide use, failing to post important pesticide-safety information for workers, careless recordkeeping and using forbidden mixtures of pesticides. Ag-Mart Produce widely markets its tomatoes under the brand name “Santa Sweets,” and employs 700 people throughout 17 farm locations in New Jersey. Ag-Mart also owns and operates other produce farms in North Carolina, Florida and Mexico. “Ag-Mart has repeatedly shown a stunning disregard of laws and regulations intended to protect the workers who harvest their tomatoes, the people who consume them and New Jersey’s environment,” Commissioner Mauriello said. “Ag-Mart’s pesticide violations are the most serious DEP inspectors have ever uncovered. We have imposed a record-high penalty not […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 2, 2009) As part of the Township of Bernards, New Jersey’s new Pesticide Management System Resolution that designates pesticide-free zones and requires adoption of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program for all its municipal grounds, the mayor and town council are also asking its citizens to adopt such measures on their own property. The resolution preface states, “[S]cientific studies associate exposure to pesticides with asthma, cancer, development and learning disabilities, nerve an immune system damage, liver or kidney damage, reproductive impairment, birth defects and disruption of the endocrine system, and ”¦ infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems and chemical sensitivities are especially vulnerable to pesticide effects and exposure, and ”¦ lawn pesticides and synthetic fertilizers are harmful to pests, wildlife, soil microbiology, plants, and natural ecosystems and can run off into streams, lakes and drinking water sources ”¦” Pesticide-free zones include playgrounds, picnic grounds and pavilion/rest areas, and the area 50 feet around each of these sites, as well as dog park/runs, pool areas and ball fields. Pesticide-free zones also include all waterways and a 300 foot buffer around any stream bank, pond, lake or natural wetland. According to the township’s […]