Archive for the 'Plastic' Category
17
Apr
(Beyond Pesticides, April 17, 2024) With headlines drawing public attention to the contamination of drinking water after years of federal government neglect, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on April 10 new standards to reduce public exposure to PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly referred to as “forever chemicals” because of their persistence. EPA has finalized a National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for six PFAS, including PFOA and PFOS, which EPA has recognized have no safe level of exposure, regulating new chemicals for the first time since the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). PFAS persistence and bioaccumulation in humans, wildlife, and the environment is due to the strength of a resulting fluorine–carbon atom bond. PFAS contamination of drinking water, surface and groundwater, waterways, soils, and the food supply—among other resources—is ubiquitous worldwide. PFAS is used in everyday products, including cookware, clothes, carpets, as an anti-sticking and anti-stain agent, in plastics, machinery, and as a pesticide. The action was welcomed by environmentalists and public health advocates as an important step but left many concerned that any level of exposure to these chemicals is unacceptable and critical of EPA’s ongoing failure to act despite years […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Announcements, Arkansas, Biosolids, Birth defects, Brain Effects, California, Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Chemicals, Connecticut, contamination, Developmental Disorders, Disease/Health Effects, Drinking Water, Endocrine Disruption, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Farmworkers, Fertilizer, Groundwater, Hawaii, Herbicides, Illinois, Infertility, Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Inhance Technologies, Lawns/Landscapes, Liver Damage, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Metabolic Disorders, metabolic syndrome, metabolic syndrome, Michigan, Minnesota, Motor Development Effects, Motor neuron disease, National Organic Standards Board/National Organic Program, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, NOSB National Organic Standards Board, Obesity, Ohio, Oregon, Parks for a Sustainable Future, Pennsylvania, Pesticide Mixtures, Pesticide Regulation, PFAS, Plastic, Reproductive Health, Rhode Island, Sewage Sludge, soil health, Synthetic Fertilizer, Take Action, Thyroid Disease, U.S. Geological Survey, Uncategorized, Vermont, Washington, Water, Water Regulation, Wisconsin | No Comments »
09
Apr
(Beyond Pesticides, April 9, 2024) The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in an opinion authored by Circuit Judge Cory T. Wilson, has vacated an action by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that had ordered the Texas-based manufacturer Inhance Technologies, L.L.C. to stop producing plastic containers that leach toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into pesticides, household cleaners, condiments, and additional products. EPA has taken action after the agency determined that the PFAS created during the fluorination process “are highly toxic and present unreasonable risks that cannot be prevented other than through prohibition of manufacture.” While the court is not challenging EPA’s authority to determine the hazards associated with PFAS exposure to be unacceptable, on a technicality, it is finding that the agency used the wrong section of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Section 5, which the court says is focused on new uses. According to the Court, “The EPA is just not allowed to skirt the framework set by Congress by arbitrarily deeming Inhance’s decades-old fluorination process a “significant new use,” even though EPA’s awareness of the PFAS contamination was “new” to the agency and not disclosed by the manufacturer. Even if EPA were […]
Posted in Cancer, Drinking Water, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Inhance Technologies, Liver Damage, National Organic Standards Board/National Organic Program, Nervous System Effects, NOSB National Organic Standards Board, Organic Foods Production Act OFPA, PFAS, Plastic, Regenerative, Respiratory Diseases, Thyroid Disease, Uncategorized, Water | No Comments »
25
Mar
(Beyond Pesticides, March 25, 2024) Because of their widespread infiltration into the environment and the bodies of all organisms, including humans, plastics contamination requires a holistic strategy to protect life— with consideration given to practices and chemical use that reduce or eliminate harm. Pesticides and other toxic chemicals are adsorbed (adhered) to microplastics, resulting in bioaccumulation and widespread contamination. This adds to the complexity of the problem, which is largely ignored by federal regulatory agencies. While most environmental policies attempt to clean up or mitigate health threats, new data reinforces the need to stop the pipeline of hazardous chemicals, wherever possible. With new data on the harm associated with plastics and related contamination, it becomes urgently necessary for all government agencies to participate in a comprehensive strategy to eliminate plastics and pesticides. Beyond Pesticides points to the evolving science on plastics contamination and their interaction with pesticides as yet another reason to transition to holistic land management systems that take on the challenge of eliminating hazardous chemical use. Organic land management policy creates the holistic systems framework through which plastics can be eliminated. >> Tell USDA, EPA, and FDA to create strong restrictions on plastics in farming, water, and food. […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Plastic, Uncategorized, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) | No Comments »
22
Mar
(Beyond Pesticides, March 22, 2024) With long-running efforts to keep organic land management in the forefront of public health and environmental measures to eliminate petrochemical synthetic substances, including pesticides and fertilizers, plastic again emerges as an increasing threat in a study linking microplastics to cardiovascular disease. The study by Italian researchers, published in the March 7 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, finds an elevated risk factor for heart attack and stroke associated with plastics found in the plaque of the majority of patients’ carotid arteries. A holistic approach to agriculture that embraces principles and values to enhance biodiversity and protect health, the organic system requires that synthetic substances are compatible with that system. In this context, the environmental and public health effects of plastics are increasingly subject to scrutiny as they permeate nearly every aspect of food production, including fields, crops, foods, and food packaging. Plastics also migrate from other sectors into agriculture via wind and water and are now ubiquitous in every environment. Removing plastics from any ecosystem is extremely problematic, so getting them out of agriculture will be difficult – but necessary, given the accumulating evidence of their toxicity. Beyond Pesticides continues to push for […]
Posted in Alternatives/Organics, Cardiovascular Disease, Plastic, Uncategorized | No Comments »
19
Mar
(Beyond Pesticides, March 19, 2024) This month the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) announced the creation of a new initiative to combat the health and environmental impacts of toxic petrochemical pesticides in agriculture. Launched by seven countries—Ecuador, India, Kenya, Laos, Philippines, Uruguay, and Vietnam—the Financing Agrochemical Reduction and Management (FARM) Programme is a $379 million initiative that “will realign financial incentives to prevent the use of harmful inputs in food production.” This international cohort aims to phase out the use of “toxic persistent organic pollutants (POPs)—chemicals which don’t break down in the environment and contaminate air, water, and food.” The work of FARM echoes Beyond Pesticides call for the banning of toxic petrochemical pesticides by 2032. The program will help countries implement their commitment to eliminate POPs and plastics in agriculture. As it is described, “FARM…will support government regulation to phase out POPs-containing agrochemicals and agri-plastics and adopt better management standards, while strengthening banking, insurance and investment criteria to improve the availability of effective pest control, production alternatives and trade in sustainable produce.” The 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants requires signatories to adopt a range of measures to reduce and, where feasible, eliminate the release of POPs. All […]
Posted in Breakdown Chemicals, Chemicals, International, organochlorines, Plastic, Uncategorized, United Nations | No Comments »
14
Mar
 (Beyond Pesticides, March 14, 2024) A recent review in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) highlights the urgent need to address the widespread chemical pollution stemming from the petrochemical industry, underscoring the dire implications for public health. Tracey Woodruff, PhD, author and professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), emphatically states in an email comment to Beyond Pesticides, “We need to recognize the very real harm that petrochemicals are having on people’s health. Many of these fossil-fuel-based chemicals are endocrine disruptors, meaning they interfere with hormonal systems, and they are part of the disturbing rise in disease.” Beyond Pesticides echoes this concern, noting that endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) include many pesticides and are linked to a plethora of health issues such as infertility, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, early puberty, as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and childhood and adult cancers. (See Beyond Pesticides’ Disease database here and news coverage here). The review further calls on the clinical community to advocate for policy changes aimed at mitigating the health threats posed by petrochemical-derived EDCs and climate change. Beyond Pesticides urgently calls for the elimination of petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers and advocates for a systemic […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Body Burden, Cancer, Chemicals, Climate, Climate Change, contamination, Dow Chemical, Drinking Water, DuPont, Endocrine Disruption, Farmworkers, Groundwater, Herbicides, Livestock, Lung Cancer, multi-generational effects, National Organic Standards Board/National Organic Program, Oceans, PFAS, phthalates, Plastic, Reproductive Health, soil health, Synthetic Fertilizer, Synthetic Turf, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
18
Jan
(Beyond Pesticides, January 18, 2024) Research continues to raise alarms about the hazards associated with the use of plastic, including the microplastic particles that are distributed in alarming amounts throughout the environment and taken up by organisms, including humans. A study published by researchers at Columbia and Rutgers universities (see article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2024) reports that the average liter of three brands of bottled water in the U.S. contains almost a quarter of a million tiny plastic pieces, of which 90 percent are at the nanoscale. The other ten percent are slightly larger, at microscale. Last December, researchers at Norway’s MicroLEACH project published a study that analyzes the components of 50 items in common use—plastic bags, disposable cups, dishwashing gloves, car tire granules, children’s toys and balloons. (See summary.) The researchers found, like in previous studies, that many hazardous chemicals in the plastics as well as many that could not be identified because they were not listed in the major chemical substance databases. Only 30 percent of the chemical compounds identified in the study were present in two or more products. This suggests that most plastics contain many unidentified chemicals, far beyond […]
Posted in Alternatives/Organics, Plastic, Uncategorized | No Comments »
