(Beyond Pesticides, February 16, 2007) Changing Course in a Changing Climate: Solutions for health and the environment, the 25th National Pesticide Forum, will be held June 1-3 at Loyola University (Water Tower campus) in Chicago’s Magnificent Mile neighborhood. This exciting environmental health conference is convened by Beyond Pesticides and co-sponsored by Safer Pest Control Project, Nutrition for Optimal Health Association and others. The Forum begins Friday afternoon with a Chicago City Hall green roof tour and ends Sunday at noon. A Pesticide Working Group meeting will follow. See details below. Register online or call 202-543-5450 to register by phone. Forum topics include Global warming: Consequences and the organic connection; Environmental justice; Elevated risks of pesticide mixtures; The hazards and fate of common antibacterials; The truth about nanotechnology; Asthma and the pesticide link; New legislative opportunities; Passing local policies; Great Lakes/water contamination; Sustainable agriculture, nutrition and urban gardens; Scientific integrity; Safer pest management strategies; and more. Featured Speakers (see updated list with bios): Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. (2007 Dragonfly Award recipient), author of The Politics of Cancer, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition; Rolf Halden, Ph.D., P.E., professor at […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 15, 2007) On February 13, a U.S. District judge ruled that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) violated federal environmental law by failing to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS) on genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa seeds before deregulating them in 2005. Ruling on a lawsuit brought by environmental and farming groups, including Beyond Pesticides, Sierra Club and Center for Food Safety, Judge Charles R. Breyer found that USDA did not adequately defend its decision to forgo an EIS, while validating a number of the plaintiffs’ arguments. Alfalfa is the U.S.’s fourth-largest crop, and third most valuable. GE alfalfa seeds, primarily marketed by Monsanto as Roundup Ready, are engineered with a gene that causes them to be resistant to glyphosate. Among the plaintiffs’ concerns are contamination and cross-pollination between GE and natural crops, which can occur at a distance of up to two miles. Judge Beyer wrote, “Such gene transmission is especially likely in this context given the geographic concentration of alfalfa seed production.” He continued, “For those farmers who choose to grow non-genetically engineered alfalfa, the possibility that their crops will be infected with the engineered gene is tantamount to the elimination of all alfalfa; they […]

(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, February 12, 2007) John E. Franz, Ph.D., inventor of the toxic herbicide Roundup (active ingredient is glyphosate), is to be inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame, along with inventors of the MRI, the automotive airbag, vaccines, and various medicines. The honor is being awarded under the false claim that glyphosate is nontoxic. The 2007 class of inductees was announced at an event Thursday, February 8, on Capitol Hill, and the induction ceremony will take place on May 5 in Ohio. The statement released by the National Inventors Hall of Fame says of Dr. Franz: “In 1970, while working at Monsanto, Franz discovered the glyphosate class of herbicides, later marketed under the brand name Roundup ®. Glyphosate herbicides eliminate more than 125 kinds of weeds and are nontoxic to animals.” In fact, Roundup has been found to be harmful to animals and may pose a threat to humans as well. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is the number one most commonly used pesticide in U.S. agriculture, and the second most commonly used in non-agricultural settings in the U.S. According to a Beyond Pesticides literature review (GATEWAY), glyphosate is linked to cancer, reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, kidney/liver damage, […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 9, 2007) The effects of Hurricane Katrina are still being felt in the Gulf Coast, a year and a half after it hit. Research shows one of the secondary effects of Katrina is increased arsenic levels, largely due to debris treated with the wood preservative chromated copper arsenate (CCA). The debris, mostly originating from damaged and destroyed residential buildings, total 72 million cubic meters, of which 16% has been estimated to be wood, and all of which must be added to landfills. The resulting risk to groundwater is an estimated 1,740 metric tons of arsenic, much of which has been deposited into unlined landfills. The source of this arsenic is primarily from chemically treated lumber, as chromated copper arsenate (CCA) was once commonly used to pressure-treat wood. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has since banned the use of CCA in residential projects, but many older structures still contain the treated wood. A study, released online in the January 2007 issue of Environmental Science & Technology, led by Helena Solo-Gabriele, Ph.D., of the University of Miami and Brajesh Dubey, Ph.D., of the University of Florida, surveyed debris in New Orleans. Out of 225 pieces of lumber tested in […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 8, 2007) Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have shed new light on the suspected role of pesticides in the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The study, “GST expression mediates dopaminergic neuron sensitivity in experimental parkinsonism” appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (January 31, 2007), illustrates the mechanism of nerve cell damage by pesticide exposure. The enzyme that prevents damage to the substantia nigra, the part of the brain where nerve cell damage associated with PD occurs, is called GST pi (“pie”). This enzyme stands like a sentry at the crossroads of several biochemical pathways, any one of which can lead to PD. GST pi protects the nerve cell from death caused by either environmental toxics, such as pesticides, or a self-destruction process called apoptosis (cell suicide), triggered by certain stressful conditions in the cell. If GST pi levels are reduced or this enzyme is overwhelmed by toxics, these nerves are at increased risk of death, according to studies in mouse models. GST pi is one of a family of similar enzymes that eliminate free radicals generated by pesticides and other chemicals. Two members of this family are present in the brain, […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 6, 2007) Conservation groups have challenged a government plan that would allow six more years use of a deadly pesticide it admits needs to be banned. The groups, represented by Earthjustice, have reopened a lawsuit in federal district court aiming at speeding up the removal of azinphos-methyl, commonly called AZM or guthion. The legal actions also takes aim at getting rid of two other deadly pesticides, phosmet and chlorpyrifos. All three pesticides were developed from World War I-era nerve toxins. AZM is used primarily to kill insects on orchard crops such as apples, cherries, pears, peaches, and nectarines. The highest uses occur in Washington, Oregon, California, Michigan, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Chlorpyrifos is used widely on corn and orchard crops. Use of phosmet on orchard crops and blueberries poses particularly serious risks to workers. In November 2006, EPA decided that AZM poses unreasonable adverse effects and must be banned but allowed its continued use on fruit crops for six more years — until 2012 — and on nut crops for three more years — until 2009. “With safer alternatives already in widespread use, EPA has betrayed the trust of the men, women, and children […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 1, 2007) Thirty-five years after the banning of DDT, extremely high concentrations of the pesticide are being found in fish caught in California’s Los Angeles county waters. According to a newly released federal survey by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the fish caught in the area contain the world’s highest-known DDT concentrations. The survey was conducted in order to update health advisories on which fish are unsafe to eat and to help EPA decide whether to attempt a costly operation to reduce continued contamination from a deposit of DDT on the ocean floor. The findings contradict the belief held by some scientists that DDT on the ocean floor has been breaking down into less-toxic compounds and would soon disappear from marine life. The contamination, most severe in the middle of San Redondo Bay, stems from a 100-ton deposit of DDT released by the Montrose Chemical Co. beginning in the late 1940s, which still covers several square miles of the ocean floor. The pesticide manufacturer had a plant near Torrance, California, from 1947 to 1971, releasing about 2,000 tons of DDT into county sewers that subsequently emptied into the ocean. The […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 31, 2007) On January 29, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) concluded a month-long review of the Department of Agriculture’s (NJDA) petition to waive the state’s ban on aerial-spraying of broad-spectrum pesticides. The state will uphold the ban, effectively blocking widespread use of the chemical Dimilin. The ban affects towns seeking to reduce rising gypsy moth populations. Roughly 125,000 acres of trees suffered defoliation in the state as a result of gypsy moths, one of the worst years in recent memory. Gypsy moths have been in New Jersey since the 1920s, and their destruction peaking in 1981, with 800,000 acres defoliated. Dimilin is a restricted-use pesticide (available only to certified applicators) that has been unavailable for broadcast use for decades. For the past 20 years, in lieu of aerial spraying of Dimilin — also known as diflubenzuron — the pesticide specified in NJDA’s request, New Jersey towns have used bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) , a bacterial agent. With gypsy moth populations expected to be higher in 2007 than in recent years, NJDA argued that Bt would be insufficient to protect hardwood trees across the state. In a letter to NJDA, Marcedius T. Jameson, DEP’s administrator for […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 30, 2007) Breast cancer groups across the country have a new issue to add to the repertoire of risk factors: Pesticide use. A study published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology has found a strong link between residential pesticide use and breast cancer risk in women. Responding to the study, Susan Teitelbaum, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of community medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, says the options are simple”” “Stop using pesticides.” The study, published December 13, is the first to examine the relation between breast cancer and pesticides through self-reported residential pesticide use. Using women from New York, the study looks not at one or two incidents of pesticide contact, but at the impact of lifelong pesticide use in the home, lawn and garden. Using a sample of 1,508 women who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1996 and 1997, the study compares these women to 1,556 control subjects who were randomly selected. The results show that those women whose blood samples had higher levels of organochlorines are at an increased risk of breast cancer. Organochlorines are a broad class of chemicals, including DDT, dieldrin, and chlordane, and […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 26, 2007) With an annual introduction of 200 to 300 new anti-microbial products, scientists are saying that the most effective way to fight germs is the old fashioned way””soap and water. Amid a national trend of increasing germophobia, experts are saying soap and water are a better option than alcohol-based disinfectants and antibacterial soaps. In 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration led a panel of experts and industry representatives to weigh and analyze different germ killing methods. The panel found “no firm scientific evidence that the flood of antimicrobial products we observe has any discernible benefit over the use of regular soap and water.“ Few people are aware that plain soap is an anti-microbial. It kills bacteria by making their cell membranes leak fluids. This coupled with the motion of scrubbing the hands together””which loosens microbes and makes them fall into the soapy solution and wash away””creates “one of the most critical control strategies” for germs, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to Mike Richardson, an industry analyst at the Freedonia Group in Cleveland, consumers spend more than $200 million on anti-microbial products every year. With sanitizers being used on shopping […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 19, 2007) A recent study conducted in Manitoba, Canada, has found that residents in communities in which agricultural pesticides have been applied heavily are at a higher risk for eye disorders and for giving birth to children with abnormalities or birth defects. Significantly, these results are not confined to those who work with pesticides directly””such as farmers””but are relevant among entire populations. “Often studies are done on a particular people like, let’s say, the group of farmers who have direct contact with pesticides,” says Patricia Martens, Ph.D., director of the Manitoba Center for Health Policy. “This study was looking at the entire population.” Jennifer Magoon, a graduate student from the University of Manitoba, looked at Manitoba’s database of public health records, comparing records from areas of intensive agricultural pesticide use with areas that use little. She studied 323,368 health records from the years 2001 to 2004, which included pharmaceutical files, physician claims, and hospital separations. What she has found are “statistically significant” links between higher pesticide use and health problems. She has found that, compared with areas of average pesticide use, the chance for abnormalities in babies born in high-use areas rose four percentage points for males […]

(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 […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 16, 2007) A proposal is underway within New Jersey’s Department of Agriculture (DOA) to lift a 20-year ban on the use of Dimilin (diflubenzuron) for gypsy moth suppression. The State’s DOA is proposing to amend its regulations (N.J.A.C. 2:23) to permit the synthetic chemical pesticide to be aerially sprayed over forested residential areas (estimated to be 50,000 acres) in 14 counties where egg mass counts are over 4,000 per acre. In addition, the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Division of Parks and Forestry may propose using Dimilin in state park areas where the egg masses are 4,000 per acre or more — potentially treating up to an additional 28,000 acres.The New Jersey Environmental Federation (NJEF) has taken action to stop the plan. In a letter co-signed by an additional 25 organizations to the Commissioners of DEP and DOA, they state, “While gypsy moth is a nuisance pest and can contribute to oak tree mortality, it is not a human health threat, nor a disease vector. We believe that given the potential harm to human health and biodiversity by the chemical pesticide Dimilin, the Departments should err on the side of caution and stand by their regulations that […]