In a report presented at the 237th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society on March 23 in Salt Lake City, Utah, researchers at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, describe their development of six synthetic versions of the new anti-fungal agent, which works to block fungal enzymes that overwhelm plants’ natural defenses. Plant chemicals, called phytoalexins, are responsible for the defense mechanism exhibited by many plants to kill disease-causing fungi. However, many fungi release enzymes that detoxify, or destroy the phytoalexin, leaving the plant vulnerable to the fungi’s attack. The researchers took advantage of this counterattack strategy by developing anti-fungal agents to block the fungi’s destruction of phytoalexins.

Paldoxins are short for phytoalexin detoxification inhibitors. Lead researcher, Soledade Pedras, PhD, and her colleagues discovered these agents after screening broccoli, cauliflower, mustard greens and other plants in the so-called “crucifer family” of leafy vegetables. They discovered the most powerful phytoalexin in a flowering plant called camelina or “false flax.” In laboratory tests, camelina’s phytoalexins blocked detoxifying enzymes produced by a wide variety of fungi.

“We found that many fungi couldn’t degrade this chemical,” says Dr. Pedras. “So that’s what we used to design synthetic versions that were even stronger than the original.” Six different synthetic versions of the paldoxins have been created. The synthetic paldoxins have been successful in laboratory tests on several crucifer plants, including rapeseed plants and mustard greens. Field tests have been planned for other important crop varieties. In the future, a similar strategy will be applied to grasses such as wheat, rye, and oat. These grassy plants tend to be more difficult to protect with fungicides than broccoli and related veggies, the researchers say.

These new fungicides could possibly replace toxic conventional fungicides without the threat of resistance, loss of beneficial organisms or other adverse environmental impacts. Since they work in a unique way, disrupting a key chemical signaling pathway that fungi use to breakdown a plant’s normal defenses, these new materials are more selective, stopping fungi that cause plant diseases without harming other organisms. “Our products only attack the fungus when it’s misbehaving or attacking the plant. And for that reason, they’re much safer,” said Dr. Pedras.

A number of different fungicides have been shown to cause cases of occupational asthma among workers, including the fungicides chlorothalonil, fluazinam, and captafol. Researchers found that these fungicides cause hypersensitivity responses in workers, causing their airways to be highly sensitive and reactive to the inhaled fungicides resulting in wheezing and breathlessness. Others, like ziram and maneb have been linked to Parkinson’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The Forum will begin with an optional tour of Piedmont Biofuels in Pittsboro, NC on Friday afternoon at 1:00pm. Piedmont Biofuels is a cooperative that runs a research farm and sustainable biodiesel production facility, manufacturing local fuel out of waste vegetable oil. Read more about the facility in an article about Piedmont’s Ecoindustrial Park. The tour is limited to 40 people. To attend the tour, please RSVP to [email protected] to reserve a seat on the bus.

This year’s conference will feature a special appearance by the Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Giant insect puppets from their “I am an Insect” production will pay Forum participants a visit Friday night.

Keynote speakers at this year’s conference include: Jim Hightower, national radio commentator and author of Swim Against the Current: Even a dead fish can go with the flow; Baldemar Velasquez, social justice leader and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC); and, Philip and Alice Shabecoff, authors of Poisoned Profits: The toxic assault on our children. Mr. Shabecoff also founded Greenwire and served as chief environmental correspondent for The New York Times. See a complete speaker list.

The Forum will feature two prominent panel presentations. Scheduled for Saturday morning, the Growing a Fair, Local, Organic Food System panel will include talks by an organic dairy farmer, an organic produce marketer and individuals involved with university and non-profit outreach programs to grow organic production in North Carolina and around the country. In the afternoon, university and government scientists will present the latest pesticide research as part of the Cutting Edge Pesticide Science: Linking exposure to health effects panel.

Workshops will include: Schools and Daycare: Creating a healthy learning environment; Protecting Waterways, Health and the Environment; Farmworker Organizing; Organic Land Management: Lawns, gardens and open spaces; Progressive Policies: Global to local; Farmworker Health Training; a Carrboro Farmer’s Market Tour; and more.

Practical information, including maps, shuttle information and lodging recommendations, as well as a complete speaker list, schedule of events and online registration, are posted on the Forum webpage. For last-minute deals on airfare, try Kayak.com.

EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said: “Today represents a milestone in our effort to ensure improved protection of human health and the environment. The review of existing pesticides has lead to the removal from the market of more than two thirds of these substances. I can now say with confidence that our food has become greener.”

Council Directive 91/414/EEC lays down a comprehensive risk assessment and authorization procedure for active substances and products containing these substances. Each active substance was evaluated as to whether it could be used safely with respect to human health (consumers, farmers, local residents and passers-by) and the environment, in particular groundwater and non-target organisms, such as birds, mammals, earthworms, bees, in order to be marketed. If the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) determined that the substance has “no harmful effect on human or animal health and that it has no unacceptable impact on the environment,” the substance was approved.

The European Commission has created an EU list of approved active substances and Member States may only authorize plant protection products, containing such substances, which are included in this list. This review provides assurances that the EU finds the substances currently on the market acceptable to human health and the environment and are in accordance with European-wide criteria. Until this review was finalized, the level of protection could vary widely and national rules on substances could continue to apply.

Of some 1,000 active substances on the market in at least one Member State before 1993, 26 percent, corresponding to about 250 substances, have passed the harmonized EU safety assessment. The majority of substances (67 percent) have been eliminated because dossiers were either not submitted, or were incomplete or were withdrawn by the industry. About 70 substances failed the review and have been removed from the market, because the evaluation carried out did not show safe use with respect to human health and the environment. These pesticides include those which are genotoxic, carcinogenic, immunotoxic, and certain endocrine disruptors. Such chemicals may be used for up to five more years if they are “essential” to crop production, or up to three if less toxic alternatives are available.

Since March 16, a database on active substances has been available on the website of the European Commission. The EU’s aim is to guarantee transparent and up-to-date information on the EU pesticide legislation.

For more background information on the EU’s risk assessment for these products, visit their website.

The study entitled, “The aryl hydrocarbon receptor affects distinct tissue compartments during ontogeny of the immune system,” aimed to identify the critical windows of exposure where fetuses are most sensitive to dioxin’s harmful effects. Pregnant mice were given a dose of 1,000 ppt dioxin either during pregnancy, lactation, or throughout pregnancy and lactation. After dosing, mothers and pups were kept dioxin-free. Researchers then infected mothers and pups with a non-lethal dose of the influenza virus.

Researchers found that the number of specialized white blood cells – referred to as CD8+ T-cells that specifically recognize and kill the flu virus, were significantly reduced in the pups but not their mothers. The most severe reduction in these white blood cells was seen when dioxin was administered only while the pups were nursing. Conversely, a different type of white blood cell, known as neutrophil, significantly increased in the dioxin-exposed pups. Neutrophils, important mediators of inflammation, were most severely increased when dioxin was given late in gestation and during lactation. The mothers of the pups mounted a normal immune response to the influenza infection with no decrease in CD8+ T-cells or increase in neutrophils.

These results illustrate how dioxin exposure in the womb, and/or during nursing, can permanently impact the development of the immune system. They also reaffirm the significance of the impacts of early exposures to harmful chemicals which can result in long-term changes that affect normal biological responses later in life. One notable aspect of this study was that changes in immune response were observed even though the pups were exposed a few times to a low-level dose of dioxin. This means that short-term exposures (as opposed to long-term, continuous exposures) can have significant long-term impact, especially if these exposures occur during important early developmental stages.

Dioxin refers to a family of chemicals linked to cancer, weakened immune systems and reproductive problems. They are persistent organic pollutants that bioaccumulate in humans and other animals, especially in fatty tissue. The main route of human exposure is through diet, especially through foods contaminated with pesticides and other hazardous chemicals that degrade or transform into dioxin. As seen in this study, dioxins are also transmitted from mother to child through breastfeeding. Previous reports have stated that infants exposed to high levels of dioxin in utero suffered poor psychomotor skills, altered thyroid hormone levels, and reduced neurological optimality.

The most infamous dioxin, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin (TCDD), is the most dangerous form of dioxin and part ingredient of Agent Orange, once used during the Vietnam War. War veterans exposed to Agent Orange have developed chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkins lymphoma and diabetes. Many children of veterans exposed have been affected by their parents’ exposure to the chemical and show a wide range of symptoms.

Dioxin has been found in milk, cheese, beef, pork, fish, chicken, and other animals, as well as soil and sewage sludge. High levels of dioxin still exist in the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers and floodplains in Michigan, after being dumped there decades ago by Dow Chemical Co. Clean-up and restoration for these systems are still being debated. Even though dioxin levels in the environment have dropped considerably in recent years from their peak in the late 1970’s, it is important to be vigilant in the foods consumed in order to avoid increasing risk of exposure, since dioxins are persistent and bioaccumulative. A diet rich in organic foods can help minimize risk of dioxin exposure.

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 Drug Administration, U.S. National Institutes of Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and other federal agencies; state databases, Health and Environment Canada, the European Union, the World Health Organization and other international groups; and non-governmental organizations, private companies and universities.

ACToR was used to analyze toxicity information on almost 10,000 chemicals regulated by EPA and identify data gaps to be addressed by ToxCast, to help EPA prioritize future testing of chemicals. While acute toxicity data is available for 59 percent of the surveyed chemicals, detailed testing information is much more limited. Only 26 percent of the 10,000 chemicals have carcinogenicity testing data, 29 percent have developmental toxicity testing data, and 11 percent have complete reproductive toxicity test results.

The lack of toxicological data on more than half of the 10,000 chemicals overseen by the EPA means that there are numerous data gaps and thus, a lack of adequate safety tests which continues to undermine the integrity of EPA’s risk assessment process. With little to no data on chemicals that are allowed to enter the consumer market place, the agency is failing to protect human and environmental health. A recent GAO report found that the EPA does not have sufficient chemical assessment information to determine whether it should establish controls to limit public exposure to many chemicals that may pose substantial health risks. The report went on to state that EPA has not responded to recommendations made to reduce agency shortcomings and has “not sufficiently improved the scientific information available to support critical decisions regarding whether and how to protect human health from toxic chemicals.”

“This is a victory for the environment, farmers and consumers, and a major embarrassment for the Commission. For the fourth time, EU governments have rejected a Commission proposal to lift national bans on GM crops. What part of ‘no’ does the Commission not understand?” said Marco Contiero, Greenpeace EU GMO policy director.

Austrian and Hungarian scientific authorities have recently supplied new evidence supporting their national bans showing that MON810 maize – the only GMO currently cultivated in the EU – is likely to have harmful environmental effects.

Helen Holder, European GMO campaign coordinator at Friends of the Earth Europe said, “The European Commission has once again failed to force countries to lift their national GMO bans. Today’s vote is a clear message that European countries will not be bullied into taking unsound decisions regarding their environment, their farming and their citizens’ health. The Commission must now abandon its unpopular proposals once and for all and get down to the real work of improving GMO risk assessments in the EU, as Ministers have requested.”

Under EU GMO laws, countries are allowed to ban individual GM crops for environmental and health reasons. There are a number of reasons why these bans should not be lifted:

*The effects of Monsanto’s genetically modified maize MON 810, which is engineered to produce a toxin to kill insects, are uncertain and controversial.

* European Environment Ministers concluded last December that GMO risk assessment in the EU is not fulfilling legal requirements, that long term impacts are not been assessed, and that crops such as those being voted on today should also be assessed under EU pesticide laws because of the toxin they release. The European Commission’s proposal to lift the bans completely disregarded this recent agreement.

* MON810 is currently being re-assessed at EU level as required under EU law. No national bans should be lifted under a full, independent and good quality review.

Beyond Pesticides believes the incorporation into food crops of genes from a natural bacterium (Bt) or the development of a herbicide resistant crop is short sighted and dangerous. Over 70% of all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are altered to be herbicide-resistant. In the U.S., we continue to push for labeling as a means of identifying products that contain genetically engineered ingredients, seek to educate on the public health and environmental consequences of this technology, and generate support for sound ecological-based management systems. This technology should be subject to complete regulatory review, which is currently not the case.

The Berkeley researchers used geographic information systems that analyzed data from California Pesticide Use Reports and land-use maps to calculate historical residential exposure to agricultural exposure to the two pesticides. From 1998 to 2007, the researchers enrolled 368 incident Parkinson’s disease cases and 341 population controls from California’s Central Valley and developed potential exposure estimates incurred between 1974 and 1999.

Also published this month by some of the same researchers, “Dopamine Transporter Genetic Variants and Pesticides in Parkinson’s Disease,” finds that certain genes and these same pesticides, maneb and paraquat, interact to increase to the risk factor for Parkinson’s disease. This University of California, Los Angeles study looks at pesticide exposure and genetic variability in the dopamine transporter (DAT), a protein that plays a central role in dopaminergic neurotransmission of the brain which makes them more susceptible to Parkinson’s. In this study, high residential exposure to maneb and paraquat increases risk almost 3-fold in individuals who have one DAT susceptibility allele and 4.5 fold in those with two or more susceptibility alleles.

The second most common neurodegenerative disease affecting more than one million people in the U.S., Parkinson’s disease occurs when nerve cells in the substantia nigra region of the brain are damaged or destroyed and can no longer produce dopamine, a nerve-signaling molecule that helps control muscle movement.

Exposure to the herbicide paraquat has long been associated with Parkinson’s disease. Several studies show an increased risk for Parkinson’s with occupational exposure to and contact with paraquat. A case-control study in Taiwan found that those who had used paraquat were at greater risk of developing the disease than those that had used other pesticides. A 2007 study examined a cohort of 80,000 licensed private applicators and spouses and found that farmworkers exposed to paraquat have twice the expected risk of developing the Parkinson’s. For those that were exposed to herbicides and could recall their exposure history, a Canadian population-based case-control study reported one individual using paraquat, between the ages of 26 and 31 years, and was the only herbicide-exposed case in the study whose onset of symptoms occurred before the age of 40.

Paraquat induces dopaminergic nigral apoptosis and acts through oxidative stress-mediated mechanisms. In laboratory animal studies, paraquat exposure triggers processes characteristic of early stages of dopaminergic neuron degeneration by stimulating an increase in the protein alpha-synuclein in the brain, likely due to preferential binding of the pesticides to a partially folded alpha -synuclein intermediate. The protein kills the dopamine-producing brain cells which lead to Parkinson’s. In 2002, researchers from the Parkinson’s Institute published that their findings “unequivocally show that selective dopaminergic degeneration, one of the pathological hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease, is also a characteristic of paraquat neurotoxicity.”

For researchers testing the role of oxidative stress in paraquat exposed mice, they find that the “initial exposure acts as a ”˜priming’ event, enhancing neuronal vulnerability to a subsequent toxic insult.” Suggesting that dopaminergic cell degeneration appears to be dependent on the sequence of toxic challenges and the interaction between cell vulnerability, damaging effects and protective responses. Nigrostriatal neurons are vulnerable to oxidative processes. Depending on the paraquat exposure, oxidative stress may be reversible or lead to neurodegneration.

The synergistic effects of maneb and paraquat together have previously been linked to Parkinson’s disease as well. In lab studies, University of North Dakota researchers find maneb affects rat brain mitochondria. Low levels of maneb can injure the antioxidant system in the dopamine neurons, especially with concurrent exposure to other environmentally relevant oxidative stressors, such as paraquat. University of Rochester scientists discovered that the synergistic effects of paraquat and maneb target the nigrostriatal dopamine system and indicate progressive neurotoxicity with continuing exposure. Their findings show that while there are no or only marginal effects when these chemicals are administered individually, together they produce synergistic effects when given in combination. In another study, these researchers again chronically expose mice to a low-level combination of maneb and paraquat, resulting in significant reductions in locomotor activity, levels of striatal dopamine and dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, more so than when exposed individually.

A laboratory study finds that “prenatal exposure to the pesticide maneb produces selective, permanent alterations of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system and enhances adult susceptibility to paraquat exposure.” Additional studies show that exposure to maneb and paraquat during the post-natal and juvenile period causes Parkinson-like declines in dopaminergic neurons and makes the substantia nigra more susceptible to additional exposures in adulthood, “suggesting that developmental exposure to neurtoxicants may be involved in the induction of neurodegenerative disorders and/or alter the normal aging process.”

March activities include three major city celebrations and film premieres:

Washington, DC: Wednesday, March 18, 7:00pm at the National Portrait Gallery. Co-sponsored by the Environmental Film Festival. (8th & F Streets NW, Washington, D.C., 20001)
Los Angeles: Thursday, March 19, 7:30pm at the Laemmle Music Hall Theater. (9036 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, Calif., 90211)
New York City: Friday, March 27, 7:30pm at Anthology Film Archives Theater. (32 2nd Avenue at 2nd Street, New York, New York, 10003
Each screening is free and open to the public.

This year’s National Women’s History Month will honor Rachel Carson, the pioneer of the modern environmental movement. Carson’s bestseller Silent Spring led to the banning of the chemical DDT, the creation of the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, and the birth of the organic food movement. Al Gore writes in his foreward to the thirtieth anniversary edition of Silent Spring, “Without this book, the environmental movement may never have developed at all.”

March activities celebrating Rachel Carson include 100 nationwide screenings of the newly released film, A Sense of Wonder. The film depicts Rachel Carson in the last year of her life, as she battles cancer and the chemical industry and focuses her final energy on getting her message to Congress and the American people in the wake of publishing Silent Spring. “This film is absolutely remarkable. You cannot walk away unmoved,” stated Bill Moyers.

“Rachel Carson taught us that the natural world and human society are, indeed, interdependent and indivisible, and moreover that we have an obligation as stewards of the environment to safeguard and protect the world around us,” said Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine. “This responsibility has been passed from generation to generation and as such constitutes the cornerstone of her legacy that endures. And in that light, I couldn’t be more pleased that Rachel Carson’s remarkable story has been adapted for the screen in A Sense of Wonder, so more people may learn about her life and the guiding principles that shaped it and that continue to inspire us all.”

A Sense of Wonder stars Broadway, film and television actress Kaiulani Lee. Using Carson’s own words, Lee’s portrait of Carson is historically accurate and powerfully moving. Noted drama critic Christopher Rawson says, “What Lee achieves in barely an hour is something rare””she merges herself with Carson’s spirit.”

About the DVD
The deluxe edition DVD of this new 55-minute film was released March 1, with special features including: a visit with Carson’s adopted son Roger, an interview with former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, and a short companion film titled Lessons from Carson featuring scientist Dr. David Suzuki, author Richard Louv, the Center for Food Safety’s Andrew Kimbrell, Beyond Pesticides’ Jay Feldman, NRDC co-founder Gus Speth, and scientist Theo Colborn. The DVD will be available for sale at each screening.

When organic foods are not easily accessible due to cost or availability, Beyond Pesticides recommends that consumers buy organically produced commodities for those foods they eat most often (e.g. children’s juice) and for those foods that contain the greatest amount of pesticides. EWG’s recently released 5th edition Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides is a tool to help individuals avoid produce containing the highest amount of pesticides. However, research indicates that regulators know much less than they should and do not collect residue data on most of pesticides’ toxic breakdown products (metabolites), inert ingredients, and contaminants. Additionally, pesticides that are untested by EPA for certain health effects of concern (e.g. endocrine disruption, behavioral impacts) may be dismissed as “cleaner,” but turn out to be among the most hazardous to fetuses and children when the agency, in the case of endocrine disruption, gets around to adopting and enforcing its long-overdue testing protocol, or decides that its evaluation of behavioral and low-dose sub-lethal effects must be improved.

Many experts believe that because of the complexities and cost associated with a truthfully complete assessment of health and environmental impacts associated with chemical-intensive agriculture (tied to the resulting food, air, water and land residues), and in light of the proven commercial viability of organic systems, most of the toxic pesticides on the market today and the chemical-intensive farming practices that they support are outdated and not sustainable, forcing unnecessary hazards (present and still to be evaluated) on people and the environment. They argue that toxic pesticide use must become the exception rather than the rule, ending the false regulatory assumption that hazardous chemicals are necessary for cost-effective food production, so that people do not have to sacrifice their health and the environment in order to eat.

Based on EWG’s data from nearly 87,000 tests for pesticide residues in produce conducted between 2000 and 2007 and collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Pesticide Data Program) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Shopper’s Guide lists the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” fruits and vegetables to determine which conventionally-grown produce items have the have the highest pesticide load and which have the lightest. If consumers get their USDA-recommended five daily servings of fruits and vegetables from the 15 most contaminated, they could consume an average of ten pesticides a day. Those who eat the 15 least contaminated conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables ingest less than two pesticides daily. EWG uses the data to conclude that consumers can reduce their pesticide exposure by 80 percent by avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating only the cleanest.

According to EWG’s “Dirty Dozen,” conventionally grown produce to avoid include peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, imported grapes, carrots, and pears.

Because residues are found throughout conventionally grown products, a diet based on organic foods is essential. A study published in 2008 finds that children who eat a conventional diet of food produced with chemical-intensive practices carry residues of organophosphate pesticides that are reduced or eliminated when they switch to an organic diet. Another study finds that converting the nation’s eight million acres of produce farms to organic would reduce pesticide dietary risks significantly.

There are numerous health benefits to eating organic, besides a reduction in pesticide exposure. According to research from the University of California, a ten-year study comparing organic tomatoes with standard produce finds that they have almost double the quantity of disease-fighting antioxidants called flavonoids. A study out of the University of Texas finds organically grown fruits and vegetables have higher levels of antioxidants as well as vitamins and minerals than their conventionally grown counterparts. A comprehensive review of 97 published studies comparing the nutritional quality of organic and conventional foods shows that organic plant-based foods (fruits, vegetables, grains) contain higher levels of eight of 11 nutrients studied, including significantly greater concentrations of the health-promoting polyphenols and antioxidants. The team of scientists from the University of Florida and Washington State University concludes that organically grown plant-based foods are 25 percent more nutrient dense, on average, and hence deliver more essential nutrients per serving or calorie consumed. A study by Newcastle University, published in the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture, finds that organic farmers who let their cows graze as nature intended are producing better quality milk.

Driving pesticide risks downward is important because recent science has established strong links between exposure to pesticides at critical stages of prenatal development and throughout childhood, and heightened risk of pre-term, underweight babies, developmental abnormalities impacting the brain and nervous system, as well as diabetes and cancer. Research shows that organic farming eliminates a significant source of toxic chemical contamination in the environment from groundwater pollution and runoff to drift. Organic farming also protects the farmworkers and their families from chemicals that have been shown to cause a myriad of chronic health effects, such as cancer, endocrine disruption and a series of degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease.

Disputing the myth that organic methods are less productive, a three-year study of worldwide organic versus conventional farm yields finds organic farming to produce as much as, and even exceed, the crop and animal yields of conventional farming.

Organic farming conserves natural resources by recycling natural materials and it encourages an abundance of species living in balanced, harmonious ecosystems. Organic farmers are required by the National Organic Standards to minimize soil erosion; implement crop rotations; provide for the humane, general welfare and health of farm animals and prevent contamination of crops, soil, or water by plant and animal nutrients, pathogenic organisms, heavy metals, or residues of prohibited substances. Even though the popularity of organic produce has grown tremendously in recent years, farmers in the U.S .are not nearly keeping pace with consumer demand for organic products, estimated to be growing by 20 percent a year.

Data from The Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial (FST), perhaps the longest running agronomic experiment (began in 1981), shows that organic farming is one of the most powerful tools in the fight against global climate change. Carbon sequestration in organic no tillage (no till) farming systems is two to four times greater than in chemical-intensive no till systems. At the same time, the Rodale data shows reduced energy needs on the organic farm (37 percent less than conventional) with consistently high yields.

Ms. Jackson announced her decision last week in a letter to environmental activists involved with the issue. She also stated that a team of high-ranking officials from her office would meet shortly with activist groups, as well as representatives of Dow and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The letter states that the EPA’s regional office in Chicago would not participate in further negotiations until her team has reported back after its meetings in Michigan. The meetings are expected to take place next week.

“My goal is to ensure an expeditious and robust cleanup, and I will take steps to ensure that the dioxin contamination is addressed in a manner that is protective of human health and the environment – and that the process is open and transparent,” Ms. Jackson wrote.

Michelle Hurd Riddick, a member of the Lone Tree Council, a Saginaw-based group that urged Ms. Jackson to take an interest in the case shortly after her appointment as EPA administrator in January, said that her organization was encouraged by Ms. Jackson’s promise of “meaningful opportunities for public involvement” as the cleanup blueprint takes shape.

“We have a long history of this company going behind closed doors with regulators, and every time they do that the watershed loses and public health loses and the citizens lose,” Ms. Hurd Riddick said. “We’re very hopeful that it will be different this time.”

DEQ spokesman Robert McCann said it was fair for the new administration to take time to learn about the situation. “Our hope is that this review doesn’t slow down the process or require us to put off any plans for this year,” he said.

Negotiations began in the mid-1990s and still have not produced a comprehensive restoration plan. As the Bush administration was winding down in December, the two agencies and the company opened another round of discussions under a new legal framework they said would make things run more smoothly but that critics said would enable Dow to cut a favorable backroom deal.

Dow submitted what it described as a “good faith offer” for moving the planning forward in February. EPA’s Chicago office was in the process of evaluating the offer when the order came from headquarters to halt the discussions. Dow has acknowledged polluting the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers, their floodplains, portions of the city of Midland and Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay with dioxins for much of the 20th century, first by dumping liquid wastes and later by incinerating them.

The chemical giant contends the pollution hasn’t harmed people or wildlife but has spent about $40 million on studies, sediment sampling and other preliminary work. In 2007, it removed tainted soil from four highly toxic “hot spots,” one with the highest dioxin levels ever recorded in the Great Lakes region.

However, the high levels of dioxin and PCBs in the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers have made fish there unsafe to consume. Dioxins, a family of chemicals linked to cancer, weakened immune systems and reproductive problems, have been detected at levels as high as 1.6 million parts per trillion (ppt), 20 times higher than any other levels detected in any U.S. waterway. Michigan state guidelines require corrective action on contamination above a thousand parts per trillion. Advisories have previously been issued against eating carp, catfish, and white bass – fish that feed near the riverbed where contaminants are buried.

Previous talks with Dow ended unsuccessfully in January 2008 when EPA determined that Dow’s offers were not comprehensive enough.

The legislation provides information to school districts on IPM that “minimizes the use of pesticides and the risk to human health and the environment associated with pesticide applications.” Beyond Pesticides advocates pesticide use reduction and elimination strategies and only the use of “least-toxic” pesticides as a last resort. Experience shows that school pest management must emphasize pest prevention and management strategies that exclude pests from the school facility through habitat modification, entry way closures, structural repairs, sanitation practices, natural organic management of playing fields and landscapes, other non-chemical, mechanical and biological methods, and the use of the least-toxic pesticides only as a last resort.

School is a place where children need a healthy body and a clear head in order to learn. Children are especially sensitive to pesticide exposures as they take in more pesticides relative to their body weight than adults and have developing organ systems that are more vulnerable and less able to detoxify toxic chemicals. Even at low levels, exposure to pesticides can cause serious adverse health effects. Numerous studies document that children exposed to pesticides suffer elevated rates of childhood leukemia, soft tissue sarcoma and brain cancer. Studies also link pesticides to childhood asthma, respiratory problems, and inability to concentrate.

The Virginia IPM bill, HB 1836, was originally written to require all school districts in Virginia adopt an IPM program that would help protect children and staff from unnecessary pesticide use and exposure at schools, while at the same time eliminating pest problems. The bill was amended in the House Agricultural Committee to only provide information to school districts on IPM, not require it, and it slightly weakened the definition of IPM. One benefit that came out of the amended version of the bill is the requirement for all school districts to keep complete records on the pesticides that are applied in schools.

Children’s health and environmental advocacy groups support IPM in schools as it has proven to be an effective and economical method of pest management that, when done right, can eliminate pest problems and the need for hazardous pesticides to be used in school buildings or on school grounds. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National PTA, among others, recommend schools adopt IPM programs in order to significantly reduce pests and pesticide risk.

According to Beyond Pesticides research, 14 states (IL, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, TX, and WV) require schools adopt an IPM program and 7 states (CA, CT, MN, MT, VT, FL, and RI ) recommend schools adopt IPM programs. Without federal legislation like the proposed School Environment Protection Act (SEPA) https://www.beyondpesticides.org/schools/sepa/index.htm, school IPM adoption will likely remain spotty across the country as it is now.

IPM practitioners have cited great successes with managing pests, eliminating pesticide use, and large cost savings to school districts that utilize IPM practices. Such policies and programs have been adopted in hundreds of localities across the country. Currently in Virginia, a number of school districts in the state have some level of an IPM program, including Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest district in the state.

If the Virginia Legislature truly wanted to protect children from pests and toxic pesticide exposure, they would require schools adopt a strong IPM program, ban the use of toxic pesticides for aesthetic purposes, and prohibit the use of certain hazardous pesticides, such as probable, possible or known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, reproductive toxins, developmental toxins, neurotoxins, and toxicity category I and II pesticides.

The proposed rule raises a number of issues, including the potential to increase herbicide and insecticide resistance by growing crop contamination. In addition, it proposes “deleting the list of organisms which are or contain plant pests.” This list represents the genetic elements that GE companies alter, which are then trigger USDA’s regulatory process. “Whether a GE crop falls within the scope of regulation or not will now be much more open to interpretation,” said CFS Science Policy Analyst Bill Freese at the time. “We can expect the range of GE organisms subject to oversight to decrease over time, allowing for future food safety regulatory failures.”

As this second comment period nears its end, CFS is again calling for “USDA to (1) Withdraw the proposed rule; (2) Release the [Environmental Impact Statement] EIS for public review and comment and be used as a basis for further rule-making; and (3) Suspend all new GE crop approvals until the above has been satisfactorily completed and unless and until GE crops are proven safe.”

Mixtures of organophosphate and carbamate pesticides are commonly detected in freshwater habitats that support threatened and endangered species of Pacific salmon. According to the researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries and Washington State University, these pesticides inhibit the activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and thus have potential to interfere with behaviors that may be essential for salmon survival.

The researchers measured brain AChE inhibition in juvenile coho salmon exposed to sublethal concentrations of the organophosphates diazinon, malathion, and chlorpyrifos, as well as the carbamates carbaryl and carbofuran. The pesticides were tested individually and in combination. They plotted AChE levels on a curve to determine whether the toxicologic responses to binary mixtures were additive, antagonistic (lesser than additive) effect, or synergistic (greater than additive).

The authors observed addition and synergism, with a greater degree of synergism at higher exposure concentrations. Several combinations of organophosphates were lethal at concentrations that were sublethal in single-chemical trials. Combinations of diazinon and malathion, as well as chlorpyrifos and malathion had the greatest impact (lowest AChE activity). Previous studies have shown that many fish species die after high rates of acute brain AChE inhibition.

The authors believe that their results have important implications for ecological risk assessments, particularly those that focus on the toxicity of individual chemicals as the basis for estimating impacts to imperiled aquatic species.

“Salmon exposed to mixtures containing some of the most intensively used insecticides in the western U.S. showed either concentration-additive or synergistic neurotoxicity as well as unpredicted mortality. This implies that single-chemical assessments will systematically underestimate actual risks to ESA-listed species in salmon-supporting watersheds where mixtures of OP and CB pesticides occur,” the authors stated in their conclusion. “Moreover, mixtures of pesticides that have been commonly reported in salmon habitats may pose a more important challenge for species recovery than previously anticipated.”

On November 18, 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released a Biological Opinion that sets forth a plan for protecting Pacific salmon and steelhead from three toxic organophosphate pesticides. The decision comes after almost a decade of legal wrangling between salmon advocates and the federal government.

In the biological opinion, federal wildlife scientists comprehensively reviewed the science regarding the impacts of pesticides on salmon and ultimately concluded that current uses of the insecticides chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion jeopardize the existence of these imperiled fish. The biological opinion prescribes measures necessary to keep these pesticides out of water and to protect salmon populations in Washington, Oregon, California, and Idaho.

Learn more about pesticide and water contamination at Bridge to an Organic Future, the 27th National Pesticide Forum, April 3-4, in Carrboro, NC.