(Beyond Pesticides, May 29, 2020) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released a report highlighting employee discontent with scientific integrity (SI) within the agency. While the number of official complaints about scientific integrity have been fairly minimal over the 8 years that the 2012 policy has been in place—only 85 complaints were filed—the new survey found 400 EPA employees had experienced, but did not report, potential violations of EPA’s scientific integrity policy. Further, according to OIG’s findings, dissatisfaction regarding scientific integrity abounds within the agency.

EPA’s 2012 Scientific Integrity (SI) Policy was instated to “ensure scientific integrity throughout EPA and promote scientific and ethical standards, including quality standards; communications with the public; the use of peer review and advisory committees; and professional development.” EPA’s policy defines scientific integrity as “the adherence to professional values and practices when conducting, supervising, communicating and utilizing the results of science and scholarship.” OIG’s performance audit took place from September 2018 to February 2019 and included a survey given between November and December of 2018. OIG’s report states, “The survey was structured to examine (1) awareness of and familiarity with the SI Policy, (2) experience with the four focus areas of the SI Policy shown previously in Table 1, and (3) awareness and experience with the process for reporting potential SI violations, as well as reasons for not reporting.”

51% of survey respondents “with a basis to judge” said they disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that “senior leadership makes the basis for any policy decision accessible and transparent.” Additionally, close to 60% of respondents reported dissatisfaction with EPA’s culture of scientific integrity and release of scientific information to the public.

Fear of retaliation, belief that reporting wouldn’t make a difference, and perceived suppression or interference by leadership or management were common reasons employees did not report violations.

Comments by employees noted discontent with “support for or understanding of” scientific integrity by senior leadership, as well as views that political appointees “do not value or adequately consider science in policy, rulemaking, or enforcement decisions.” Employees also expressed concern that leadership is “greatly influenced by political, industry, state, or regulated groups.”

In an official response to the OIG report, EPA responded that, “The EPA Deputy Administrator, in cooperation with the EPA Science Advisor, will work with the Administrator to devise an action plan to address this Recommendation.” They said that officials will “analyze the OIG scientific integrity survey, together with previous surveys… and reports of alleged violations of the EPA Scientific Integrity Policy to inform this plan.” However, the report also names an issue with enforcement regarding violations as adjudication procedures have not been finalized and EPA has pushed back their due date for completion to September 30, 2020.

While EPA Associate Deputy Administrator Doug Benevento responded in a memo that, “We are confident that the work conducted at the Agency everyday rests upon a strong foundation of science,” there is much evidence to the contrary. The Hill reports, “Last year, former Interior Department employees told lawmakers that they faced retaliation for the science work, and in the past, lawmakers have called for investigations into an employee’s claim that he was reassigned based on his work on climate change.”

Beyond Pesticides acts as watchdog for scientific integrity, and has noted significant failings including EPA’s proposal to increase the amount of the weed killer atrazine allowed in U.S. waterways by 50% during the chemical’s registration review—a stark reversal of previous proposals to significantly reduce atrazine levels in the environment. EPA also put forth a proposal to further weaken protections regarding 23 pyrethroid insecticides that have been repeatedly linked by peer-reviewed studies to neurological issues such as learning disabilities in children

State governments, too, are standing up and taking notice: A coalition of eight attorney generals (AGs) from different states recently came together to criticize a draft risk assessment of the soil fumigant 1,3-D in which EPA proposed downgrading the cancer risk rating from “likely to be carcinogenic to humans” to “suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential.” The AGs contend this motion is capricious and excludes entire categories of scientific evidence, stating in their public comment, “EPA’s new cancer risk classification dangerously ignores science and downplays the risks individuals face when they are exposed to 1,3-D.” Standing out above the many examples cited, the singular study EPA referenced in its assessment regarding mutagenicity based its “statistical significance” on a sample size of only five rats.

Standing up for scientific integrity is more critical than ever. Ask Congress to request an investigation into whether EPA is ignoring its statutory duty and regulatory requirements to use science in its proposals. Keep track and fight back with more actions through Beyond Pesticides’ Action of the Week.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: The Hill

BMJ Journals

(Beyond Pesticides, May 28, 2020) Exposure to agricultural and industrial pesticides, solvents (thinners), electromagnetic fields, and heavy metals predispose humans to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to an Italian research study, “Environmental and Occupational Risk Factors of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Population-Based Case-Control Study,” published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Although research supports ALS’s genetic etiology, epidemiologic research associating ALS risks and to environmental, or work-related risk factors (i.e., pesticide use, pollutant exposure, heavy metal exposure, etc.) has been inconsistent and non-definitive. This research demonstrates the importance of assessing aggregate health risks associated with occupational pesticide exposure, especially when determining potential exposure routes in specific occupational sectors. In the study, researchers note, “In particular, having an occupation in the agricultural sector, especially with a long duration of the working activity as well as occupational exposure to some chemicals…might increase ALS risk.”

While scientists extensively study the epidemiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—a rare, yet fatal neurodegenerative disease—occupational and environmental hazards inducing random (sporadic) or hereditary ALS diagnoses remain vague. With researchers predicting a global ALS incidence increase of 69% by 2040, identifying ALS’s causal factors are important to future research.

In this research, Italian researchers conducted a case-control, population-based study for four Italian provinces (Catania, Sicily; Modena, Italy; Novara, Italy; and Reggio Emilia, Italy) to evaluate occupational and environmental components associated with ALS triggers. The study’s test group encompassed 95 (n=95) people diagnosed with ALS, while the control group included 135 (n=135) people without ALS, all of whom researchers matched by sex, age, and location. Each group member responded to a self-administered questionnaire via regular-mail or in-person at the neurology department of each study’s hospital. Study participants reported their career division, job type, education status, military service status, as well as exposure to various unique environmental factors: heavy metals, pesticides, chemicals, and electromagnetic fields. Researchers estimated ALS risk using an unconditional logistic regression model to calculate the odds ratio (OR)—a measure of association between exposure and an outcome—with a 95% confidence interval, adjusting for sex, age, and education level.

Results find that agricultural workers have higher risks of developing ALS, with the highest risk association for those who experience over ten years of pesticide exposure in agricultural work. Results show a positive association between work-related solvents exposure (i.e., paint thinners; and paint removers) and disease risk. Non-environmental, occupational pesticide exposure, namely fungicides, augments threats of developing ALS. The risk of developing ALS intensifies indiscriminately with exposure to heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and selenium. Electromagnetic fields marginally foster disease risk via both occupational and environmental exposure. Lastly, participants living near bodies of water are at higher risk for developing ALS, possible due to neurotoxic outgassing from cyanobacteria (blue-green algae).

The agricultural industry has a long-standing history of synthetic chemical use, which disproportionally affects farmworkers’ health. Farmworkers’ children are at greater risk as their immune system response is immature and especially vulnerable to stressors from pesticide exposure. Synthetic chemicals present in pesticides, cosmetics, industrial solvents, heavy metals, etc. accumulate in our bodies, causing an amalgamation of health effects, or body burns. Although many chemicals bacteria metabolize in—and eliminate from the body, pesticides (like organochlorine pesticides) can bioaccumulate over a lifetime. Pesticides expose farmers, farmworkers, and their families to heightened risks of various cancers (i.e., prostate, hepatic, liver, etc.), mental health problems (i.e., depression), respiratory illnesses (asthma), endocrine disruption, and many other pesticide-induced diseases. Extensive pesticide use can predispose human pathogenic to antibiotic resistance, bolstering bacterial virulence.

Currently, this study indicates agricultural occupations as frontrunners for major pesticide exposure scenarios significantly associated with ALS development. Agricultural employees have a 2.1 times higher likelihood of developing ALS, principally due to extensive pesticide use, whereas industrial employees have a 1.48 times higher risk of developing ALS, in comparison to military occupations. Long-time (≥ 10 years) field farmworkers have a 2.7 times higher likelihood of developing ALS. Importantly, vast agricultural fungicide use can cause deadly fungi, like Candida Auris, to have antifungal resistant properties, which echo bacterial antibiotic resistance. The study points to pesticide runoff from agricultural fields into nearby water sources as contaminants that increase nutrient inputs for the growth of harmful neurotoxic cyanobacteria. Although residential pesticide use lacks comprehensive research regarding ALS risk, studies suggests residential use of herbicide pesticides, specifically gardening, play an etiological role in developing ALS.

Although occupational and environmental factors, like pesticides, adversely affect human health —disproportionately affecting vulnerable population groups – there are several limitations in defining real-world poisoning, as captured by epidemiologic studies in Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database. The adverse health effects of pesticides, exposure, and the aggregate risk of pesticides showcase a need for more extensive research surrounding occupational and non-occupational pesticide exposure, especially in agriculture. Beyond Pesticides encourages farmers to embrace regenerative, organic practices. A complement to buying organic is contacting various organic farming organizations to learn more about what you can do. Those impacted by pesticide drift can refer to Beyond Pesticides’ webpage on What to Do in a Pesticide Emergency and contact the organization for additional information.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source(s): ALS News Today, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

(Beyond Pesticides, May 27, 2020) Research published last week in the journal Scientific Reports uncovers new ways that neonicotinoid (neonic) insecticides hamper the growth and development of honey bee colonies. As new data on the link between neonics and pollinator declines continues to flow from academic institutions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has re-opened the public comment period on its proposal to renew the registration of these highly toxic insecticides.

The present study, led by German scientists at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, uses new video techniques to observe the behavior of honey bees behind a glass-pane hive. Researchers filmed their study from start to finish, focusing on the effect of chronic sublethal doses of the neonciotinoids clothianidin and thiacloprid. Colonies were fed these chemicals in a sugar syrup over the course of three weeks in May and June.

Even at low levels, scientists found significant changes to brood rearing and development, and the behavior of nurse bees. Nurse bees play a pivotal role in honey bee colonies. These young worker bees clean out old brood cells (where larvae develop), feed larval bees after a queen lays its eggs, and finish by capping a brood cell with wax. Within capped cells, larval bees undergo metamorphosis and turn into fully developed honey bees.

Results showed that nurse bees exposed to low doses of neonics fed larvae less often, causing larval development to take up to 10 hours longer than hives without exposure. “For the first time, we were able to demonstrate that neonicotinoids also change the social behavior of bees,” study coauthor Paul Siefert, PhD, said in a press release. “This could point to the disruptions in nursing behavior due to neonicotinoids described by other scientists.”

The mechanism researchers discovered may help explain why neonic-exposed honey bee colonies are at increased risk of varroa mite infestation. In addition to depressing grooming behavior in adult workers, delays in brood development—and thus longer periods where larvae are uncapped -makes it easier for varroa mites to invade a hive and feed on pupae and larvae.   

The new method of study design and observation is an important step forward. “Our innovative technology makes it possible to gain fundamental scientific insights into social interactions in bee colonies, the biology of parasites, and the safety of pesticides,” said Dr. Siefert. However, political institutions like EPA are unlikely to include studies like these into consideration when conducting registration reviews for pesticides like the neonicotinoids. EPA is only required to review studies required to be submitted under the nation’s pesticide law, the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). These studies are not performed by independent academic institutions from colleges or universities; they are conducted by industry and industry-contracted labs by the company that intends to register the pesticide. In the case of neonicotinoids, Bayer and Syngenta/ChemChina provided the bulk of scientific studies to support registration.

EPA at best may consider Dr. Siefert’s study as supplemental to its overall review. On balance, this means the study will carry little effect on the agency’s ultimate decision whether to continue registration, which is not based purely on the science, but on a mixture of politics, science, and public opinion.

This is unfortunate, as Beyond Pesticides, alongside other beekeeping and environmental groups in comments to EPA show in painstaking detail, the independent science (the science not funded by the pesticide industry) is abundantly clear that neonicotinoids pose unacceptable adverse impacts on pollinator populations and other wildlife.

Those frustrated about the continued allowance of bee-toxic neonics in our environment are encouraged to express their concerns to EPA through the regulations.gov docket. Unique comments that tell your connection to the issue and employ science are more likely to be considered than form letters. For more information you can use to make your case, see Beyond Pesticides BEE Protective program page, including our extensive list of citations on our What the Science Shows webpage.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Goethe University Frankfurt am Main Press Release (Phys.org), Scientific Reports

(Beyond Pesticides, May 26, 2020) Across the pond, the European Commission (EC) has announced plans to protect biodiversity and build a more sustainable food system, and identified the reduction of pesticide use  and the expansion of organic agriculture as pillars of the scheme. The EC expects that the initiative, which will require EU member states’ endorsement, will advance progress on the EU goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, given that 10% of emissions arise from the agricultural sector. The EC’s goals are important and laudable, but Beyond Pesticides is clear: reduction of pesticide use in service of them is not an adequate strategy to ensure long-term success. Genuine success requires the elimination of the use of synthetic chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and other toxic inputs, and the transition to agricultural and land management systems that work with nature, rather than fight against it. Regenerative, organic practices are the path to a livable future, according to Beyond Pesticides.

The EC, which is the executive branch of the EU, expects its plan to reduce use of pesticides by 50% by 2030; reduce use of antimicrobial chemicals, including antibiotics, in fish and animal farming by 50%; dedicate a minimum of 25% of arable land area to organic production (as opposed to the current 8%); and plant an additional 3 billion trees by 2030.

The rationale for the initiative is both environmental and economic. On the former, EC Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides commented, “Nature is vital for our physical and mental wellbeing, it filters our air and water, it regulates the climate and it pollinates our crops. But we are acting as if it didn’t matter, and losing it at an unprecedented rate.” The EC also believes that the transition to organic production for a larger proportion of the agricultural sector will help the EU recover from the impacts of the novel Coronavirus pandemic, generate 10–20% more jobs per hectare than conventional farming, and create more than 1.8 trillion euros in new economic value.

An EC case statement on the environment–economy interplay includes this summary: “The economic and social costs of inaction on environmental and climate issues would be huge, leading to frequent severe weather events and natural disasters, as well as reducing the average EU GDP by up to 2% and by even more in some parts of the EU. The world lost an estimated 3.5–18.5 trillion euros per year in ecosystem services from 1997 to 2011, owing to land-cover change, and an estimated 5.5–10.5 trillion euros per year from land degradation.”

Greenpeace EU is critical of the plan because it fails to commit to reductions in the production and consumption of meat. Livestock farming is a significant contributor to global warming emissions, and is often a source of pollution of waterways. Greenpeace EU agricultural policy direct Marco Contiero noted, “The European Commission has finally accepted the science and recognises that producing and consuming too much meat is hurting health, destroying nature and driving climate breakdown, but chooses to do nothing about it. . . . The Commission seems to be too cowardly even to end the few million going to EU-funded meat advertising, let alone reconsider the billions that support overproduction of meat in the first place.” The organization notes that the EC devoted 5 million euros to advertising of beef and veal in 2020, and that the “EU spends . . . 28 to 32 billion euros annually on livestock and feed production, while over 70% of all EU agricultural land is dedicated to feeding livestock.”

The role of conventional agriculture in the climate crisis is significant. Here in the U.S., agriculture contributed 10.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in 2018; much of that came from conventional livestock farming. A United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report for 1990–2013, for example, indicated that 66% of agricultural sector emissions were emitted by livestock, primarily as methane — a GHG “on steroids,” with 90–95 times the heat-trapping impacts of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years. In the past few years, beef cattle alone have been responsible for 62% of agricultural emissions in the U.S. A huge 30% of the Earth’s ice-free land mass is used to pasture livestock.

Yet livestock farming and ranching are not the only agricultural culprits in warming the planet, compromising human health, polluting ecosystems, destroying habitat, and fouling air, soil, and water — all of which impact food systems and biodiversity. Practices that dominate in conventional farming and land management are chemically intensive, using pesticides (insecticides, fungicides, herbicides), antibiotics, and synthetic fertilizers — many of which are petrochemically derived. The negative impacts of these compounds are rife:

• pesticides can have broad and lasting effects on human health for farmworkers through direct exposure, and broadly, for the public through residue on food, contamination of drinking water, or exposures in or on playgrounds, sports fields, parks, golf courses, etc.
• pesticides often harm or kill off-target organisms, which can harm wildlife and cause ecosystem havoc; pollinators, so critical to much of agriculture, are especially vulnerable.
• synthetic fertilizers and pesticides introduce extrinsic chemicals and “nutrients” that then run off into waterways, causing hypoxic dead zones that kill life in the local ecosystem and cause toxic algal blooms; and are destroying the ability of land management systems to draw down (sequester) carbon from the atmosphere, thus averting the climate crisis and biodiversity devastation..

Adding to the insidious dynamics of pesticide use is the inevitable development of resistance: as Beyond Pesticides wrote in its journal, Pesticides and You, “Broadscale and repeated use of a pesticide sets in motion the factors that drive the evolution of resistance in the target pest. Those that are not killed by the pesticide pass down the genes that allowed them to survive, perpetuating a toxic cycle.” A 2019 Daily News Blog entry describes the “pesticide–resistance dance” well: “When a target weed develops resistance to an herbicide, conventional agriculture responds — thanks to the chemical industry and its aggressive marketing and near hegemony on some seeds, such as soybeans — by using yet another herbicide, or doubling down with paired herbicides, or rolling out an herbicide-plus-GE-seed combination to try to stave off the pest. This ‘resistance and response’ dynamic is a unidirectional progression along an increasingly poisonous and unsustainable path.”

Response to resistance from the pesticide industry, as noted, often includes more drastic approaches: combining active ingredients (with poor regulatory control) into “new” products; developing new formulations (to which pests or weeds will also develop resistance in time); and/or increasing potency (and typically, toxicity) of a product. In addition, agro-chemical companies have engaged in all sorts of chicanery to convince growers, government, and the public that their products are safe and effective; tactics have included greenwashing, intensive lobbying, paying for “positive” research, discrediting critics, and more. (See Beyond Pesticides’ coverage of, for example, the “Monsanto Papers.”)

On an analogous front, Beyond Pesticides recently brought suit against Exxon Mobil Corporation for “false and deceptive marketing” that implies that the company invests heavily in the production and use of “clean energy” and “environmentally beneficial technology.” The truth is that “the vast majority of Exxon’s business continues to be in the production and use of petroleum, natural gas, and petrochemicals, including pesticides. These activities are significant contributors to the climate crisis and the decline of pollinators and biodiversity, threatening the viability of biological systems that sustain life.” The complaint adds, “In an age where consumers are looking to support responsible companies that are . . . transitioning away from fossil fuel-based energy and chemical products, ‘ExxonMobil is able to capture the growing market of consumers.’”

Beyond Pesticides considers this a monumental example of “deception via greenwashing” that underscores why “reducing” use of petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides is a fool’s errand: industry will do anything it can manage to convince everyone that their activities are not destroying the climate and environment. All of these factors underscore why piecemeal or “reductionist” approaches to agriculture and land management generally are doomed to fail or to deliver anemic results that do not address health, climate, biodiversity, and food systems issues at the level the problems require.

Executive Director Jay Feldman commented: “We cannot afford to be misled by corporations that are tinkering with solutions to the environmental crises of climate change and biodiversity devastation, which threaten our future over an ever-shortening time horizon. Overselling half-hearted attempts to solve these environmental crises head-on is doing dramatic damage to the large scale and meaningful changes that must take place now.”

Meaningful solutions must involve systemic changes to how land is managed and agricultural activities conducted. The dominant, conventional approaches to management (including integrated pest management, pesticide reduction programs, or product substitution strategies) continue to depend on synthetic inputs (pesticides and fertilizers, primarily) that attempt to treat symptoms of underlying problems. In these approaches, soil is considered to be little more than an “emptry matrix” into which inputs can be poured, plants grown and harvested, and the process of “rinse, repeat” continued each year. This is the antithesis of approaches that mimic and cooperate with natural systems. Regenerative, organic systems are based in an understanding of ecosystems, in which all parts must function well together for optimal results. Soil is respected and treated as a living ecosystem of components that, together, support and enhance biological life.

Successful organic agricultural practices — for the long term — support and enhance natural nutrient cycling with soil supplements such as compost. The focus is on building organic matter in soil and feeding the multitude of biological organisms in the soil — fungi, bacteria, et al. — that decompose organic matter into the nutrients that feed plants. Other management strategies, beyond “no use of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides,” include: integrated animal and other composted fertilizers; crop rotation; low-till soil disturbance; cover crops; intercropping (because nature abhors monocrops, which are “free candy” to pest invasions); companion and succession planting; silvopasturing and targeted livestock grazing; more manual (rather than chemical) weed control; and others, as set out by USDA organic standards. In organic turf management, strategies might include aeration, overseeding, dethatching, compost applications, higher mowing height, among others. Organic methods are successfully and economically used in managing lawns, parks, and playing fields across the country.

Use of such techniques in agriculture, as is required under the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 and USDA Organic Certification, yields increased plant resiliency, decreased pest issues, reduced water use, and elimination of toxic pesticide compounds in soil, air, water, and human food — all of which improve ecosystem functioning and human health. Critically, these techniques also address biodiversity and climate issues. Absent pesticide impacts, organisms and their ecosystems will be vastly healthier and able to provide important environmental services. Organic, regenerative approaches also help significantly to drawn down and store atmospheric carbon in the soil (where it benefits soil ecology and crops); this is sometimes called “carbon farming” because the impact is so compelling. To ensure these benefits, strong, clear standards for organic, regenerative production — and the Certified Organic label — are paramount.

Halfway measures will not achieve the imperative redress of our current and significant environmental and climate woes. As Beyond Pesticides does, the EU and EC should be pursuing the adoption of organic, regenerative land management systems, and working with farmers, consumers, landscapers, other advocates, and communities to expedite a transition to these systems. The benefits are substantial in addressing climate, health, food-system integrity, biodiversity, and a host of other problems caused by chemical approaches to our agroeconomies. Learn more about how to advocate for these changes in local communities here.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/05/20/business/ap-eu-europe-agriculture.html

(Beyond Pesticides, May 22, 2020) For years, USDA has been looking the other way as giant corporate agribusinesses, primarily producing conventional eggs and poultry, have squeezed family-scale farmers out of the market and misled and defrauded consumers.

Due to a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration on the scuttling of new rules that would make it harder for factory farms to qualify for organic status, USDA is seeking input on what was previously an error-filled and biased economic assessment of the rulemaking.

Please sign the letter by noon on Tuesday, May 26, to include your voice in our response to the official proceedings.

If you would prefer to write your own custom comment you can submit it on Regulations.gov.

Letter to National Organic Program (Jenny Tucker, Ph.D.

To the National Organic Program:

Please include my comment below in evaluating the economic analysis report pursuant to the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rulemaking.

Docket number: AMS-NOP-20-0037

Both the current and previous OLPP analyses include the following misstatements and omissions:

1. It is a misconception to refer to, and judge, the economic impacts of the OLPP as if the requirement for outdoor access was a new and onerous regulation. In fact, from the beginning of the USDA organic program, “all” organic livestock have been required to have access to the outdoors. The new proposed rule does nothing more than create some enforceable benchmarks to facilitate oversight by USDA and its accredited third-party certifiers. 
2. Analyzing the economic impact, as if this were a new regulatory obligation, is misdirected. All organic livestock producers should have been providing meaningful outdoor access from day one. 
3. Factoring in impacts on retail pricing is not germane to this decision-making. The size of the market is irrelevant. When consumers pay a premium for organic eggs and poultry, they expect that the birds are being managed in accordance with the law, which requires outdoor access and promotion of the natural instinctive behaviors of the animals. 
4. True organic management of meat birds and laying hens is not currently possible in the massive industrial-sized buildings that USDA has allowed to be certified. Investments were made in these structures while it was known that elements in the organic industry were challenging the legality of the operations and, thus, their investments have always been at risk. 
5. In England and the European Union, organic birds have always had access to the outdoors in smaller flocks. Subsequently, the price differential between conventional and organic eggs has been greater. However, the market share for organic in many of those countries surpasses that of the United States. Organic consumers already assume that they are buying eggs and poultry produced with a higher level of animal welfare. They are currently being defrauded. The question of their willingness to pay a premium is irrelevant. 
6. If some of the larger operators are forced to exit, entrepreneurs will quickly scale-up to meet new market demand. The shift to producers who comply with both the spirit and letter of the law should not be a factor in implementing the new rulemaking. 
7. Regardless of how much outdoor space is provided, it is not possible to offer legitimate access when birds are housed in giant, multitiered aviary systems.  Buildings housing as many as 100,000-200,000 birds prevent the expression of instinctual behavior, a regulatory requirement, as it would be necessary to walk over thousands of other birds in order to access a door. Believing otherwise is a myth perpetuated by corporate interests in egg production. 
8. Because USDA’s analysis starts from the wrong baseline—one that is not consistent with the law–the analysis omits the economic injury to family-scale farmers who are currently complying with the regulations by allowing birds meaningful access to the outdoors that continues when the OLPP is not implemented. Furthermore, there are many family farmers who have been prevented from entering the organic market for poultry meat and eggs because, as it has grown, market share has been dominated by giant conventional ag companies that have gamed the system to achieve lower operating costs and higher profitability.

In conclusion, any economic analysis of the impact of new rulemaking should be viewed through the prism of the Organic Foods Production Act and its current regulations. To do otherwise places family farmers at a competitive disadvantage and perpetuates a fraudulent myth that the majority of organic poultry, managed by corporate agribusiness, is truly “organic.”

Please sign the letter by noon on Tuesday, May 26, to include your voice in our response to the official proceedings.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 21, 2020) Use of the herbicide dicamba increases humans’ risk of various acute and chronic cancers, according to research published in the International Journal of Epidemiology by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Many pesticides are “known or probable” carcinogens (cancer-causing agents), and their widespread use only amplifies chemical hazards, adversely affecting human health. However, past research lacks comprehensive information regarding human health effects associated with long-term pesticide use. This study highlights the significant role that long-term research plays in identifying potential health concerns surrounding registered pesticides, especially as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to reaffirm its decision to allow dicamba use on genetically engineered (GE) crops. Nathan Donley, Ph.D., a scientist with the environmental health program at the Center for Biological Diversity, comments: “This sweeping study exposes the terrible human cost of the EPA’s reckless decision to expand the use of dicamba. […]For the EPA to approve widespread use of this poison across much of the country without assuring its safety to people and the environment is an absolute indictment of the agency’s persistent practice of rubber-stamping dangerous pesticides.”

Dicamba—a benzoic acid chemical that controls broadleaf weeds—is one of the most widely applied herbicides in corn production. As a result of weed resistant to weed killers, farmers rely on increased, more frequent applications of dicamba as a control measure. However, with this increase in the chemical’s use, there is growing concern surrounding the dicamba’s potential human health effects. 

In this research, NIH researchers analyzed data from an Agricultural Health Study (AHS) involving 49,922 Iowan and North Carolinian pesticide applicators. Applicators reported dicamba use during two enrollment periods: (1993-1997) and (1999-2005). Researchers calculated dicamba exposure using intensity-weighted lifetime-days, cumulative measurements of specific pesticide use, and various incident cancer diagnoses and adjusted for exposure lags of up to 20 years. To assess relative risks (RR) with a 95% confidence interval associated with cancer diagnoses from the initial enrollment periods to 2014/2015, NIH researchers used a multivariable Poisson regression model.

Over half (52.9%) of all pesticide applicators in the study use dicamba. Participants reporting dicamba use are at elevated risk of developing liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia at the highest exposure level. Additionally, dicamba exposure risks are associated with liver cancer and acute myeloid leukemia linger, as much as 20-years after chemical exposure.

Commercial dicamba use is widespread throughout the U.S., with research findings linking the chemical to neurotoxicity, kidney/liver damage, sensitization/irritation, birth/developmental defects, reproductive damage, and respiratory illnesses. The AHS analysis also associates dicamba use with colon and lung cancer. In addition to human health effects, studies find that dicamba adversely impacts ecological health, causing harm to birds; insects; fish; aquatic organisms; non-target plants; and pollinators, like beetles. Not only do laboratory studies indicate that dicamba alters animal liver function to promote tumor growth and cancer, but they also find that it induces oxidative stress and DNA mutations—all of which are conduits acknowledged to cause cancer. Lastly, extensive dicamba use can induce antibiotic resistance in human pathogens like Escherichia coli and Salmonella eterica. Despite dicamba’s various adverse health associations, it remains available for commercial use in agricultural and non-agricultural settings alike. 

Traditionally, dicamba applications are preemergent (applied to the soil before seed planting), but with Monsanto’s 2016 release of dicamba-resistant GE seeds, farmers are spraying dicamba directly on to crops. However, direct spray application increases the risk of dicamba exposure as the chemical is highly volatile, consequently becoming airborne and drifting. Dicamba drift causes significant crop damage and many states, including Arkansas and Missouri, have adopted bans and restrictions of its use. Missouri peach farmer, Bill Bader, suffered huge financial losses after 30,000 peach trees perished due to dicamba drift onto his orchid from adjacent agricultural properties. In 2017, dicamba drift from Arkansas soybean crops led to a fatal shooting after the chemical caused damage to non-target crops nearby. Although hot weather increases dicamba volatility and thus pesticide drift, the strongest drift occurs when growers combine dicamba with pesticides like glyphosate or 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2, 4-D). Dr. Donley concludes, “Just as with glyphosate, we were falsely told that dicamba was completely safe for humans, and there was nothing to worry about.[…] With dicamba’s ability to drift for miles, people in many areas of the country are now routinely forced to breathe in this dangerous pesticide.”

Combining pesticides can have a synergetic impact on human health as the aggregate risks associated with joint pesticide use causes greater damage than individual pesticide use. Dicamba and 2,4-D are the most commonly global agricultural herbicides, both individually and as a mixture. A 2002 study found that women exposed to a mixture of 2,4-D, mecoprop, and dicamba had higher instances of abortion and fetal resorption, at low doses. Argentinian researchers find that both dicamba and 2,4-D induce aquatic organism (fish) toxicity, regardless of concentration, through synergy via the presence of each chemical counterpart in the mixture. 

To date, this NIH research is the most comprehensive epidemiological study on dicamba’s association with cancer. However, EPA is set to re-approve dicamba use on genetically engineered cotton and soybeans by the end of the year, since the agency designates the herbicide as “not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.” Due to this designation, EPA allows the expanded use of dicamba without evaluating the cancer risk that dicamba poses. Additionally, EPA approved an expansion of dicamba use in 2018, despite the 5 million acres of crop damage it caused between 2016-2017. 

As has been previously stated: “[Beyond Pesticides] has long been critical of EPA’s risk assessment process, which fails to look at chemical mixtures and synergistic effects (or inert ingredients) in common pesticide products, as well as certain health endpoints (such as endocrine disruption), disproportionate effects to vulnerable population groups, and regular noncompliance with product label directions. These deficiencies contribute to its severe limitations in defining real-world poisoning, as captured by epidemiologic studies in Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database.”

The adverse health effects of dicamba, drift and resulting exposure, and the aggregate risk of the pesticide being mixed with glyphosate showcases the need for more rigorous pesticide regulation. Revaluation of current policies that ignore the need to evaluate pesticide mixtures can ensure a reduction in pesticide harms, cleaner air, and crop loss. Beyond Pesticides encourages farmers to adopt regenerative organic practices. These practices aim to end the cycle of pesticide resistance, eliminating the need for pesticides—and pesticide mixtures—and the hazards caused by drift. Those impacted by pesticide drift can refer to Beyond Pesticides’ webpage on What to Do in a Pesticide Emergency and contact the organization for additional information.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Center for Biological Diversity, International Journal of Epidemiology

(Beyond Pesticides, May 20, 2020) The World Health Organization (WHO) released an updated advisory that warns, “spraying disinfectants can result in risks to the eyes, respiratory or skin irritation and the resulting health effects.” Beyond Pesticides recommends caution around toxic disinfectant and sanitizers and, to this end, offers resources and advice on products for use in the fight against Covid-19.

“Spraying or fogging of certain chemicals, such as formaldehyde, chlorine-based agents or quaternary ammonium compounds, is not recommended due to adverse health effects on workers in facilities where these methods have been utilized,” WHO reports.

While some governments are broadcasting chemicals or washing down sidewalks with disinfectants, WHO advises against the practice. “Spraying or fumigation of outdoor spaces, such as streets or marketplaces, is also not recommended to kill the COVID-19 virus or other pathogens because disinfectant is inactivated by dirt and debris and it is not feasible to manually clean and remove all organic matter from such spaces,” they state.

As individuals, companies, and governments respond to the novel coronavirus, it is critical that they respond with measures supported by scientific research and public safety. Using toxic cleaning products can be counterproductive to maintaining health during the pandemic—and there are safer products in the marketplace. In April, the New York Times described an increase in calls to poison control centers regarding illnesses resulting from use or misuse of toxic disinfectants during the pandemic. A month later, news agency KCRA described the same trend in California: the number of calls jumped from 262 in February to 796 in April.

“People are at home, they are worried about things being clean to kill viruses. People have been using more cleaning products than usual and maybe mixing them together. And just because people are using more of these products in the home, kids have access to them and are getting exposed that way,” said Justin Lewis, PharmD, DABAT, director of the California Poison Control System’s Sacramento office.

Toxic products are not necessary to keep families safe. For surfaces, the WHO guidance recommends using water and soap (or natural detergent) to remove organic matter and debris that can get between a surface and the disinfectant, then following along afterward with a product that breaks down microorganisms, including coronaviruses. Disinfectants that use natural-based substances are safer and can still eliminate the virus on surfaces. Examples of safer active ingredients include citric acid, ethanol, and isopropanol.

Individuals can protect themselves from Covid-19 by preventing exposure through staying home when possible, universal masking in public, social distancing, and washing hands.  As Beyond Pesticides writes in its factsheet, Protecting Yourself from COVID-19 (coronavirus) without Toxic Sanitizers and Disinfectants, “Soap breaks down the virus’s fat membrane—and the infectious material falls apart—as long as you rub the soap on your hands for at least 20 seconds. Alcohol sanitizers with 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol do the same thing. These chemicals break down the virus by a similar process, by breaking down the lipid covering of the virus.”

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.  

Sources: World Health Organization, CNN, KCRA

(Beyond Pesticides, May 19, 2020) The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is taking public comments on a proposal to establish statewide comparable-to-organic standards for cannabis production. Although cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, and thus cannot be labeled with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified organic seal, there is no prohibition on a state-specific program that follows federal organic requirements, but does not use the word “organic.” While such a program has the potential to provide another level of protection for medical patients, questions and concerns remain over the allowance of certain products, and the impact the certifying scheme may have on the future trajectory of the cannabis production industry.

Under the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation Safety Act, passed in 2017 after the success of Proposition 64 by California voters, state agencies were tasked with establishing a state-level program to certify cannabis to the standards set out by USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP). CDFA is required to finalize this program for cannabis production by the start of 2021, while the California Department of Public Health will create a separate program to certify manufactured cannabis products.

As outlined by CFDA, cannabis would be certified through third-party accreditation organizations. Growers would be restricted to materials listed in NOP’s National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances or allowed by the Department of Pesticide Regulation, and required to have an “Ocal systems plan.” The state tracked the provisions of the Organic Foods Production Act closely, making mostly superficial changes only when necessary.  

Some health advocates are concerned that CDFA’s proposal lacks the specificity needed to address concerns unique to the cannabis industry. Allowed and prohibited materials approved for inclusion on the National List by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) did not specifically consider cannabis consumption within its deliberations. The inhalation route of exposure, particularly as it concerns medical patients, requires an additional level of scrutiny, and, according to advocates, California state consumers would be well-served by the establishment of a state level Ocal Standards Board to further review whether certain pesticides and other processing materials should be restricted in the context of cannabis consumption.  

Further, allowance of all materials approved on the current National List could bring the state into a fight with federal regulators. In 2017, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a notice of intent to disapprove the registration of four pesticides for cannabis production in California. In its reasoning, the agency wrote that is “…finds that the general illegality of cannabis cultivation makes pesticide use on cannabis a fundamentally different use pattern.” EPA’s determination indicates that no registered pesticide can be legally used on cannabis plants.

To date, California has followed this more restrictive guidance, permitting only minimum risk pesticides exempt from federal registration be used in cannabis production. However, other states, such as Washington and Colorado, permit pesticide use under guidelines established during the Obama Administration. These guidelines allowed the use of registered pesticides use as long as the product was exempt from a tolerance for food crops, and contained generalized label language. Thus, if other states follow California’s lead, allowing even organic products that are also registered pesticides may bring federal scrutiny.

Apart from the legal specifics are concerns over splitting the industry into an organic and conventional sector. Beyond Pesticides has long maintained that consumers, workers, and the environment would be best served if states established universal organic standards for the cannabis industry from the outset. When it comes to products that many individuals are using as medicine, and consumers are typically inhaling without any filtration, the state has an obligation to promote rigorous production standards.

It is evident that the current scheme of spot testing is not a long-term solution to problems of pesticide contamination in cannabis production, as growers can simply avoid using active ingredients they know will be tested by the state in favor of similar, equally hazardous compounds. While “organic” labeling is welcome, all cannabis growers in California should be required to follow Ocal production standards.

Comments on the proposed regulations may be submitted until July 7, 2020, via email to [email protected]. For more background, see Beyond Pesticides’ piece Pesticide Use in Marijuana Production: Safety Issues and Sustainable Options, as well as previous Daily News articles on the subject.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: CalCannabis Press Release

(Beyond Pesticides, May 18, 2020) On May 15, 2020, Beyond Pesticides sued Exxon Mobil Corporation (Exxon) for “false and deceptive marketing,” misrepresenting to consumers that it “has invested significantly in the production and use of “clean” energy and environmentally beneficial technology.” The truth, according to the complaint (Beyond Pesticides v. Exxon Mobil Corporation) filed in DC Superior Court, is that the vast majority of Exxon’s business continues to be in the production and use of petroleum, natural gas, and petrochemicals, including pesticides. These activities are significant contributors to the climate crisis and the decline of pollinators and biodiversity, threatening the viability of biological systems that sustain life, according to Beyond Pesticides.

“ExxonMobil’s advertising and marketing mislead the public by presenting ExxonMobil’s clean energy activities as a significant proportion of its overall business,” according the lawsuit. In an age where consumers are looking to support responsible companies that are supporting and transitioning away from fossil fuel-based energy and chemical products, “ExxonMobil is able to capture the growing market of consumers,” according to the complaint.

Surveys have found that consumers are more likely to buy products and services based on corporate image. For example, a 2015 Nielsen survey finds that the majority of consumers are more likely to buy products and services from companies “known for” being environmentally friendly or committed to social value.

“We cannot afford to be misled by corporations that are tinkering with solutions to the environmental crises of climate change and biodiversity devastation, which threaten our future over an ever-shortening time horizon,” said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides. “Overselling half-hearted attempts to solve these environmental crises head-on is doing dramatic damage to the large scale and meaningful changes that must take place now,” Mr. Feldman continued.

Beyond Pesticides is working with consumers, farmers, landscapers, and communities across the country and worldwide to expedite a transition to organic land management practices (defined under the Organic Foods Production Act), eliminating petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers, which release human-caused carbon into the atmosphere and are destructive of soil biology and organic matter, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration. Drawing down carbon from the atmosphere into the soil (sequestration) on a massive scale is critical to a holistic strategy for reversing the climate crisis—which is feasible with regenerative organic systems that could, if universally adopted, capture more than 100 percent of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

Exxon espouses a “commitment to develop new resources to ensure the world has the energy it needs while also minimizing the environmental impacts, including the risks associated with greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.”

Exxon has invested heavily in its image as a “clean” and “green” company with advertising on its leadership on carbon capture and storage technology to the tune of 1.8 billion advertising impressions for this one campaign. Yet, according to the complaint, “Since 2000, ExxonMobil’s capital expenditures total well over $465 billion. Thus, the $9 billion in environmentally beneficial investments touted by ExxonMobil demonstrate that no more than 2% of ExxonMobil’s capital expenditures in the past 20 years was invested in lower-emission solutions, carbon capture and storage technology, biofuels, cogeneration, and more efficient manufacturing processes, combined.”

“Deceiving the public into believing that one of the largest petroleum companies in the world is committed to solving the climate crisis, while it continues to devastate the planet, is dangerous and inexcusable, especially given what’s at stake,” said Mr. Feldman. “This is especially problematic, given that real solutions to the climate crisis and biodiversity destruction are within our reach if not slowed by deceptive practices of Exxon and other powerful corporations,” Mr. Feldman continued.

“The coronavirus pandemic challenges us to think differently and act urgently to prioritize the importance of science in government and corporate decision making, take the necessary steps to avert looming crises that affect public health and the environment, and hold companies accountable to practices that protect life,” said Mr. Feldman. Beyond Pesticides advocates for the adoption of organic land management, a systems approach that eliminates toxic petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers and builds organic matter and soil biology as a means of cycling nutrients for plant health, sequestering carbon on a massive scale, and protecting biodiversity. Organic methods are successfully and economically used in managing agriculture, lawns, parks, and playing fields across the country.

Exxon’s false and misleading representations and omissions violate the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act (“DC CPPA”), D.C. Code§§ 28-3901, et seq., according to the complaint filed on Friday. Beyond Pesticides is represented by the Richman Law Group, headquartered in New York City.

See Beyond Pesticides v. Exxon Mobil Corporation.
Source: Beyond Pesticides

(Beyond Pesticides, May 15, 2020) New research out of Japan’s Chiba University suggests that exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the most commonly used pesticide worldwide (Roundup), may be a risk factor in the development of Parkinson’s Disease. The ubiquity of glyphosate use in agriculture — which leaves residues of the toxic chemical in food — may mean that exposures to it represent a significant risk factor for the disease. Glyphosate is already implicated or proved in the development of numerous health anomalies, including cancer. Beyond Pesticides recognizes that pesticides play a variety of roles in causing or exacerbating negative health outcomes, including Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Transitioning pest management — in agriculture, land management, and household and personal care contexts — to nontoxic and organic approaches is the critical step away from bathing humans and the Earth in harmful chemicals.

The researchers in this subject study, out of the Chiba University Center for Forensic Mental Health’s Division of Clinical Neuroscience, sought to investigate whether exposures to glyphosate could impact dopaminergic neurotoxicity in the brains of mice. They found that exposures to glyphosate in adult mice intensified a type of neurotoxicity associated with PD. [The abstract for the research paper, titled “Glyphosate exposure exacerbates the dopaminergic neurotoxicity in the mouse brain after repeated administration of MTPT,” is available online; once published, the paper will be available through Science Direct.]

Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive and neurodegenerative brain disease that impacts motor function; it manifests primarily in symptoms such as trembling, loss of muscle control, stiffness, and poor coordination. These may be intermittent, especially in early stages of the disease, and typically intensify over time. PD can also cause cognitive changes and decline, constipation, poor sleep, fatigue, anxiety and/or depression, sexual dysfunction, paresthesias, and other impacts. Approximately one million people in the U.S. have Parkinson’s Disease, with 50,000–60,000 new diagnoses annually; globally, 7–10 million people live with PD. The disease affects 50% more men than women.

PD occurs when dopamine production and transport are compromised; dopamine is a primary neurotransmitter (though not the only one) mediating motor function. The disease ensues when dopaminergic nerve cells (i.e., those activated by or sensitive to dopamine) in a region of the brain called the substantia nigra, or SNr, are damaged or destroyed and can no longer produce dopamine. The SNr is a motor nucleus located in the midbrain, whereas another brain structure relevant to the study’s findings — the striatum — is part of the basal ganglia. Some neurons from the SNr terminate in the striatum, which also plays a role in voluntary movement.

What causes the damage or destruction of the dopaminergic cells is still unknown, but there is evidence that (especially chronic) pesticide exposures may be at work. Both the herbicide paraquat and the pesticide rotenone have been identified as involved in the pathology of the disease. According to a 2018 research paper, “Estimated Residential Exposure to Agricultural Chemicals and Premature Mortality by Parkinson’s Disease,” people exposed to glyphosate have a 33% greater risk of premature mortality from Parkinson’s.

In experimental research on PD, exposures to neurotoxicants have repeatedly produced neuronal death, in both in vitro and in vivo systems. (Many such studies have used 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine [MPTP] because it reliably induces dopaminergic neurotoxicity.) The team administered, to four groups of adult male mice, “drinking water” that was variously treated: (1) water with only saline added, (2) water with glyphosate plus saline, (3) water with MPTP, and (4) water with glyphosate and MPTP, for 14 days. The brains were then evaluated immunohistochemically.

The researchers found that the exposures to glyphosate exacerbated the reduction of DAT (dopamine transporter) immunoreactivity in the striatum, and the reduction of TH (tyrosine hydroxylase) positive cells in the SNr after MPTP administration. Translation: the exposure to glyphosate appears both to worsen the ability of local neurons (in the SNr and striatum) to produce and transport dopamine effectively, and to intensify the neurotoxicity of other extrinsic chemicals (in this case, MPTP).

Based on this experiment, the research paper concludes, “Given the widespread and growing use of glyphosate in the world, it is likely that glyphosate exposure may increase [the] risk of the onset of PD later in life . . . . and may be an environmental risk factor for PD . . . although further study is needed. . . . Therefore we must pay attention to glyphosate exposure in adults.” Why the authors did not advocate “paying attention” to these exposures across the lifespan is puzzling, given that chronicity of exposure may build risk over time.

People are exposed to glyphosate directly, through handling and application; and indirectly, through residue in food or contamination of drinking water. So widespread is its use that exposure to it is nearly unavoidable in the U.S. Rural and vocational experiences seem to present particular risks: occupational pesticide exposure, farming, well water consumption, and residential pesticide use have all been linked to elevated rates of Parkinson’s Disease. The concerns about glyphosate exposure and health outcomes, whether PD, NHL (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma), or other anomalies, are especially acute for those who encounter glyphosate regularly, typically through work and work sites.

In September, 2019, sixteen organizations representing health, environmental, farmer, and farmworker communities joined together to call on EPA to remove glyphosate from the marketplace. The groups cite a combination of high-profile lawsuits, environmental impacts, increasing reports of weed resistance, and growing public concern over the health effects of glyphosate in their comments on EPA’s interim reregistration review decision for the chemical. This new data adds to the heightened level of public health concern associated with glyphosate (Roundup) use.

Avoidance of exposure to glyphosate is best achieved in several ways: consuming organic food as much as practicable; avoiding use glyphosate products in home gardens or on lawns; paying attention to water quality reporting for local water supplies; encouraging farmworker protections; and advocating with supermarkets, garden centers and hardware stores, farmers, golf courses, school districts, and local and state decision makers for nontoxic, organic land management and agriculture. Follow Beyond Pesticides coverage of glyphosate through the Daily News Blog and the journal, Pesticides and You, and become a supporting member of an organization dedicated to information on pesticides, and advocacy on moving to less- and nontoxic practices for a safer world.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304394020303025

(Beyond Pesticides, May 14, 2020) Four banned organochlorine pesticides (OCP) are present in over 60% of a cohort of reproductive-age, black women in Detroit, according to a study published in Environmental Research by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). OCPs are lipophilic (fat combining/dissolving), environmentally steadfast chemicals linked to harmful health effects. This study stresses the importance of monitoring pesticide accumulation, particularly regarding environmentally persistent chemicals and their metabolization via indirect exposure routes. Lead author Olivia Orta, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Epidemiology at BUSPH, highlights the significance of water monitoring—especially in light of historically disproportionately high hazards for people of color (e.g., Flint, Michigan)—and testing sources prone to OCP contamination. She remarks, “The sources that we identified as potential OCP correlates should be tested for pesticide contamination,[…] especially drinking water.”

Environmental contaminants, like organochlorine pesticides (OCP), can persist in the environment decades after use stops, as OCPs have greater chemical stability and gradual attenuation. Minority populations are at higher exposure risk of environmental contaminants (i.e., pesticide) exposure that can catalyze adverse health and birth effects, especially in metropolitan areas. Although black women endure higher body burdens than other U.S. populations, there remains a lack of research surrounding the association.

Boston University researchers enrolled participants using 2010-2012 baseline data from the Study of Environment, Lifestyle, and Fibroids (SELF) on black women, aged 23-35 years, in Detroit, Michigan (metropolitan area). Researchers collected “non-fasting” blood samples from 742 participants to analyze any correlates of OCPs in plasma concentrations. Additionally, data collected—via self-administered questionnaires, telephone interviews, and in-person clinic visits—analyzed various factors, including participants’ demographic, behavior, diet, occupation, and medical history. Linear regression models and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) calculated the percent (%) difference among each OCP category and factor.

Over 60 percent of participants’ blood samples contain detectable levels of four OCPs: dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (p,pʹ DDE), a metabolite of DDT; hexachlorobenzene (HCB); and chlordane metabolites oxychlordane, and trans-nonachlor. Adjusted regression models find correlations between age and plasma pesticide concentrations as 5-year age differences display 24% higher oxychlordane and 26% higher trans-nonachlor concentrations. Excessive alcohol consumption results in 7-9% higher p,pʹ-DDE, oxychlordane, and trans-nonachlor plasma concentrations. All four OCPs emerge in blood samples of participants who presently smoke. Smokers of ≤10 cigarettes/day exhibit 10–19% higher plasma concentrations, while smokers of ≥10 cigarettes/day having 22-29% higher plasma concentrations. Breastfed babies expressed 15% higher DDE, 14% higher oxychlordane, and 15% higher trans-nonachlor concentrations than non-breastfed babies. Women who drink five glasses of tap or bottled water per day have 8-15% higher concentrations of all four OCPs, principally trans-nonachlor. 

Although the U.S. banned DDT and most other highly hazardous OCPs by the late 1980s, some pesticides exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) guidelines for human subsistence on fish and wildlife, persisting in soil and water sediments, glacier meltwater runoff, and bioconcentrate in food webs. OCPs fail to attenuate in water—instead, they dissolve into body fat and linger for several years, adversely affecting the hormonal system, metabolic function, and brain development. Exposure to DDT and DDE, as endocrine disruptors, increase the risk associated with diabetes, early onset menopause, reduced sperm count, endometriosis, and obesity. HCB exposure can exacerbate the risk associated with cardiovascular disease, birth defects, obesity, and cancer. Past studies indicate both DDE and HCB exposure have multigenerational health effects on obesity and diabetes, with DDE uniquely augmenting multigenerational breast cancer occurrences. Climate change only threatens to exacerbate residual OCP exposure as global warming may affect OCP movement and concentration in the environment while weakening the ability of animals and humans to tolerate those chemicals.

EPA’s failure to address the long-standing effects of a once widely used pesticide is only the tip of the iceberg. This research highlights faults of environmental pesticide monitoring, which fails to account for alternative pesticide exposure routes—especially for biologically persistent OCPs—plaguing community health for over 30 years. BUSPH researchers find higher concentrations of OCP in the plasma of older participants born during, or after, pesticide removal from the market in the late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s. However, the data also suggests tobacco, alcohol, and drinking water are identified sources of OCP exposure, and disproportionally affect African American women. In addition to previous studies indicating OCPs’ acute, chronic, and multigenerational impacts on human health, this research adds weight to exposure routes playing a significant role in promoting plasma pesticide concentrations high enough to cause adverse health effects. According to Dr. Orta, “If cigarettes, alcohol, and drinking water are in fact exposing black women to pesticides, this matters!” The data results send about health effects elevated by a combination of exposure to hazards, exacerbated by long-term exposures to pesticides and their metabolites in the environment.

We must have a full understanding of the etiology of pesticide-induced diseases before the chemicals are released into the environment. The harm that is ultimately associated with uncertainty should end through policy reform and the adoption of practices that eliminate toxic pesticide use. With far too many diseases in the U.S. associated with pesticide exposure, reducing pesticide use is a critically important aspect of safeguarding public health and addressing cost burdens for local communities, particularly those that are minority and underserved. Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database is a great resource for additional scientific literature that documents elevated rates of diabetes as well as other chronic diseases and illnesses among people exposed to pesticides.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Boston University School of Public Health, Medical Xpress

(Beyond Pesticides, May 13, 2020) A pilot study at New York University (NYU) provides evidence of a direct relationship between increased risk for celiac disease (adverse immune response to eating gluten) and exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, including DDE – a metabolite of the infamous, bird-killing pesticide DDT. Researchers at NYU set out to elucidate the connection between the autoimmune disease and persistent organic pollutants (POPs), also known as “forever chemicals” or “legacy chemicals” due to their persistence in nature and the human body. The new research, published in Environmental Science, highlights higher odds for celiac disease among participants with elevated POPs exposure and differing results among male and female participants. Considering the complexity of these initial results, researcher Leonardo Trasande, Ph.D. says, “It’s not as if these chemicals were designed with the human body in mind; These chemicals were designed with materials in mind.”

[See video overview here]

Celiac disease produces an immune-mediated inflammatory response to the consumption of gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. Risk for celiac disease has long been associated with genetic factors, but increased prevalence of the disease inspired further research. Considering previous studies on the deleterious impact of POPs on the immune system, scientists analyzed blood samples from 30 children and young adults (3-21) who had been recently diagnosed with celiac disease. They compared results to 60 other young people of similar demographics. The research focused on three chemicals: PBDE, DDE, and PFAS.

• Polybrominated di-phenyl ethers (PBDEs) are used as flame retardants in upholstered furniture, mattresses, and electronic products.
• P,p’-Di- chlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) is the main metabolite of di- chlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), an insecticide related to the decimation of bird populations in the 1960s. DDT was banned in 1972 after Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring raised awareness and sparked the modern environmental movement.
• Perfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances are used as surfactants and polymers for consumer products (such as nonstick cookware– famously, Teflon) and building materials.

Researchers found a statistically significant association between DDE and celiac disease after adjusting for confounding factors. Children and young adults with higher blood levels of DDE were two times as likely to be newly diagnosed with celiac. The study found sex-specific PFAS associations among females, and some specific associations among males. The authors caution that because of the small small size the results should not be extrapolated to the broader population. However, the researchers found substantial reason to further study the relationship between POPs and autoimmune diseases, especially among genetically susceptible individuals.

“Our study establishes the first measurable tie-in between environmental exposure to toxic chemicals and celiac disease,” says senior study investigator and pediatric gastroenterologist Jeremiah Levine, MD. “These results also raise the question of whether there are potential links between these chemicals and other autoimmune bowel diseases, which all warrant close monitoring and further study.”

This study adds to the body of evidence Beyond Pesticides has long catalogued regarding the negative impact that toxic chemicals have on human health. The current regulatory approach to pesticides and other persistent industrial chemicals is deeply flawed, as it relies on industry-provided research and does not take a precautionary approach. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) quickly approves chemicals that can then persist in the environment and human bodies for decades or longer. This process disregards the value of long-term human and environmental health for short-term industry profit. What more, though the international community has made some movement to address the threat of POPs, the U.S. has not. Beyond Pesticides recently wrote, “While EPA continues to drag its feet, an international treaty, called the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, was brought into force. Parties to the Stockholm Convention are bound to eliminate the use and production of hazardous chemicals voted on by member countries. The U.S. is glaringly absent from this treaty, signing it in 2001, yet never ratifying it through the Senate. According to the U.S. State Department, ‘The United States participates as an observer in the meetings of the parties and in technical working groups.'”

See more on endocrine disrupting pesticides at Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database. Stay tuned to Beyond Pesticides’ response to governmental inadequacies by participating in our Action of the Week. Sign up for our Weekly News Update for the latest research, news, and policy updates.

Source: NYU Langone Health

(Beyond Pesticides, May 12, 2020) California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is issuing new enforcement guidelines intended to protect children and residents from toxic pesticides during the Covid-19 pandemic. With schoolchildren spending their time at home while in quarantine, many, particularly those in agricultural communities, are at increased risk of pesticide exposure. “During this public health crisis, it is important to ensure the strict enforcement and oversight of regulations that protect children from pesticide exposure,” Governor Newsom wrote in a letter to the state Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA).

While much of the guidance simply reinforces current legal requirements, it places an emphasis on strict enforcement. County Agricultural Commissioners (CACs), the state’s primary enforcement officers for pesticide laws, must “strictly enforce all applicable health protections around homes and schools” during the pandemic, seven days a week. Further, it stresses that pesticide applications “are expressly prohibited,” when there is, “reasonable possibility of contamination of the bodies or clothing of persons not involved in the application.” The state will prioritize the investigation of any violations made in residential areas.

The state will also “take a strict approach to assessing penalties.” Violations of pesticide law that occur near homes or schools during coronavirus quarantine will be considered “Class A” violations and will carry fines at the highest level. To wit, CACs are instructed to “charge a separate violation for each person with an acute illness from pesticide exposure caused by the violation.”  These directions could see violators assessed with fines up to $5,000 per person per incident.

Because many schools will continue to stay open for meals and student take-home lessons, the guidance does not waive recent state requirements instituted to require buffers for highly toxic pesticide use near schools sites. “It remains critical for the state to protect children and families from pesticide exposure including through the strong protections California has in place for school sites,” the Governor wrote. In addition to maintaining the school site provisions, the state is encouraging applicators to extend prior notification for all pesticide use near homes.

Lastly, California regulators are encouraging residents to make use of the state’s free App, which allows for anonymous reporting of pesticide incidents. This tool is particularly helpful for farmworkers and those in the agricultural industry, as it is illegal to be fired after reporting a pesticide incident through the App.

Environmental groups are applauding the move as a step in the right direction. Enforcement during this crisis is critical to the protection of children and those with pre-existing immune or respiratory ailments that may be exacerbated by pesticide exposure, and make them more susceptible to the impacts of the virus.

The Governor can go further to protect the health of children, farmworkers, and residents throughout the state. By ordering a halt to the use of cosmetic lawn care pesticides, California would prevent the need for voluntary notification and reduce pressure on enforcement activities. Cosmetic use is unnecessary and non-essential; applications near homes and neighboring properties put children and residents at risk.

Further precautions are also needed for farmworkers and their families. Enforcement priorities for residential areas should be extended to field conditions for farmworkers. With personal protective gear in short supply, the state must ensure that no farmworker be forced to apply a pesticide without proper gear, and all label requirements met.

During this time of immense upheaval, we must plan for the future while protecting ourselves from immediate threats to health and safety. Supporting organic farms, and ensuring government follows suit, is a critical part of this long term planning.

Take action to encourage your state to prioritize health over pesticide use by sending a letter to your Governor urging them to stop the cosmetic use of pesticides during the Covid-19 outbreak. You can also stand up for farmworkers by telling Congress to provide additional benefits for these essential workers. Read more about the dangers pesticides pose to children through Beyond Pesticides’ Children and Schools webpage.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: CalEPA press release

(Beyond Pesticides, May 11, 2020) Protecting ourselves from Covid-19 requires not only that we avoid contact with the virus, but also that we avoid exposing ourselves to chemicals that may disrupt our immune or respiratory systems. But when it comes to pesticide products—and disinfectants are pesticides—we encounter once again the problem of so-called “inert,” or nondisclosed, ingredients.

Tell EPA and Congress that ALL Ingredients in Pesticides Must Be Disclosed.

“Inert” ingredients are not necessarily chemically or biologically harmless. “Inert” or “other” ingredients—as distinguished from “active” ingredients—are generally the majority of the product formulation that makes up the liquid, spray, dust, or granule, but does not specifically attack the pest, according to the manufacturer. They include emulsifiers, solvents, carriers, aerosol propellants, fragrances, and dyes. Many “inerts” are quite toxic, and may be “active” ingredients in other products. “Inert” ingredients may also be described as “adjuvants” or “formulants.” “Inerts” are typically not listed on the label, and hence are often called “secret ingredients.”

Beyond Pesticides reviews the disinfectants on EPA’s List N, which are approved for use against the novel coronavirus, but it is only possible to review the active ingredients. One product on the list, for example, contains 99.7784% “other ingredients.” Unfortunately, although this product may contain mostly water, it also may be composed mostly of such “inert” ingredients as 4-chlorotoluene, ethylbenzene, or petroleum distillates, all of which (among others) can weaken the respiratory and/or immune systems, making an exposed person more susceptible to Covid-19. We don’t know.

While it has never been acceptable to hide product ingredients on pesticide products, the current pandemic makes this information crucial for consumers who want to protect themselves and their families. Whether it is disinfectants or pesticide products in use in the home, yard, and community the secrecy on this public health issue must end, and EPA has the authority to require labeling . Please urge EPA use its legal authority to require disclosure of all ingredients on pesticide labels to protect public health.

Tell EPA and Congress that ALL Ingredients in Pesticides Must Be Disclosed.

Letter to EPA Administrator and Office of Pesticide Program Director

I am writing you because the current pandemic has brought home to me the importance of disclosure of all ingredients in pesticide products that can exacerbate the public’s vulnerability to Covid-19. Protecting ourselves from Covid-19 requires not only that we avoid contact with the virus, but also that we avoid exposing ourselves to chemicals that may disrupt our immune and respiratory systems. But when it comes to pesticides—and disinfectants are pesticides—I encounter the problem of so-called “inert” ingredients.

“Inert” ingredients are not necessarily chemically or biologically inert. Many are quite toxic, and may be “active” ingredients in other products. “Inert” or “other” ingredients—as distinguished from “active” ingredients—are simply those for which the pesticide manufacturer does not make a pesticidal claim. “Inerts” are typically not listed on the label, and hence they are “secret ingredients.” They include emulsifiers, solvents, carriers, aerosol propellants, fragrances, and dyes.

In deciding on a disinfectant to use in my home, I review products on EPA’s List N, which are approved for use against the novel coronavirus, but it is only possible to review the active ingredients. One product on the list, for example, contains 99.7784% “other ingredients.” Unfortunately, although this product may contain mostly water, it also may be composed mostly of such “inert” ingredients as 4-chlorotoluene, ethylbenzene, or petroleum distillates, all of which (among others) can weaken my respiratory and/or immune systems, making me more susceptible to Covid-19. I don’t know because “inert” ingredients are not disclosed.

While it has never been acceptable to hide product ingredients on pesticide products, the current pandemic makes this information crucial for consumers who want to protect themselves and their families. Whether it is disinfectants or pesticide products in use in the home, yard, and community the secrecy on this public health issue must end, and EPA has the authority to require labeling. Please require disclosure of all ingredients on pesticide labels as a matter of public health protection.

Thank you.

Letter to U.S. Senators and Representative

I am writing you because the current pandemic has brought home to me the importance of disclosure of all ingredients in pesticide products that can exacerbate the public’s vulnerability to Covid-19. Protecting ourselves from Covid-19 requires not only that we avoid contact with the virus, but also that we avoid exposing ourselves to chemicals that may disrupt our immune and respiratory systems. But when it comes to pesticides—and disinfectants are pesticides—I encounter the problem of so-called “inert” ingredients.

“Inert” ingredients are not necessarily chemically or biologically inert. Many are quite toxic, and may be “active” ingredients in other products. “Inert” or “other” ingredients—as distinguished from “active” ingredients— are simply those for which the pesticide manufacturer does not make a pesticidal claim. “Inerts” are typically not listed on the label, and hence they are “secret ingredients.” They include emulsifiers, solvents, carriers, aerosol propellants, fragrances, and dyes.

In deciding on a disinfectant to use in my home, I review products on EPA’s List N, which are approved for use against the novel coronavirus, but it is only possible to review the active ingredients. One product on the list, for example, contains 99.7784% “other ingredients.” Unfortunately, although this product may contain mostly water, it also may be composed mostly of such “inert” ingredients as 4-chlorotoluene, ethylbenzene, or petroleum distillates, all of which (among others) can weaken my respiratory and/or immune systems, making me more susceptible to Covid-19. I don’t know because “inert” ingredients are not disclosed.

While it has never been acceptable to hide product ingredients on pesticide products, the current pandemic makes this information crucial for consumers who want to protect themselves and their families. Whether it is disinfectants or pesticide products in use in the home, yard, and community the secrecy on this public health issue must end, and EPA has the authority to require labeling.  Please urge EPA to require disclosure of all ingredients on pesticide labels, as a matter of public health protection.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 8, 2020) At the height of Covid-19 impacts in the Northeast U.S., Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito (R) filed emergency legislation at the Boston State House that would, according to their April 16 press release, “help the Commonwealth more effectively combat diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, including arboviruses like Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile Virus (WNV), by authorizing a coordinated, proactive, statewide approach to mosquito control activities.” Protecting the public from such diseases is an important public health mission. However, the Governor’s bill, H.4650, represents an alarming “over-reach” that would give unitary authority to the State Reclamation and Mosquito Control Board (SRMCB) to conduct mosquito control activities, including ineffective and toxic spraying, with virtually no effective oversight or transparency. Beyond Pesticides opposes this bill, whose passage would enable use of pesticides that can have respiratory and immune impacts — increasing health risks for everyone, but especially for the many people already at higher risk from Covid-19, despite the availability of ecological management approaches that eliminate the need for toxic chemicals.

H.4650, An Act to mitigate arbovirus in the Commonwealth — was promulgated in response to a Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) determination that 2020 may bring mosquito-borne arboviruses — which can cause diseases, such as EEE and WNV — to the state, although at what levels and where are now neither known nor predictable. The state saw 12 human cases of EEE and four deaths from the rare infection in 2019; EEE was also confirmed in nine livestock animals. Outbreaks of EEE typically last for two or three years.

Most people who contract EEE have either no or mild symptoms (e.g., fever, joint or muscle ache), but severe infections can cause swelling of the brain (encephalitis) or meninges (meningitis), as well as flu-like symptoms. In some cases, seizures or coma may ensue; approximately one-third of people who develop encephalitis with EEE die, and some who do survive have significant neurological disabilities. West Nile Virus is asymptomatic in many people, and may cause illness in roughly 20% of those infected, with 1.5% of people developing serious illness (and occasionally, dying from WNV).

Despite the extraordinary power given to the state board in this legislation to engage in “eradication methods as it deems necessary in any area of the Commonwealth,” experts are clear that surveillance for arboviruses is critical to defining a restrained program that does not engage in widespread spraying. More critically, effective mosquito management integrates rigorous monitoring and surveillance, elimination of breeding sites, enhancing habitat for mosquito predators, biological controls of mosquito larvae, and public education. The absence of monitoring of arboviruses in parts of the state that do not belong to regional mosquito control districts means there is inadequate data on the presence of the viruses in mosquito populations — making it difficult to develop risk assessments and plan mitigation activities. The SRMCB oversees all mosquito control activities in Massachusetts, including those conducted by regional mosquito control districts and projects, but at present has no authority to conduct mosquito control activities independently in communities that do not belong to a mosquito control district.  

Notably, the bill itself is unusually — and perhaps alarmingly — brief. This is the entire text of H.4650 (the first paragraph is an “Emergency Preamble”):

“Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is forthwith to make a certain change in law to allow the Commonwealth to immediately respond to the significant public health risks associated with the transmission of arbovirus from mosquitoes to humans, such change being immediately necessary to carry out to accomplish important public purposes, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public health and convenience.

SECTION 1. Chapter 252 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 2 the following section:
Section 2A. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary and upon the written determination of the commissioner of public health that an elevated risk of arbovirus exists or may exist for the following year, the board, in consultation with the department of public health, may engage in preventative and eradication methods as it deems necessary in any area of the Commonwealth. In carrying out its authority under this section, the board may act through any district or project duly organized under this chapter, other agencies of the commonwealth [sic], and may employ other professionals as the board deems necessary. All actions taken under the authority of this section shall be designed to protect public health while minimizing to the extent feasible any adverse impact to the environment.”

Commentary and Analysis

It is difficult not to have the impression that H.4650 was assembled in great hurry and without the informed consideration more typical of proposed legislation. The critiques of the bill that follow here will provide evidence that supports that impression.

H.4650 was referred by both the Massachusetts Senate and House to the legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health on April 21; it is scheduled for a hearing on May 11. Senate President Karen Spilka said, in the Governor’s office press release, “I believe we need a comprehensive, coordinated, and systematic approach to tackling EEE and we must ensure that approach covers all corners of the Commonwealth.” The administration cites the need for better data, and a comprehensive approach across the state in protecting public health, which sounds reasonable enough, given the health threat represented by EEE, especially.

Beyond Pesticides, Mass Audubon, the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions (MACC), and others oppose this bill, and offer a variety of critiques of it. The administration’s press release notes that the bill would permit SRMCB to “engage in mosquito control activities across the Commonwealth . . . when the Commissioner of Public Health determines that an elevated risk of arbovirus exists” — without setting any parameters for what “elevated risk” means. The bill would allow the commissioner to determine “that an elevated risk of arbovirus exists or may exist for the following year,” [emphasis by Beyond Pesticides] on which determination the SRMCB would then be able to act.

Critics expect that the bill will result in an over-reliance on insecticide spraying as a mosquito control measure. Beyond Pesticides has long maintained that spraying pesticides to kill adult mosquitoes (“adulticiding”) is not only ineffective, but also, dangerous. The chemical pesticides used in such spraying (as well as those used in homes and gardens, and in food production) can exhibit a variety of toxic effects in humans, including compromise of respiratory and immune systems.

The most common insecticides used currently are organophosphates and pyrethroids, both of which have broad toxicity for nontarget species, including fish, birds, and amphibians. The health (and environmental) toxicity of these chemicals is a worry in “normal” times, but in this pandemic time, it is especially concerning because use of adulticiding chemicals elevates the risks related to infection with Covid-19 — which has harmful impacts on human immune and respiratory systems. Indeed, the only reference to potential impacts in the text of the bill is this: “All actions taken under the authority of this section shall be designed to protect public health while minimizing to the extent feasible any adverse impact to the environment.”

The preemptive nature of the bill is also worrisome. In testimony submitted to the Joint Committee on Public Health on May 4, Mass Audubon’s Legislative Director, Michael Cusher, said that the bill supersedes the mandates of all other state statutes and special laws, including Massachusetts’s Open Meeting Law and Public Records Act — both of which serve as vehicles of transparency and accountability for the public’s benefit. If passed, H.4650 would also trump local bylaws and regulations that may have been created to deal with such risks in a locally appropriate manner.

Beyond Pesticide has written, “Such power, without accountability to the public and independent science, would preempt local communities from disagreeing with state-level decisions around pesticide use, and override local opt-out agreements made by private residents.” Currently, Massachusetts residents in a municipality that belongs to a regional mosquito control district can request and receive “nuisance spraying” on their private property at will. Residents are also able to exempt their properties from such spraying, but as many critics have complained, such exemption is relatively ineffective because sprayed pesticides can drift well off their target parcels.

Mass Audubon also warns that any number of other laws protective of human and environmental health could be “overridden or ignored, without accountability or disclosure.” Those could include the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act, the state’s Pesticide Control Act, and/or the Wetlands Protection, among others. A Mass Audubon Advocacy Blog entry points out that the bill has no expiration date and provides no opportunity for input on SRMCB control activities from affected communities or landowners.

Kyla Bennett, the New England Director, and Director of Science Policy, for PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility), outlined a host of reasons for opposing H.4650. Echoing many of the concerns of Beyond Pesticides, Mass Audubon, and Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions (MACC) (see next paragraph), the list includes:

• the bill is far too broad and represents significant over-reach
• the bill has no sunset provision
• it would pre-empt municipal decision making (e.g., not to join a regional district to avoid nuisance spraying), as well as overrule private property requests for spraying exemptions
• it does not account for environmental impacts of widespread adulticiding (or other strategies)
• it fails to address public health implications of broad-scale spraying, especially on vulnerable populations
• DPH has not undertaken any analysis of how and why EEE has achieved such geographic spread in the state

The MACC issued a May 1 legislative alert to its members setting out its opposition to the bill. It also submitted a letter to the chair of the Joint Committee on Public Health citing its concerns and recommendations for modifications. Those concerns are: (1) the breadth and pre-emptive nature of the bill, (2) the lack of transparency about how decisions would be made, and eclipse of any role for local boards of health and environmental groups, (3) the absence of requirements for community and property owner notification of control measures, (4) the lack of information or mention of either the efficacy of adulticiding or inadvertent impacts on organisms and ecosystems, and (5) the lack of a sunset provision.

MACC’s recommendations include: (1) adding DPH and Department of Fish and Game to SRMCB; (2) requiring 48-hour notification to communities prior to spraying; (3) annual reporting of plans, programs, and results, and an annual public review process; (4) requiring use of IPM (Integrated Pest Management) plans with an emphasis on surveillance, public education, and ecologically based methods; and (5) enabling communities to sign up for surveillance and data services without accompanying pesticide application services.

Beyond Pesticides and Mass Audubon agree that Massachusetts needs to reform its existing monitoring and mitigation systems, which are supposed to protect the public from risks of EEE and WNV; Mass Audubon calls them “antiquated and fragmented.” Beyond Pesticides asserts that the state should — rather than authorize SRMCB to “spray toxic pesticides anywhere in the state at any time” — focus on supporting local efforts to eliminate breeding sites, manage mosquito larvae through biological controls, and conduct public education on prevention strategies. Pesticide use should be considered only as a last resort. H.4650 neither suggests nor requires that such a program of safer protocols be implemented before SRMCB could implement “eradication methods as it deems necessary in any area of the Commonwealth.”

There are far better approaches than the one this legislation would enable, and resources with which to identify and implement them — for policy makers and the public — abound. Legislators and executives can avail themselves of the 2012 Beyond Pesticides and National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides publication, Public Health Mosquito Management Strategy for Decision Makers and Communities, a comprehensive guide to effective and safe mosquito control for public health strategies. The Xerces Society offers How to Help Your Community Create an Effective Mosquito Management Plan. Beyond Pesticides provides online resources on its Resources page and its Tools for Change page, which provides factsheets, position statements, and organizing tips for local communities.

Beyond Pesticides issued a May 7 Action Alert on this bill for Massachusetts residents. If you live in Massachusetts, please use it to add your voice in opposing H.4650 and advocating for an approach that is more effective, less sweeping in its reach, and safer for residents of the Commonwealth, especially during this pandemic.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: https://www.mass.gov/news/baker-polito-administration-files-legislation-to-combat-mosquito-borne-diseases-in-the and https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/H4650

(Beyond Pesticides, May 7, 2020) On April 22, 2020, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 90 days to respond to Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) petition requesting cancellation of tetrachlorvinphos (TCVP), a toxic organophosphate pesticide in pet products. The order followed the Ninth Circuit’s decision to grant NRDC’s petition for a writ of mandamus (a court’s order requiring a lower court or public authority to perform its statutory duty) as EPA withheld action to fulfill NRDC’s judicial review of TCVP, for over a decade. A favorable ruling on NRDC’s mandamus petition can influence other petitioners that hope to coerce agency action, especially when public health is at risk. The court states, “Repeatedly, the EPA has kicked the can down the road and betrayed its prior assurances of timely action, even as it has acknowledged that the pesticide poses widespread, serious risks to the neurodevelopmental health of children.”

NRDC petitioned EPA to cancel TCVP pesticide registration under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) in April 2009, after studies indicated humans absorb TCVP through contact with pesticide-treated pet products. EPA failed to respond to the initial petition after five years, and NRDC filed a 2014 mandamus requiring EPA to issue a response. EPA’s response denied cancellation of TCVP pesticide registration, seven months later. NRDC filed a 2015 lawsuit challenging EPA decision as the council found rejection of the petition to be unlawful. However, 2016 litigation results compelled EPA to reevaluate TCVP safety and found adverse risks to people, especially children. Although EPA completed a final risk assessment in 2016, the agency failed to ban residential TCVP use in pet products. On May 29, 2019, NRDC – yet again – petitioned for mandamus in the Ninth Circuit, pursuing EPA’s final response to NRDC’s 2009 petition. 

Ninth Circuit U.S. Appeals Court determined whether delays in EPA’s response to NRDC’s petition warranted mandamus support. The court ascertained approval for NRDC’s mandamus petition using six-factor standards, or “TRAC factors”: 

1. The time agencies take to make decisions must abide by a rule of reason. (Courts deem a reasonable time frame for agency action in week or months, not years);
2. Congress has provided a time frame it expects the agency to establish a law, that legal scheme may supply content for this rule of reason;
3. Delays that might be reasonable in the sphere of economic regulation are less tolerable when human health and welfare are at stake;
4. The court should consider the effect of expediting delayed action on agency activities of a higher or competing priority;
5. The court should also consider the nature and extent of the interests influenced by delay;
6. The reasoning behind the lack of agency activity does not need to be malicious for the court to determine a delay in agency action irrationally. 

TRAC factors analyzed similarities between the current NRDC petition, and three prior petitions, within the last five years – two of which also involved different organophosphates.

The court ruling approved NRDC’s petition for a writ of mandamus on all six TRAC factors. Reasonableness of EPA’s delay was the most important factor, as over a decade passed since NRDC’s initial petition. EPA only acted when provoked by NRDC or courts and consistently missed set deadlines. Although EPA maintained that the agency accomplished sensible progress during the lapsed time-period, the court concluded that whether delays are from 2009 or 2017, “EPA has stretched the ‘rule of reason’ beyond its limits.” The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that all six-factors favored approval for writ of mandamus and granted NRDC’s request. The action ordered EPA to deny NRDC’s petition against TCVP or initiate a cancellation of TCVP within one year.

Over 85 million people in the U.S. have pets, and many of these pets wear flea collars containing TCVP. Tetrachlorvinphos (TCVP) is an organophosphate pesticide subgroup and derivative of World War II nerve warfare agents. Although TCVP use in household products concludes in 2006, one TCVP product remains on the market for residential use in pet products. TCVPs accumulate on pets’ fur via pet products (i.e., pest-prevention collars, shampoos, and sprays), and exposure to humans causes neurological damage and cancer. Also, children are most susceptible to TCVP poisoning as they are underdeveloped and more likely to ingest TCVP by touching their mouths after pet interaction. Since 50% of lifetime pesticide exposure transpires in the first five years of life, children are at disproportionate risk, and risk enhances when exposure occurs early in life. EPA’s 2016 risk assessment of TCVP corresponds with prior conclusions that TCVPs adversely affects human health, disproportionally affecting child health. 

The ruling is the Ninth Circuit’s fourth issuing of a writ of mandamus on delays in federal agency action in the past five years. Approval of this mandamus and predecessors alludes to the court’s weakening patience for significant delays in agency action on pesticide tolerance and registration. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals criticizes EPA’s postponed action as it, “frustrated NRDC’s ability to seek judicial review by withholding final agency action, all the while endangering the well-being of millions of children and ignoring its ‘core mission’ of ‘protecting human health and the environment.’” The success of NRDC’s mandamus action can encourage ecological and advocacy organizations to use mandamus more assertively to drive federal agency action for various petitions.

In addition to flea and tick collars exposing humans to TCVP, dietary exposure via water and food ingestion is an alternate toxicity pathway for TCVP through livestock use. There are also numerous occupational risks of exposure, affecting applicators, veterinarians, pet groomers, and livestock caretakers.

Safely kill flea and tick larvae with non-toxic solutions: vacuum daily during flea season (changing bag often); groom pet daily with a flea comb (cleaning comb with soap-water between brushes); frequently bathe pets with soap and water; and frequently wash pet bedding, restricting pet to only one bed. Learn more about how to protect your pet from pesticides, and the least-toxic controls for flea and tick infestation. 

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: JDSUPRA, NRDC, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

(Beyond Pesticides, May 6, 2020) The Trump Administration announced late last month that it is waiving a requirement that multinational chemical company Syngenta-Chemchina continue to monitor Midwest waterways for the presence of the weedkiller atrazine throughout 2020. While rationalized by the Administration as “due to the unanticipated impact of Covid-19,” the move will instead put residents health at increased risk. Atrazine is one of 78 pesticides that has been linked to the development of respiratory ailments like wheeze.

“The public will now have no idea whether dangerous levels of atrazine are reaching rivers and streams throughout the Midwest. That’s absurd and reckless,” said Nathan Donley, PhD a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Syngenta should suspend the sale and use of this extremely toxic pesticide until it can safely ensure it’s not polluting Corn Belt waterways.”

Syngenta, which merged with state-owned China Nation Chemical Corporation (Chemchina) in 2016, has been bound by EPA to monitor Midwestern waterways since a 2004 review by the agency. This is because atrazine is a potent groundwater contaminant. Just two years ago, an analysis by the Environmental Working Group found atrazine to be exceeding legal limits in drinking water for many Midwestern states.

Even though monitoring programs are critically important tools, they show only a snapshot in time, as prior reports found that atrazine can spike at extremely high levels that go undetected by regular tests. Rapid influx of atrazine weedkiller into drinking water systems during springtime found birth defects linked time of conception. As a result of its endocrine disrupting properties, the chemical has also been linked to breast cancer.

Atrazine causes significant impacts to the health of aquatic ecosystems, reducing productivity of phytoplankton and causing trophic level cascades. It has been known to harm frogs, and increase susceptibility to chytrid fungi that are implicated in global amphibian declines. Seminal research on atrazine’s ability to cause male frogs to develop female body parts was attacked by Syngenta as part of a long-running smear campaign against independent science.

In 2016, EPA found high risks to ecological health from atrazine exposure.  However, under the Trump administration, the agency proposed to increase allowable levels of atrazine in US waterways.

A Syngenta-ChemChina request for a complete elimination of the monitoring program last year was denied due to ongoing concerns over ecological health. That did not stop the company from trying again for a temporary waiver during the coronavirus public health crisis. By granting this temporary waiver, environmental groups argue that the agency is not reducing a regulatory burden, but instead exacerbating an already existing public health crisis at the worst time possible.

“Now is the time to protect people and the environment, not multinational chemical companies,” said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides.

Send a message to EPA that it’s time to follow Europe’s role in effectively banning atrazine. Sign the petition to ban this endocrine disrupting pesticide from continuing to harm children and wildlife. Research finds that banning atrazine will provide an economic benefit to farmers –the exact type of economic stimulus needed in this time of crisis. With knowledge of organic practices, which economically benefit farming communities, becoming more widespread, the time is now to transition to a safer, healthier food system for all.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Center for Biological Diversity

(Beyond Pesticides, May 6, 2020) The coronavirus pandemic highlights pre-existing cracks in social safety nets and environmental regulation. Pollutants, such as respiratory and immune-suppressing toxic pesticides, exacerbate the risk factors for people already vulnerable to Covid-19. Decades of environmental racism and other health factors are contributing to the devastating fact that in the U.S. black and brown communities are disproportionately impacted by this crisis. These same communities make up the bulk of frontline, essential workers; grocery store employees, security staff at hospitals, bus drivers, farmworkers, and others are keeping our country going through the pandemic. Government and corporation responses have been insufficient to help these individuals. As a society, we need to better support workers who are essential, and not expendable.

Farmworkers, the backbone of our entire food system, are at extremely high risk of COVID-19 as well as pesticide poisoning due to crowded working conditions and lack of personal protective equipment. As agribusinesses ask farmworkers to work for less pay in the midst of the pandemic, they need your help.

Giving Tuesday Now is a national donation campaign responding to the pandemic. While Giving Tuesday traditionally encourages donations to non-profits in November, today there is a push to encourage financial assistance to groups that need it most, now. Beyond Pesticides suggests supporting frontline organizations.

You can contribute directly to farm and food workers through these organizations:

• Farm Labor Organizing Committee (AFL-CIO), Midwest and North Carolina, through CMMJ
• Farmworker COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund
• Farmworker Association of Florida
• National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund
• Indigenous Environmental Network
• Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC) Relief
• Restaurant Workers Community Foundation
• One Fair Wage Emergency Fund

Consider donating to your foodbank or joining a mutual aid program

• Grassroots coalitions and local aid groups such as foodbanks are stepping up to the plate. Find your local food bank here. See this database to find a local mutual aid group, or learn how to start your own.

As the economic system goes into a dramatic downturn and workers fear for their lives, the agrichemical industry and the Trump Administration’s EPA are taking advantage of the chaos to further deregulate the poisons going into our food and water systems. This is why our work cannot rest. Now, more than ever, we need to stop community pesticide uses, not only because of they elevate risk factors, but because they are not necessary with all the green alternative practices and products we have at our fingertips.

The elimination of toxic pesticide use protects biodiversity and supports clean air, water, and land. Organic practices enhance atmospheric carbon sequestration, which slows global temperature change and allows for a livable future. The road to recovery from the crash of global biodiversity, the coronavirus pandemic, and the climate crisis should center organic practices that promote healthy communities and ecosystems.

To this end, Beyond Pesticides’ Autumn Ness is working in the Maui Community to advocate for local food systems change. She and other local advocates successfully collaborated to get $2.5 million that would have gone from the county budget to tourism redirected to support local farmers. Ms. Ness has also helped create a food hub for farmers to connect with residents. This is a model for the country and we adjust to a ‘new normal’ after we get the pandemic under control.

Donate to Beyond Pesticides and Make Sure the Road to Recovery is Organic

“Beyond Pesticides Hawai’i is dedicated to help set up necessary infrastructure and transaction systems to get local farm products to local consumers,” says Ms. Ness, “We are here to help Hawai’i farms get through this crisis and also build long-term systems that drive demand to support the rapid increase in organic farming in Hawai’i. If you are a farm that needs help getting through the COVID-19 shutdowns, please contact us at [email protected].”

Please consider making a donation at any level to frontline organizations and Beyond Pesticides. With your support, we will get through this pandemic and continue to fight for policies that support human and environmental health.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 4, 2020) Exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act allow children to work unlimited hours in agriculture at the age of 12 and allow child farmworkers to perform hazardous work at the age of 16. These exemptions apply only to farm labor and are significantly less stringent than law applying to other sectors. U.S. Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard of California has reintroduced H.R. 3394, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety (CARE) to correct these inconsistencies, which harm farmworker children.

Tell your Congressional Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 3394. Thank those who are co-sponsors of the bill.

Currently, children ages 12-13 may not be employed outside the home in non-agriculture labor, but may work in agriculture outside of school hours. Children ages 14-15 may work in non-agriculture only with strict limitations on time of day and hours per week, but may work in agriculture outside of school hours without any restrictions. The minimum age for hazardous work in agriculture, such as pesticide handling, is 16, but is 18 for non-farm labor. H.R. will make the restrictions for agriculture child labor consistent with non-agriculture labor. The bill does not apply to the sons and daughters of farmers working on their family farm.

The worker protection standard (WPS) is an EPA regulation that includes restrictions to protect farmworkers applying pesticides. In 2015, the WPS was revised to set a minimum age of 18 for pesticide application. In 2018, after being sued for not implementing the minimum age requirement, EPA proposed lowering the age to 16. EPA dropped its proposal to lower the age for pesticide handlers after negotiating with Congress. Despite EPA’s reversal, a change in the statute such as that proposed in H.R. 3394 would prevent the agency or the courts from allowing 16-year-olds to be hired to apply pesticides in the future.

Children of farmworkers are those most threatened by this discrepancy. The health of children of farmworkers is at risk in other ways from the use of toxic pesticides. Doctors annually diagnose up to 20,000 poisonings among agricultural workers – and that statistic only represents what is publicly reported. Working mothers are exposed to chemicals that can have long-lasting impacts on their unborn children, such as brain function damage. As a result of their working conditions, farmworker life expectancy is 49 years, compared to 78 for the general population. This is similar to the life expectancy of individuals living in the 1850s. We need to correct the injustices suffered by farmworkers and their families.

Tell your Congressional Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 3394. Thank those who are co-sponsors of the bill.

Letter to Congress – Request to Cosponsor

I am writing to ask you to cosponsor H.R. 3394, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety, which will make the protection of children on farms consistent with that of children working in non-agricultural work.

Exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act allow children to work unlimited hours in agriculture at the age of 12 and allow child farmworkers to perform hazardous work at the age of 16. These exemptions apply only to farm labor and are significantly less stringent than law applying to other sectors. Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard of California has reintroduced H.R. 3394, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety (CARE) to correct these inconsistencies, which harm farmworker children.

Currently, children ages 12-13 may not be employed outside the home in non-agriculture labor, but may work in agriculture outside of school hours. Children ages 14-15 may work in non-agriculture only with strict limitations on time of day and hours per week, but may work in agriculture outside of school hours without any restrictions. The minimum age for hazardous work in agriculture, such as pesticide handling, is 16, but is 18 for non-farm labor. H.R. 3394 will make the restrictions for agriculture child labor consistent with non-agriculture labor. The bill does not apply to the sons and daughters of farmers working on their family farm.

Children of farmworkers are those most threatened by this discrepancy. The health of children of farmworkers is at risk in other ways from the use of toxic pesticides. Doctors annually diagnose up to 20,000 poisonings among agricultural workers – and that statistic only represents what is publicly reported. Working mothers are exposed to chemicals that can have long-lasting impacts on their unborn children, such as brain function damage. As a result of their working conditions, farmworker life expectancy is 49 years, compared to 78 for the general population. This is similar to the life expectancy of individuals living in the 1850s. We need to correct the injustices suffered by farmworkers and their families.

Please cosponsor H.R. 3394, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue.

Thank You Letter to Current Cosponsors

I am writing to thank you for co-sponsoring H.R. 3394, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety, which will make the protection of children on farms consistent with that of children working in non-agricultural work.

Children of farmworkers are those most threatened by the current discrepancy. The health of children of farmworkers is at risk in other ways from the use of toxic pesticides. Doctors annually diagnose up to 20,000 poisonings among agricultural workers – and that statistic only represents what is publicly reported. Working mothers are exposed to chemicals that can have long-lasting impacts on their unborn children, such as brain function damage. As a result of their working conditions, farmworker life expectancy is 49 years, compared to 78 for the general population. This is similar to the life expectancy of individuals living in the 1850s.

We need to correct the injustices suffered by farmworkers and their families.

Thank you for your support.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 1, 2020) As the globe settles in for a long summer of social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19, experts warn that concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), more commonly referred to as “factory farms,” are setting the table for the next pandemic. Crowded conditions and prophylactic use of antibiotics, scientists say, are creating an environment ripe for viruses and bacteria to evolve and jump from animal to human populations. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said back in 2013, “Livestock health is the weakest link in our global health chain.” Alternatively, organic principles offer an existing federal guideline for ecologically and environmentally viable conditions for agriculture.

Michael Greger, M.D., Ph.D., author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, explains, “When we overcrowd animals by the thousands, in cramped football-field-size sheds, to lie beak to beak or snout to snout, and there’s stress crippling their immune systems, and there’s ammonia from the decomposing waste burning their lungs, and there’s a lack of fresh air and sunlight — put all these factors together and you have a perfect-storm environment for the emergence and spread of disease.” Dr. Greger notes that the spread of industrialization, or “Tysonization,” of poultry production in Asia has been tied to the explosion of novel bird flu viruses beginning in the 1990’s.

Viruses and bacteria proliferating in the food system have worried epidemiologists for years. “When I was writing my book, I asked my sources what keeps them awake at night. They usually had two answers: virulent avian influenza and highly drug-resistant forms of bacterial pathogens,” Sonia Shah, author of Pandemic (2017), told Vox. “Both those things are driven by the crowding in factory farms. These are ticking time bombs.”

Pathogens can quickly rip through a barn of crowded animals, so farms give livestock low doses of antibiotics to preemptively suppress bacteria (the subtherapeutic administration of antibiotics also causes animals to gain weight more quickly). In the tight and ripe conditions of a CAFO, an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria is likely to evolve under the selective pressure of the given medicine. “We have abundant evidence documenting the fact that when you put animals in crowded, unsanitary conditions and use low-dose antibiotics for disease prevention, you set up a perfect incubator for spontaneous mutations in the DNA of the bacteria,” Robert Lawrence, Ph.D., a professor emeritus of environmental health at John Hopkins University, told Vox. “With more spontaneous mutations, the odds increase that one of those mutations will provide resistance to the antibiotic that’s present in the environment.” The presence of the antibiotic provides strong selection pressure favoring the mutation, should it arise.

The same antibiotics given to animals are used by humans to fight infections. Should an especially infectious and resistant bacteria pop up and pass to humans, doctors might not have an appropriate toolkit to deal with it. As we are experiencing with coronavirus, social distancing would be the means of preventing the spread.

Lax regulatory standards for animal agriculture in the U.S. make it difficult for federal inspectors to get onto farms and investigate disease outbreaks. Lance Price, Ph.D., explained to 60 Minutes, “You’ve got these big, in some cases, multinational companies, that are messing with our food safety system. But they hide behind this image of an American farmer. ‘Why can’t we regulate the use of antibiotics on the farm?’ ‘Oh, we’ve gotta protect the American farmer. That would be encroachment by the government.’ ‘Why can’t we test these animals on the farm to see if they’re carrying dangerous pathogens?’ ‘Oh, that would hurt the farmer. We gotta protect the guy in the overalls.’ But this is not a guy in overalls. This is a guy in a suit with a Maserati, you know? I mean…these are big companies that we are protecting. And by protecting them, we’re hurting ourselves.”

While most Americans say they want more stringent oversight of large-scale livestock operations, little has been done to mitigate the issue in chemical-intensive agriculture. In contrast, USDA organic standards have prohibited the use of antibiotics since the 1990’s. The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is guided by principles in the Organic Foods Production Act that prevent the harmful and unnecessary use of pharmaceuticals and provide humane, spacious living conditions for animals.

However, as consumers have bought into more stringent organic standards, the industry has grown and captured the eye of big agriculture. Beyond Pesticides’ Keeping Organic Strong and OrganicEye programs highlight the need to keep a close eye on regulation in this arena. Advocates note, for example, that consistent enforcement of the access to pasture rule, including identification of high risk dairy operations, such as those with more than 1,000 milking and dry cows, is needed to meet USDA’s Farm Bill and legislative principles priority to “Protect the integrity of the USDA organic certified seal and deliver efficient, effective oversight of organic production practices to ensure organic products meet consistent standards for all producers, domestic and foreign.”

Another critical issue within organic standards centers on the Organic Livestock and Poultry Production rule. Last year, in an attack on organic integrity, USDA decided to withdraw final organic animal welfare regulations that would have provided standardized and measurable criteria for managing the health and welfare of organic livestock and poultry. Beyond Pesticides reported then, “These increasing organic rollbacks, many of which threaten to break the backbone of organic, have inspired the creation of two organic-plus labels, complete with their own inspection and certification systems. Both the Real Organic Project and Regenerative Organic Certification plan to use USDA’s organic certification as the foundation of their labels and then add-on crucial organic provisions that have been revoked or not yet addressed by USDA.”

While the coronavirus pandemic and its fallout have the general public wishing for things to return to normal, advocates say it is crucial to recognize that “normal” is exactly what caused the multitude of crises we face right now. “Normal” means more pandemics in the future. The road to recovery needs to be organic. Keep track of Beyond Pesticides action on this topic with our action of the week and tell your U.S. Senator to cosponsor the Farm System Reform Act.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Vox

(Beyond Pesticides, April 30, 2020) Chemical-intensive farming of crops for animal fodder powers the global market for highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs), according to data analyzed by Unearthed, and the Swiss NGO Public Eye. Animal fodder production not only intensifies global pollution, but it also increases pesticide exposure and degrades human, animal, and environmental health. This data analysis supports advocates advancing pesticide policies to eliminate HHPs by identifying which toxic chemicals lead global pesticide sales. However, it will take more than eliminating the worst chemicals to address the impending biodiversity collapse and the climate crisis, according to experts who point to the need for an urgent shift to organic land and agricultural management practices. United Nations’ (UN) special rapporteur on toxic substances and human rights, Baskut Tuncak, says, “There is nothing sustainable about the widespread use of highly hazardous pesticides for agriculture. Whether they poison workers, extinguish biodiversity, persist in the environment, or accumulate in a mother’s breast milk, these are unsustainable, cannot be used safely, and should have been phased out of use long ago.” 

Unearthed and Public Eye investigated over $23 billion in global pesticide market sales to determine the proportion of pesticides considered highly hazardous by the Pesticide Action Network’s (PAN) International 2019 list of HHPs. HHP hazard categories include acutely toxic, chronic health hazards, environmental hazards, and toxic to bees. Data analyzers obtained global market sales information from the leading agribusiness intelligence firm, Phillips McDougall. Top-selling pesticide products were in the pesticide industry’s most valuable “market segments” (e.g., “herbicides for soya in the US”). Analysts compared global HHP sales data in 12 staple crop groups to determine which crops provided the largest market for major pesticide manufacturers. 

Highly hazardous pesticides amassed $9.9 billion in global sales with maize (corn), soybean (soy), cereal, cotton, and rice accounting for over $4 out of every $5 spent on HHPs. The investigation identified 19 chemicals as premier selling HHPs. Glyphosate was the most commonly sprayed HHP across all five crops. Atrazine and epoxiconazole were HHPs present in grain crops like rice and cereals, respectively. Over 69% of pesticide sales for cotton crops were HHPs, 44% of which were toxic to bees. Although nearly half of all global HHP spraying was on soybean and maize, staple crops in animal fodder, soybean provided the biggest market for HPPs by value. 

Land use data displays ~50% of all global habitable land as agricultural, with over 75% of all farmland supporting livestock fodder and grazing. Agricultural land is subject to chemical-intensive farming, and many fodder crops (i.e., corn and soy) use HHPs to manage pests. Globally, farmers use glyphosate to manage corn and soy crops more than any other HHPs. However, 93% and 85% of soy and corn, respectively, are genetically engineered (GE) to tolerate glyphosate. Glyphosate-resistant crops increase herbicide use, enhance herbicide-resistant weeds (i.e., superweeds), and cause health and environmental harms. Multiple studies indicate glyphosate’s carcinogenic effects in humans, as well as adverse impacts on ecosystem biodiversity, pollinators, foraging/brooding habitats, and pest / bacterial resistance. Most corn and soy crops are monocultures,  wherein demands for fodder exceed requests for diverse crop production. Perversely, monoculture crops induce biodiversity loss and pollinator decline via pesticide exposure and habitat destruction. 

The data indicates which crops represent the largest markets for major pesticide manufacturers. North American soybean crops provide the largest market for all pesticides, but analysts project South America to dominate soy production in 2020. Already, over 50% of all HPP sales for soybean crops go to Brazilian soy fields. Brazilian farmers spend large amounts on HHP to overturn vast amounts of land for soy monocultures, according to Larissa Bombardi, Ph.D., professor of geography at the University of Sao Paulo. Additionally, over 90% of developing soy crops are GE for glyphosate-resistance. An increase in Brazilian soybean monocultures, GE soy crops, and intensive HHP use present health and environment threats, including threats to local food security. Dr. Bombardi mentions, “In addition to driving deforestation and increased use of pesticides, this [HHP] industry was also having ‘an impact on food security.’ …Brazil [saw] a reduction in the amount of land planted with ‘the four crops that are the basis of national food:’ wheat, cassava, rice, and beans.”

Chemical-intensive farming contributes to HHP global market sales as farmers apply various herbicides and insecticides to many staple fodder crops. International sales of HHPs pose a serious global health risk as 18 out of 19 analyzed HHPs are available in the U.S. pesticide market for use. Most Americans want stricter oversight of general large-scale livestock operations. The analyzed data can provide global implications for pesticide management surrounding agriculture while supporting oversight restriction and elimination of HHP-treated fodder. Organic agriculture has many health and environmental benefits, which curtail the need for HHPs. Regenerative agriculture revitalizes soil health through organic carbon sequestration while reducing pests and generating higher profits than chemical-intensive agriculture. Learn more about the adverse health and environmental effects chemical-intensive farming poses for various crops and how eating organic produce reduces pesticide exposure.

See Beyond Pesticides webpage on organic agriculture.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Unearthed

(Beyond Pesticides, April 29, 2020) The terrible reputation with which bats are commonly saddled — especially now, because of their association with the origins of the family of coronaviruses — is undeserved. These nocturnal insect vacuums are fascinating, flying mammals that are under-appreciated, not least for their performance of important services for ecosystems, and for human health and agriculture. Investigators from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University and the Section for Evolutionary Genomics at Copenhagen’s Natural History Museum recently published a study demonstrating that bats can be a mighty tool against pests that damage cotton crops. Bats’ pest control services — relatively invisible because they do their insect marauding at night when humans are not watching — represent an excellent, nontoxic, biological control for some agricultural pests, as well as for mosquitoes that may be human disease vectors. Advocates say that these services should be well considered before any decision to use toxic pesticides that can harm bats, as Beyond Pesticides has covered.

The study, “An appetite for pests: Synanthropic insectivorous bats exploit cotton pest irruptions and consume various deleterious arthropods,” was published in Molecular Ecology. [Note: “synanthropic” species are those plants or animals that live near, and benefit from, association with humans and the habitats people create around or in response to them.] The subject of the study is a small bat, Kuhl’s pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii), which roosts and forages in such habitats: urban, exurban, and agricultural areas. The research, undertaken in cotton fields in central Israel, looked at this bat’s consumption habits by studying trace DNA of its prey in the bat’s droppings.

The scientists were particularly interested in P. kuhlii’s consumption of a notorious cotton crop pest, the pink bollworm — a formidable threat in much of conventional cotton growing because it can easily develop resistance to the pesticides marketed for use with genetically modified cotton seeds. It seems that Kuhl’s pipistrelle loves the pink bollworm: as bollworm populations swelled, the bats preferred and ate more of them than of any other insect species. The scientists concluded that these bats exploit pink bollworm irruptions by opportunistic feeding, and that the bats provide “important pest suppression services.” Professor Carmi Korine, Ph.D., one of the study paper’s authors, notes: “We should be aware of the functional importance of common species of bats in urban environments for ecosystem functioning and human society. . . . particularly now, when bats are negatively and often unjustifiably stereotyped due to COVID-19.”

The study’s conclusions underscore the importance of bat species and their services. Bats are the only nocturnal insect predator in the U.S., and are one of two primary nocturnal pollinators (along with moths) — important roles for night-flowering plants and for farmers. The two species of brown bats (the “big” and the “little”) most common in the U.S. are voracious, consuming 3,000–7,000 insects per night. In some regions, these creatures also provide fertilization through deposits of their guano; notably, there is a thriving commercial fertilizer industry that uses guano as a primary ingredient.

As mentioned, bats consume mosquitoes that can carry diseases to humans, such as West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis, Zika virus, malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and others. Many localities and states continue to use aerial pesticide spraying (“adulticiding”), as well as some biological controls and source reduction measures, not only in declared public health emergencies, but also and too often, for “nuisance control.” Pesticide use to control mosquito populations is misguided, at best, because of its harmful impacts on human health, ecosystems, and the very organisms that prey on mosquitoes, and because it is often ineffective. There are alternatives to spraying toxic pesticides for mosquito control.

A 2011 study in the journal Science estimates that bats provide annual pest control services to agricultural operations worth between $3.7 and $53 billion. Bats are also considered an “indicator species,” meaning that  they interact with many elements of their ecosystems, and that their well-being is a barometer for the health of those ecosystems.

Bat populations in some regions are shrinking alarmingly due to myriad threats, including pesticides, habitat destruction, and white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease to which several cave-dwelling bat species are particularly susceptible. WNS first spread through bat populations in the eastern U.S. and Canada, but has now expanded as far as the West Coast. In some areas, bat species have lost 90% of their local populations to the disease. WNS causes bats to behave uncharacteristically — waking up more frequently during the winter, and flying during the day, and thus, using up their limited fat reserves too quickly, leaving them debilitated. Estimates of bat losses to WNS range from 5 to 7 million since the onset of the fungal disease in 2006.

Bats are also vulnerable to pesticide exposures through their dusky and nocturnal foraging for insects that may have been sprayed by pesticides or may have fed on pesticide-treated plants. Because bats are unusually long-lived for animals their size — lifespans range from 20 to 40 years — their bodies can accumulate pesticide residues over a long period, exacerbating adverse effects associated with those pesticides that can accumulate in fatty tissue. Also, during migrations or winter hibernation (when their fat stores are metabolized), bats’ consumption of large volumes of pesticide-contaminated insects can mean that these compounds may reach toxic levels in their brains — making them more susceptible to WNS. Bats also tend to have only one offspring each year, making them vulnerable to the population impacts of negative reproductive effects caused by pesticides, because low reproductive rates require high adult survival rates to avoid population declines.

Beyond Pesticides will continue to advocate for pollinator species, including bats. There are many ways that the public can support these inky and slightly chimerical creatures, and protect them from pesticides. Learn more at Beyond Pesticides’ pollinator protection page, Hedgerows for Biodiversity fact sheet, and alternatives to spraying page.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: https://www.israel21c.org/bats-arent-all-that-bad-just-ask-israeli-cotton-crops/ and https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mec.15393

(Beyond Pesticides, April 28, 2020) Roughly a quarter of the global insect population has been wiped out since 1990, according to new research published in the journal Science. Billed as one of the most comprehensive assessments to date, the study finds significant overall insect declines, but notes of some specific bright spots. While variation in the ongoing crisis is to be expected, ultimately the trends in the data show the need for immediate policy and regulatory action to protect the insect world as the foundation of global food webs.

The team of European scientists behind the research analyzed 166 studies spread out over 41 countries, and consisting of over 1,600 sites, with data beginning in the mid-1920s. Overall trends found declines in terrestrial insect biomass to be nearly 1% each year (~9% each decade). However, contrasting this data was a bright spot – freshwater insects were found to be increasing at an annual rate just over 1% (~11% each decade). The authors caution, however, that because fresh water covers only 2.4% of the earth’s surface, the increase may not be a good spatial representative of broader trends.

While North America appeared to show more significant declines when compared to Europe, there is some cause for alarm as more recent data shows an acceleration of insect losses on the European continent. “Europe seems to be getting worse now – that is striking and shocking. But why that is, we don’t know,” said study coauthor Roel van Klink, PhD, to The Guardian. One large and important confounder is the dearth of research from South America, Africa, and much of Southeast Asia.  

Further analysis of the data on freshwater insects points to legal protections playing a role in the increase, such as the U.S. Clean Water Act and similar legislation in Europe. Protected areas such as nature preserves did display less significant declines, however the difference was not as robust as researchers expected. “We found that very striking and a bit shocking – it means something’s going wrong there,” said Dr. van Klink to The Guardian.

There was little evidence that climate change was playing a role at either local or global scales, however land use and urbanization was found to have moderate associations with declines. The anthropogenic factors with this trend – pesticide use, light pollution, habitat destruction, are massively under-regulated and can be addressed by elected officials.

While the attempt by researchers and some scientific minds to use this study to present the insect apocalypse as nuanced is of course accurate, it risks pushing the discussion into one where the public is told it is too “complicated” and that more research is needed before action is taken. Powerful industry forces – from the agrichemical industry, to fossil fuel producers, construction companies, and other groups with considerable lobbying arms, make use of scientific nuance, “mystery,” and the need for more data by presenting it as a reason for inaction. While in Europe the precautionary approach holds sway, in the United States many elected officials will opt for inaction unless the data is certain and the public is overwhelmingly in favor of change (and even then, as many advocates know, the road is uphill).

Make no mistake – the public should continue be alarmed by these reports. As renowned entomologist Dave Goulson, PhD, told The Guardian, “People should be as concerned as ever about insects. It is great news that some aquatic insects seem to be increasing, probably from a very low level. But the bulk of insects are terrestrial and this new study confirms what was already clear: they have been declining for many decades.”

It is likely that the declines we are seeing in many bird species are closely linked to insect declines. Recent research finds that three billion birds, or 29% of bird abundance has been lost since the 1970s. This is also a nuanced finding – waterfowl and raptors have increased more than 50% since that time – likely for similar reasons – there was real legal and regulatory action taken to protect these species. The nuance is a reason for urgent action now, not for further delay.

Insects remain in significant decline. Monarchs are near extinction and beekeepers continue to experience declines that are putting them out of business. We continue to lose mayflies, the foundation of so many food chains, and fireflies, the foundation of so many childhood summer memories, for reasons that can be easily prevented with strong laws and leadership. We can stop pesticide use and habitat destruction endangering mayflies, bees, and monarchs and stop light pollution by preserving the night sky for fireflies.  

For more information on the insect apocalypse, see Beyond Pesticides article in our Pesticides and You newsletter, Tracking Biodiversity: Study Cites Insect Extinction and Ecological Collapse.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Science, The Guardian