A Weekly News Update on Pesticides, Health and Alternatives

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This week: Action you can take to start a safer, healthier New Year

December 28, 2006

A new year opportunity: join PAN’s Action Center  In 2006, 37,000+ people took action on pesticide, environmental health and justice issues through the Pesticide Action Network Action Center. They sent emails and faxes—one or two clicks, no cost!—and sometimes called or sent a letter—to the EPA, Congressmembers, provincial officials, heads of corporations, state regulators and various leaders around the globe from Alaska to California to Maine to Quebec, from Paraquay to Malaysia to Switzerland. Their messages called for a healthier and more socially just world.

Please become a PAN e-activist. It’s quick and effective. Over 12,600 people sent messages last spring to U.S. EPA and helped convince the agency not to register the carcinogenic fumigant methyl iodide. After you join, tell a friend about this important work, to insure even more voices are heard.

Here are two actions you can take today to keep up the momentum toward a pesticide and toxic-free future:

Tell EPA no more “Chrome 6”! EPA is considering registering acid copper chromate (ACC) as a wood preservative and replacement for arsenic wood treatments, for unrestricted residential, school, and playground uses across the U.S. ACC is made from hexavalent chromium or “Chrome 6,” a known human carcinogen and drinking water contaminant. Chrome 6 was made infamous by the lawsuit brought by by Erin Brockovich and the movie about the case, and is linked to health problems including kidney and liver damage, birth defects, and skin ulcers.

If ACC is allowed for use by the EPA, millions of children will be exposed to this cancer-causing chemical when they come into contact with playground equipment, picnic tables, decks, or other surfaces treated with this dangerous wood preservative. It makes  no sense to replace an arsenic-based wood preservative with a chromium-based preservative, when there are safer alternatives widely available and used now. Our children are just as vulnerable to cancer-causing chromium leaching from playground equipment and picnic tables as they are to arsenic.The chromium industry and their lobbyist, former Senator Bob Dole, are pressuring EPA to approve a new registration for ACC by January 20, 2007. Please contact EPA immediately and urge the agency to deny the registration of this cancer causing wood treatment chemical.

Tell Syngenta no more paraquat! If you are not one of the more than 25,000 people who have already voted to hold Swiss chemical giant Syngenta accountable for the poisonings around the world from the paraquat they manufacture, please ACT NOW. Paraquat is one of the world’s most controversial herbicides. Not approved for use in Switzerland since 1990 because of the risks associated with it, the pesticide is increasingly used in countries in the Southern Hemisphere by plantation workers and small farmers to kill weeds. Thousands of people are poisoned every year because they lack protective equipment and clothing or have insufficient information about paraquat. Thousands die a painful accidental death or commit suicide using this pesticide. The Swiss citizen group Berne Declaration is holding a virtual “People’s Vote” on Syngenta’s practices and asking for your participation. PAN groups and many others are collaborating in the broad public campaign to bring attention to Syngenta’s inhuman business policies. Join in demanding that Syngenta take responsibility for the devastating health impacts of paraquat and stop production now.

If you haven’t voted Syngenta guilty yet, here is a chance to participate. Our goal is 50,000 messages by the end of the year. Simply click here to vote for a Public Proceedings’ verdict on Syngenta.

PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and reporting on pesticide issues that don’t always get coverage by the mainstream media. It’s produced by Pesticide Action Network North America, a non-profit and non-governmental organization working to advance sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide.

You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations for our work and all contributions are tax deductible in the United States. Visit http://www.panna.org/donate.