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Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS)
A Weekly News Update on Pesticides, Health and Alternatives
See PANUPS updates service for complete information.
February 5, 2009
- CA groups to USDA: Tiny moth not ‘high risk’ pest
- River pollutants and male infertility
- Ag-Mart fined by New Jersey for pesticide violations
- California debate on VOCs continues in budget fight
- New report exposes logging company’s herbicide use
- USDA gives approval to new pesticide-promoting GE corn
CA groups to USDA: Tiny moth not ‘high risk’ pest
In a February 4 letter delivered to newly confirmed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a broad coalition of organic farmers, community groups and pesticide policy reform advocates urged Vilsack to immediately strip the controversial Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) from USDA’s “high-risk pest” list. “Other countries have managed the moth effectively for years,” says Dr. Margaret Reeves, a Senior Scientist with Pesticide Action Network North America and lead author of the letter. “Dramatic action simply isn’t needed to keep this bug under control.” The California-based groups argue that USDA’s listing of the moth as a high-risk pest is based on outdated information. “The moth poses no significant economic or ecological threat,” notes the letter, which goes on to point out that USDA’s current “high risk” classification of the pest triggers “quarantine measures and associated eradication efforts [that] impose real and unnecessary economic hardship on growers, in many instances compelling pest control activities that constitute a further threat to human health and the environment.”
shareMORE – For background see PAN’s LBAM resource page | DiggThis
River pollutants and male infertility
British boys may be thinking twice about skinny-dipping in local streams after a study in the journal Environmental Health and Perspectives suggested that anti-androgens, chemicals found in rivers and waste waters, could be linked to male infertility. While anti-androgens have been linked to the feminization of male fish, their ability to counteract the male sex-hormone testosterone could theoretically harm human reproductive organs as well, especially in the fetus and children. “We have identified a new group of chemicals in our study on fish,” Susan Jobling, PhD, of Brunel University told Britain’s The Independent. Sampling effluents from 30 wastewater treatment plants, the researchers were able “to measure their testosterone-blocking potential.” While other studies have linked the feminization of male fish to estrogenic compounds in surface waters, this study is the first to identify anti-androgens as agents in feminization of male fish. Pharmaceuticals and pesticides are known to contain anti-androgenic chemicals and male feminization may be the result of complicated interactions that combine to produce an “endocrine-disrupting chemical cocktail.” The UK-based organization CHEM Trust recently published a report noting the increasing trend of feminization in male wildlife across the world. Gwynne Lyons, author of the report and director of CHEM Trust stated: “Urgent action is needed to control gender bending chemicals, and more resources are
needed for monitoring wildlife. [Synthetic] chemicals are clearly damaging the basic male tool-kit. If wildlife populations crash, it will be too late. Unless enough males contribute to the next generation, there is a real threat to animal populations in the long term.” Many pesticides and adjuvants used as spreading and sticking agents have been implicated in hormone disruption–including atrazine, permethrin, glyphosate (Round-Up), 2,4-D, diethyl hexyl phthalate (DEHP) and the nonylphenol ethoxylates. Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to reproductive abnormalities in polar bears, large cats, alligators and frogs. There is not yet sufficient data on humans to conclusively demonstrate definitive cause and effect links, but a recent review by the U.S. National Toxicology Program noted that “In recognition of … the clear evidence of effects in laboratory animals, the NTP judges the scientific evidence sufficient to conclude that DEHP may adversely affect human reproduction or development if exposures are sufficiently high.”
shareMORE – See The Endocrine Disruption Exchange |
Ag-Mart fined by New Jersey for peticide violations
shareMORE – See previous PANUPS coverage of AgMart |
California debate on VOCs continues in budget fight
According to the Fresno Bee, “bugs have invaded state budget talks as the debate heats up over clean-air rules farmers must follow” when spraying smog-forming pesticides. GOP leaders Mike Villines of Clovis and Dave Cogdill of Modesto are seeking to weaken regulations “that are critical to cleaning the polluted air in their Valley districts” and “are part of a long-running push by Republicans to get concessions on a host of environmental regulations” in return for supporting the Governor’s proposed state budget. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the Valley have created numerous public health problems, including farmworker and community poisoning and high asthma rates. In 2006, a federal judge ruled that the state Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) ignored clean air laws for pesticides. The judge ordered regulations to be tightened to cut pesticide emissions in the Valley by 20% from 1991 levels. DPR won an appeal to overturn the ruling in August 2008, and officials are now finalizing new regulations that call for a smaller decrease — a 12% cut from 1990 levels. Republicans are seeking to put that figure into law, according to language of a proposal circulating in the Capitol. “We’re going to do everything in our power to stop [DPR’s] misguided regulations and Republicans’ attempt to further steal public health protections from rural residents,” said Brent Newell, legal director for the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. Last week, Californians for Pesticide Reform and PAN launched an online action urging Governor Schwarzenegger to reject this GOP-backed budget trailer.
shareMORE – Californians take action: Call the Governor |
New report exposes logging company’s herbicide use
shareMORE – See EE News Landletter (registration required) |
USDA gives approval to new pesticide-promoting GE corn
The Center for Food Safety has issued an action alert asking consumers to pressure USDA to halt the approval of of a new pesticide-promoting variety of genetically engineered corn. According to the alert, this GE corn variety was developed by DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International to tolerate applications of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) and acetolactate synthase-inhibiting herbicides (ALS inhibitors). The Center for Food Safety warns that USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has failed to address a range of health and environmental risks in its draft environmental assessment, including concerns over food safety and increased pesticide use. Take Action and tell USDA to stop the approval of this new GE corn and complete a thorough Environmental Impact Statement before making a decision.
shareMORE – See Center for Food Safety |
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