{"id":50895,"date":"2023-11-16T14:09:43","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T22:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/?post_type=pan_blog&p=50895"},"modified":"2023-11-16T15:15:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T23:15:10","slug":"danger-of-chlorpyrifos","status":"publish","type":"pan_blog","link":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/news\/danger-of-chlorpyrifos\/","title":{"rendered":"Danger of chlorpyrifos revealed over time"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been over a decade since the moment I felt the droplets of pesticides on my head and shoulders as a crop duster flew over our farm in Iowa.\u00a0 To be precise, it has been 11 years, 3 months and 18 days since a mix of chlorpyrifos and two other pesticides was dumped on the western portion<\/a> of our farm, coating our vegetable crops, our poultry, our bees, and our person, with an unwanted cocktail of poisons.\u00a0 If you cannot tell by this introduction, that moment was a pivotal point for my farm and my life.<\/p>\n

So, I was among those who were glad to hear that EPA effectively banned chlorpyrifos on food and feed crops in 2021<\/a>, by setting tolerance levels<\/a> of that pesticide on food to zero.\u00a0 While it did not solve the problems of drift and pesticide misapplication I have experienced, I knew this step was an important one.\u00a0 And now, I am among those who are equally dismayed by a recent court ruling that reversed EPA\u2019s action<\/a> to limit use of this dangerous insecticide.<\/p>\n

Chlorpyrifos injury starts the journey<\/h3>\n

After I was coated with pesticides during the 2012 incident at our farm, I was left with the question, \u201cNow what do I do?\u201d\u00a0 After a quick call to a trusted doctor, I ended up taking a shower for the next half hour.\u00a0 But the damage was done.\u00a0 I ended up having to seek treatment for breathing problems and I found that I sunburned much more easily during the weeks that followed.<\/p>\n

That was my first truly meaningful introduction to chlorpyrifos – an acute pesticide poisoning caused by an aerial applicator that wasn\u2019t terribly concerned about where they dropped the chemical.\u00a0 Prior to that, it was just another pesticide that row crop farmers used on their crops every year.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t like it, but I lived in Iowa and that\u2019s how it was.\u00a0 I was just like other members in a rural community – we just dealt with it.<\/p>\n

I also farmed, but I had opted not to use any form of chemical pesticide, preferring to use crop rotation<\/a>, intercropping<\/a> and wild spaces<\/a> to deal with pests and diseases.\u00a0 So, while I was aware that other farmers used them, I didn\u2019t really concern myself too much with the details of particular chemicals<\/a> or formulations.\u00a0 I was more concerned that their applications of pesticides stay on their side of the fence.<\/p>\n

But after experiencing this misapplication, I became invested in learning about chlorpyrifos and other pesticides.\u00a0 And, what I was learning moved me from having a general concern that pesticides were a philosophical problem to a growing realization that they posed a great danger to us all.<\/p>\n

Chlorpyrifos drifts easily<\/h3>\n

A few years later, in 2015, our farm participated in PAN\u2019s Drift Catcher<\/a>, a citizen-science project.\u00a0 As a participant, we were given a compressor that would pull air through test tubes with resins that would collect certain insecticides, chlorpyrifos among them, if they were there.<\/p>\n

I diligently changed the test tubes twice a day during spray season.\u00a0 I labeled each carefully and placed them in a freezer until all of the samples were collected and could be sent in for testing.\u00a0 I wrote down observations about the weather and took notes about who in the area was spraying.<\/p>\n

When the results came back<\/a>, we learned that we had \u201cpositive results\u201d for chlorpyrifos.\u00a0 And this was certainly one of those times where \u201cpositive\u201d did not mean \u201cgood.\u201d\u00a0 Neither of these readings were taken at a time when one of the fields adjacent to our farm was applying pesticides.\u00a0 Instead, both readings came at a time when the target field was at least a half-mile away.<\/p>\n

It was at this moment I learned something else.\u00a0 Chlorpyrifos drifts from its target application easily and well.\u00a0 Particle drift of pesticides occurs during the spray, or application, process.\u00a0 Smaller particles of the pesticide can be carried by the wind to locations outside of the intended spray zone.\u00a0 Some pesticides are more prone to drift than others, and chlropyrifos is among those that drift easily.<\/p>\n

\"Drift<\/p>\n

TWA – Time Weighted Average; REL – Reference Exposure Level<\/p>\n

As I reviewed our test results, I was astonished to learn that one set of positive readings was the result of an application that was over a half-mile away and, while the wind was coming our way, the wind speed did not exceed five miles an hour.<\/p>\n

I started to ask myself how much exposure people like Tammy, my partner, and I have had to chlorpyrifos over the years?\u00a0 How much did we inadvertently allow our farmworkers, often college or high school students – somebody\u2019s children – to be exposed to these chemicals?\u00a0 And what about the neighbors\u2019 children?\u00a0 Clearly chlorpyrifos travels through the air and is finding its way into our bodies.\u00a0 And we knew its use was, and still is, ubiquitous in our state.<\/p>\n

EPA needs to affirm and complete the chlorpyrifos ban<\/h3>\n

I realize that it is often difficult for people to fully appreciate and understand the dangers chlorpyrifos poses to those who are regularly exposed to it – until they or someone they care for experiences it for themselves.\u00a0 I am ashamed to admit that I was among those people.\u00a0 But now I have had some of my own experiences and I believe it is important to share them with you – hoping you will understand without going through this process of discovery by exposure.<\/p>\n

This is why it is important for the EPA to re-establish the chlorpyrifos ban on food and feed<\/a> products.\u00a0 But, that, by itself, isn\u2019t the whole story.\u00a0 The food ban does not impact corn crops for ethanol, or row crops used for seed production.\u00a0 It does not remove its availability for ornamental plants or roadside applications. This is why I believe the EPA should go further and simply ban its use entirely<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s for the good of farmworkers who spend their days outdoors and in harm\u2019s way.\u00a0 It\u2019s for the children in communities who play next door to fields that receive regular applications of this chemical.\u00a0 It\u2019s for you and me, because we don\u2019t need persistent doses of this dangerous pesticide in our lives any longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is difficult to understand the dangers chlorpyrifos poses to those who are regularly exposed to it, until you have personal experience. Chlorpyrifos is dangerous and it drifts easily and residue on our food is dangerous for children. This is why it is important for the EPA to re-establish the chlorpyrifos ban on food and feed products and extend that ban to all uses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":50896,"template":"","blog_tag":[138,151,152,154,126,127,131],"pan_blog_type":[122],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog\/50895"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pan_blog"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog\/50895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"blog_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_tag?post=50895"},{"taxonomy":"pan_blog_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog_type?post=50895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}