pesticides

Today, January 6 2010, marks the initial day of a new pesticide task force for North Carolina--The Interagency Task Force on Agricultural Pesticide Exposure. Here's what our friends at Toxic Free NC have to say about the new group:

"[The task force's] charge is to make recommendations for improving pesticide safety rules and programs in North Carolina, so that everyone who works or lives on a farm will be better protected from toxic pesticides. [It] is made up of fourteen experts from various state agencies, including Pubic Health, Agriculture, Environment and Cooperative Extension. But when the task force meets this week, there’s one important perspective that will be missing: farm workers."

Since the farm workers are the ones in the fields every day, cultivating crops, harvesting goods, and maintaining fields; AND they are the population most directly affected by pesticide use, we need to make sure the new task force has a good understanding of their needs and their hopes for change.

Toxic Free NC is asking citizens to contact the members of the new task force with this powerful video, highlighting the lives of farm workers in North Carolina. You can also check out the video here:

[This blog entry has been cross posted from Toxic Free North Carolina's weblog, Fair Ground, where it was originally posted by Toxic Free NC guest blogger Allen Spalt.]

Today is the 25th anniversary of the disaster at Bhopal, India.

When the badly designed and improperly maintained chemical tank failed at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal and sent a cloud of deadly methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas over the city killing thousands in the middle of the night, it was the world's works industrial "accident." It also poisoned thousands of others with health effects that linger today (for those who have survived that long).

For me, it is a strong reminder and impetus for our work. It was also totally unnecessary in at least two ways.

First, the pesticides being manufactured there, carbaryl (Sevin) and Aldicarb, can be made with a 'flow through' process that does not require the use of intermediate holding tanks for the MIC which is used in the manufacture of the final products. In fact, at the time, Bhopal's sister plant in Institute, West Virginia, did not contain such tanks. Better oversight and maintenance might have prevented the leaks, of course, but in fact the tanks were not even necessary. Just cheaper. So to save a few bucks on the process and on maintenance, Union Carbide risked the lives of tens of thousands.

Second, we work to promote alternatives which would make the manufacture of such deadly pesticides unnecessary. You don't need Sevin or Aldicarb or other similar deadly poisons in sustainable or organic agriculture. Every acre that is converted means fewer pounds of poison manufactured, sold, used, or disposed of. Fewer people at risk. Less residues in the water, soil, and food. Safer environments for our children and wildlife.

Someday it will be recognized that what has been called "conventional agriculture" for the last few decades was anything but. It is horribly out of sync with the tradition of agriculture over the centuries. With chemical intensive monocultures, it is depleting the soil and poisoning the water. It is not sustainable. The latest gasp of bioengineered crops, which promised more productivity and fewer chemicals, are proving to provide neither. They are less productive and require more herbicides and other pesticides. You know, if there is one thing the geniuses from Monsanto could select for besides Roundup-resistance, it would be greater productivity. But they haven't found it in any genetically engineered crop. More than a few critics from our side of the barn predicted this.

It is not a question of whether will we replace "conventional" agriculture with sustainable production, it is when. Otherwise we will not be sustained as a civilization.

Most indicators, fortunately, are not as dramatic as Bhopal, but they are pointing in our direction. I am proud to work with all of you on this important work to promote health and safety and to point the way to a sustainable future. Getting rid of pesticides is one important part of the struggle.

Union Carbide did not survive the aftermath of the incident, though it never paid fully for its responsibility. Its assets were sold. Work continues under other owners in RTP. The Bhopal plant was bought by Dow, which contends it has no responsibility to the victims.

On the tenth anniversary I was giving a workshop at a meeting in Atlanta and asked for a moment of silence for Bhopal. I was moved when one participant introduced himself as having grown up in Bhopal. He is one of three or four people I've met from there, the others are survivors of the disaster. Today I will take time out to remember them and others and rededicate to the task.

Join us in commemorating the Bhopal anniversary by taking action for justice in Bhopal.

Our friends at Toxic Free NC have been publishing weekly tips for the green home on a local blog: NewRaleigh.com.  But, these tips are great for wherever you live!  Take this week's installment: Attack of the Cockroaches:

Lots of people have been fighting the cockroach battle lately it seems, myself included.

Oh, how I hate them. Unlike spiders and bees and the like, I have no qualms about killing cockroaches (or for that matter mosquitoes, fleas, and anything else that’s equally gross). I’m sorry beautiful nature where everything has its rightful place in the grand ecological system, and the seasons turn turn turn and all that stuff - I don’t care. Cockroaches deserve to die.

So, I understand the impulse to scream and run for the can of Raid, or even the bug bomb, and nuke the little [buggers]. But people, please get ahold of yourselves...

Click here to read all of their great tips!

Now that we've figured out how to embed videos in our website, I can't help myself...so here's another video!

This is an an awesome short video (less than 5 minutes long) from staff and interns at Toxic Free North Carolina about farmworkers' exposure to pesticides. In this day and age, all it takes is a worthwhile cause, some dedicated people, and a little video camera to make a big impact.

Locally-grown, sustainably-produced food is good for the environment, the local economy, eaters and farmers. The farmer’s market shoppers and CSA farm members among you have known about this for a long time, but government officials are finally catching on.

On Thursday, August 6th, the NC House approved and the Senate concurred on S1067, the North Carolina Sustainable Local Foods Policy Council. Now all it needs is the governor's signature, and it will be official! The Council created by this new law, once enacted, will address barriers to a thriving local food economy in NC. Better food policy can help us cope with crises like the economic downturn, an epidemic of obesity, and even climate change.

For more information, click here.

[This blog entry has been cross posted from Toxic Free North Carolina's weblog, Fair Ground, where it was originally posted by Toxic Free NC Executive Director Fawn Pattison.]

We've all done our homework and gotten the pesticides out of our homes, yards and gardens, right? Many of us have even worked with our schools over the years to get them to switch to safer Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs. But what about child care centers?

A new report out this week from Toxic Free North Carolina, Avoiding Big Risks for Small Kids, takes a look at how child care centers are managing pests in our state – and reveals a less-than-heartening picture. Compared with public schools, who are rapidly adopting IPM in North Carolina, child care centers are lagging way behind.

Most of the child care centers we surveyed use old-fashioned, higher-risk practices like broadcast pesticide spraying inside the facilities. Even when the center contracted with professionals, the survey found both widespread overuse of pesticides, and a troubling lack of safety precautions like warning signs or safety information provided about the chemicals being used.

The survey also found very limited adoption of safer practices, such as IPM. The US EPA recommends IPM for schools, child care centers and other sensitive areas because it focuses on preventing pest problems and minimizing pesticide spraying. In contrast with NC public schools, child care centers have hardly begun to adopt this common-sense practice. Fewer than 24% of child care providers reported using practices that qualify as IPM – but those who did also reported fewer serious pest problems.

So what can parents & child care providers do about this? Check out the list of five questions that parents should ask their child care providers to find out what they’re doing. There's also a resource for child care providers on how to contract for safer pest management in their facilities.

We know well that kids and pesticides don't mix, but this report makes clear that North Carolina child care providers still need to hear that message. So let's get it out there!

Download the report, get the fact sheets and learn more at Toxic Free NC's website.

[This blog entry has been cross posted from Toxic Free North Carolina's weblog, Fair Ground, where it was originally posted by Toxic Free NC volunteer Sylvia Durell.]

A new report linking exposure to two chemicals with Gulf War syndrome was recently presented to the US Secretary of Veterans Affairs. One was a drug given to soldiers to protect against nerve gas, and the other a pesticide applied to protect against sand fleas. According to the authors of an article that appeared in November in the LA Times, titled Report to Congress: Gulf War Syndrome is Real, this latest report to Congress contradicts nearly two decades of government denials that the syndrome is real.

Dr. Beatrice Golomb is an associate professor at the UCSD School of Medicine who headed up the team that worked on the report to Congress. She links the chronic fatigue, severe muscle pain, memory loss and other illnesses that about 250,000 Persian Gulf War veterans are experiencing to the drug pyridostigmine bromide they were given to protect against nerve gas attacks, and exposure to organophosphate pesticides.

It is really frightening to know that many organophosphate insecticides are still registered for use in the United States. These powerful nerve poisons are closely related in chemical structure to sarin and other nerve gases used as chemical weapons. For more information about organophosphate pesticides and what you can do to help get them off the market, check out PANNA's campaign on organophosphates.

There is a rather alarming article in today's News & Observer, regarding contaminated well-water in Rockingham, Richmond, Moore, and Montgomery counties (the "Sandhills").

From the N&O:

"Tests have found 117 tainted wells in Montgomery, Richmond and Moore counties in the past year, 77 of those at unsafe levels. The number continues to grow as alarmed residents have their water analyzed...

Contamination levels as high as 55 times the federal safe drinking-water standard have been detected...

The chemicals have intimidating names: the pesticides dibromochloropropane, called DBCP, and 1,2-dichloropropane; and an associated chemical, 1,2,3-trichloropropane."

Apparentely, in the 1940s and 1950s, this area was known for its peach orchards. Strong pesticides were routinely applied to the orchards to kill nematodes infesting the plants. These chemicals were banned in 1977, but the damage had been done, and over time, the tainted soil leached into ground wells, causing contamination at 55 times a "safe" level, and human health effects still being researched. Judging from this recounting of a resident of the area, the whole thing sounds all too much like the Erin Brockovich story:

"But off Fox Road, doubts about her family's health grow along with the algae that has turned Lisa England's swimming pool green. She's been advised not to use the pool, which is full of contaminated well water.

England, a 48-year-old former correctional officer, has suffered strokes and seizures and can no longer work. Her grown daughter, Tiffany, who lives at home, has had undiagnosed bouts of vomiting for two years. One of the family's Labrador retrievers, Buck, died of bone cancer."

It will be interesting to see how much more research is done to investigate the possible long-term health effects on the well-water users. In the meantime, we can only hope they get the clean water that they need from public health officials.

Today's News & Observer's frontpage features a story that we've discussed many times on our blog. It's the story of of a small boy named Carlitos, who was born in 2004, without arms or legs; as well as the story of several other children born with deformities near the same time.

What do these babies have in common? Their parents had been workers for Ag-Mart, a giant company based out of Florida that grows tomatoes. After a state investigation, Ag-Mart was cited for hundreds of pesticide violations--violations that the parents of Carlitos feel were the cause of their son's birth defects. Through administrative hearings over the years, most of the violations against Ag-Mart were thrown out, and the company was given a slap on the wrist and a fine of $6,000.

Most recently, this past February the NC Pesticide Board rejected the rulings of the judges and revived the case. In March, Ag-Mart agreed to pay for Carlitos' life-long care, but deny any relation between the pesticide spraying violations and the young boy's deformities.

Yesterday, the Pesticide Board held hearings against Ag-Mart, and the parents of Carlitos finally got a chance to give their testimony. From the N&O:

"On Wednesday, she and the boy's father said they were repeatedly exposed to pesticides while working on a North Carolina tomato farm run by Ag-Mart. Herrera was pregnant at the time.

'It happened morning, noon and evening,' Herrera said at a Wednesday state Pesticide Board hearing. Sprayers 'would pass by close to where we were working. They didn't care if we were eating.'"

What this all means, no one is sure yet. At least the parents of Carlitos finally had the chance to stand up and be heard. We'll report back as the story develops.

For more background on this issue, see the blog posts below or check out Toxic Free NC's blog post.

4/28/08: Pesticide Task Force Punts on the Tough Issues

3/19/08: Ag-Mart Case Drones On

1/9/07: It's Not Over Till It's Over

8/30/06: Ag-Mart Part II

4/19/06: The Tip of the Injustice Iceberg

In case you haven't kept up with the loss of our nation's bee colonies, also known as colony collapse disorder, here is some information (quotes from Sabine Vollmer, News & Observer, 8/22/08) about the not-so-sweet situation.

"A Bayer CropScience pesticide (Chlothianidine) is at the center of a legal battle for research data that could help explain what's killing U.S. honeybees in large numbers.

The lawsuit, filed (August 18) in a Washington, D.C., federal court, accuses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of hiding the honeybee data."

It seems that the problem is not just limited to the United States

"Chlothianidine is made to coat corn, sugar beets and sorghum seeds and protect them from pests. But the chemical has the potential to be very toxic for bees. Three months ago, German regulators banned chlothianidine and related chemicals after the family of pesticides was blamed for the destruction of about 11,000 bee colonies earlier this year."

A sobering statistic, for why this is such an important issue:

"The phenomenon, also known as colony collapse disorder, threatens a significant portion of the U.S. food supply. About one out of every three mouthfuls in the U.S. diet stems from crops pollinated by bees."

To read more about this issue, check out the links below and let us know what you think. 

Pesticide data may tell why bees die, published in the News & Observer on 8/22/08.

Bayer on defensive in bee deaths, published on 8/26/08.

Bayer points to lack of data in bee deaths, published on 8/28/08.