| Yeah, I know, saying "toxic pesticide" is rather redundant, but that's how it is. Anyhow, I would have posted this in a Pot Luck thread, but there haven't been any in three days, so excuse the brevity (ha!) of this diary.
A major story in today's Washington Post alerted me to this "surprise" move by the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the pesticide carbofuran (2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyl methylcarbamate; marketed under the names Furadan and Curater). Carbofuran is already banned in Europe -- no surprise there -- "but it is used more heavily in developing countries on crops including rice, bananas, coffee and sugar cane. The EPA had indicated earlier this year that it would not apply the ban to imported food, but yesterday it said it will." The chemical is also used domestically for potatoes, corn and soybeans. |
| Even though I have to profess ignorance about this topic, quite frankly, I'm shocked that the Bush Administration EPA would do something in favor of human (and avian) health, bucking the wishes of the Agriculture Department and, not surprisingly, the pesticide's manufacturer.
As the Post notes, the EPA was already working towards cancelling the chemical's registration (and continues to do so), but this is a long process which the manufacturer, FMC Corporation, is challenging both in the regulatory proceedings and in federal court. (The complaint was originally filed last August in the Eastern District of Virginia, and in December, the EPA had it transferred to the District of DC. FMC then sought to have it moved again, this time to Delaware, but was unsuccessful in its attempt at "judicial ping pong". The EPA's motion for summary judgment was fully briefed prior to the transfer from Virginia, and is now pending before Judge Ricardo Urbina of the DC District Court.)
Here's the EPA Proposed Tolerance Revocation and Notice of Intent to Cancel, released yesterday, and the page with relevant links for the regulatory proceedings over the past few years.
The revocation proposal is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register next Wednesday, July 30, which should begin a 60-day public comment period (for a change, we're not finding out about the comment period only a couple of days before it closes). Once the proposal is open for comments, the link for doing so should be found here.
Some further background, courtesy of the Post story: The [American Bird] Conservancy and the Natural Resources Defense Council, another environmental group, had petitioned the agency to ban carbofuran residue on food on the grounds that the neurotoxin threatens animals as well as humans. Over the past four decades, the chemical has killed millions of wild birds, including golden and bald eagles, red-tailed hawks and migratory songbirds, the groups said.
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The EPA's scientific assessment found that the neurotoxin exceeded the agency's safety standard for children ages 1 to 2 by 200 percent, said Steven Bradbury, director of the EPA's special review and re-registration division.
Bradbury said that the pesticide residues are in such small concentrations that they would rarely pose a risk, but that they could if certain foods were eaten in combination. "If these exposures happen, they don't meet our rigorous standards," he said.
In proposing the ban, the EPA also overruled the Agriculture Department, which argued in written comments that federal officials should consider the benefits associated with keeping the pesticide on the market.
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There is no question that carbofuran exacts a toll on wildlife: A 2006 EPA document examining the pesticide's environmental effects found that if a flock of mallard ducks wandered into an alfalfa field within a week after the chemical was applied, 84 percent of the birds would die. The pesticide also kills bees, which have experienced an unexplained massive population collapse in recent years.
Dare we claim a preliminary victory here? |
