Pesticides and You News from Beyond Pesticides: Protecting Health and the Environment with Science, Policy and Action Volume 28, Number 1 Spring 2008 Pesticides Trigger Parkinson’s Disease Wood Preservatives Avoid the Axe Pesticides That Disrupt Endocrine System Still Unregulated by EPA Clearing the Air of Toxic Moth Repellents Resources - Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating A Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home; and other books on raising healthy children Letter from Washington Ignoring the (Startling) Facts A poli�cized EPA travels a path out-of-step with the big public health issues his issue of Pes�cides and You captures the startling science Despite decades of review and reversals of earlier analyses, in finding on pes�cides and Parkinson’s disease at a period when acceptable the con�nuing use of toxic u�lity poles and railroad �es, Tpoli�cal tac�cs to downplay pes�cide hazard iden�fica�on EPA dismisses the human health hazards with the statement, “Where and regula�on has reached a new high. Beyond Pes�cides tracks u�lity poles are installed on home/school or other residen�al sites, the science on pes�cides on a daily basis in our Daily News Blog, child contact via the dermal or oral routes is not an�cipated since specifically shining a light on the range of scien�fic and poli�cal play ac�vi�es with or around these pole structures would not issues that we confront. But, it is not un�l you step back that things normally occur. .” How ludicrous! There is a public comment period, come into focus; and, that is what we did with the highly elevated cited in this issue, and we are launching a photo campaign in which Parkinson’s disease rates associated with pes�cide exposure. In the we ask you to help introduce reality into risk assessment by sending on-line version of the ar�cle in this issue we provide cita�ons for the EPA photos of people and animals coming into contact with u�lity 144 studies we discuss. poles in communi�es. Clearly, the failure to successfully li�gate to force EPA protec�on of public health in this arena, which Beyond Like other disease outcomes, the data connec�ng Parkinson’s to Pes�cides has done, illustrates that the underlying law governing pes�cides should give us pause --and then our sense of outrage pes�cides, the Federal Insec�cide, Fungicide and Roden�cide Act should kick in, advocacy skills take over, and campaigns to ban toxic (FIFRA), is severely broken and in need of serious reform. Un�l that pes�cides ramp up. �me, the registra�on and risk assessment of pes�cides can offer the public no confidence in product safety. The new informa�on in this issue can be viewed with a sense of op�mism --because as the science on pes�cide hazards keeps Endocrine Disruptors pouring in, and as the poli�cs try to overwhelm the science, When we went back to check-in with EPA’s 11-year old statutory there is a strengthened basis for challenging current thinking and mandate to evaluate pes�cides that cause endocrine disrup�on, regulatory failures, and new jus�fica�on for just saying no to toxics we found that despite scien�fic concern about human and aqua�c in our communi�es, and yes to non-toxic prac�ces, products, and toxicity, EPA s�ll does not have its endocrine system review protocol precau�onary policies. We have come to expect recent events like in place and its list of 73 pes�cides and inert ingredients to be those with bisphenol A (BPA) in plas�c bo�les, where EPA is on the reviewed at some date in the future contains only 29 chemicals that sidelines watching the BPA-plas�c bo�le market crash, as consumers are iden�fied as known or suspected endocrine disruptors by other react, retailers pull products from their shelves, manufacturers begin scien�fic bodies. Why wouldn’t EPA start its review with already recalls, and state legislatures and even Congress discuss bans. suspected chemical endocrine disruptors iden�fied by the European Union and scien�sts? GAO to Congress: Take Politics Out of EPA Risk Assessment Farm Bill As consumers take measures into their own hands, the Union of In light of these moun�ng and seemingly unending deficiencies, we Concerned Scien�sts, reported in this issue, released its findings that jumped into high gear to strike from the final Farm Bill a provision 889 of nearly 1,600 EPA staff scien�sts say that they have experienced (included in the House version) that would prohibit the Secretary poli�cal interference in their work over the last five years. Then of Agriculture, in carrying out USDA’s conserva�on programs, from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) tes�fied before “discrimina�ng against” pes�cides. With this provision, pushed by Congress on April 29, 2008 that EPA’s risk review process is plagued the pes�cide industry, USDA would be prohibited from assis�ng by delays, a lack of transparency, and interference from the White farmers to avoid poorly regulated pes�cides that are contamina�ng House and other agencies. In short, GAO concludes that the agency’s the environment. We helped rally over 60 organiza�ons in opposi�on science is poli�cized, outdated, secret, and threatens the protec�on and are, at press �me, wai�ng on the final outcome. of people and the environment from harmful chemical exposures. GAO cites a lengthy assessment process, and a lack of transparency Doing without Toxic Pesticides prac�ces that are needed to “provide assurance that IRIS [Integrated This all adds up to the increasingly drama�c need to avoid toxic Risk Informa�on System] assessments are appropriately based on the pes�cides. So, we again, in this issue, provide some prac�cal best available science and that they are not inappropriately biased solu�ons for managing insects where we by policy considera�ons.” GAO cites cases where the White House do not want them, namely clothes moths terminated reviews. The tes�mony cites the dioxin assessment as in our closets. Our approach is to assist an “example of an IRIS assessment that has been, and will likely in iden�fying the underlying cause of con�nue to be, a poli�cal as well as a scien�fic issue.” pest problems and then advise correc�ve measures. The non-toxic solu�ons are Wood Preservatives Avoid the Axe within reach! In a poli�cized science context, EPA published its revised risk assessment in April for the most toxic chemicals and their Jay Feldman is execu�ve director of Beyond contaminants known to humankind --persistent organic pollutants. Pes�cides. Contents Pesticides and You © 2008 (ISSN 0896-7253) is published 4 times a year by Beyond Pesti- cides. Beyond Pesticides, founded in 1981 as the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides (NCAMP), is a voice for health and the environment, promoting protection from pesticides and safe alternatives; dona- tions are tax-deductible. National Headquarters: 701 E Street, SE, Washington DC 20003 ph: 202-543-5450 fx: 202-543-4791 email: [email protected] website: www.beyondpesticides.org Articles in this newsle�er may be repro- duced without Beyond Pesticides’ permission unless otherwise noted. Please credit Beyond Pesticides & Pesticides for reproduced material. Parkinson’s BEYOND PESTICIDES STAFF Page 14 Jay Feldman, Executive Director John Kepner, Project Director Jane Philbrick, Public Education Associate Nichelle Harrio�, Research Associate Mike Boeck, IPM and Health Care Facility 2 Mail Project Director Stop Sprays for Light Brown Apple Moth; Keeping Kagan Owens, Senior Project Associate Poisons Away from Pets; Daily News Blog entries Terry Shistar, Ph.D., Science Consultant PESTICIDES AND YOU 4 Washington, DC Jay Feldman, Publisher, Editor Hundreds of EPA Scien�sts Report Poli�cal Jay Feldman, John Kepner, Jane Philbrick, Interference; Lawsuit Challenges EPA on Four Nichelle Harrio�, Kagan Owens, Deadly Pes�cides; Ac�vists Fight Pro-Pes�cide Contributors Provision Passed in House Version of the Farm Bill; John Kepner, Layout Intersex Frogs More Common in Suburban Areas BOARD OF DIRECTORS Page 9 Robina Suwol, president, California Safe 6 Around the Country Schools, Van Nuys, CA Ag-Mart Se�les Pes�cide Birth Defect Case; Maine Rou� Riegart, M.D., vice-president, Medical Passes GE Crop Bill to Protect Farmers; Report University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC , secretary, Kaw Valley Shows Organic Foods Higher in Nutrients; Ontario Terry Shistar, Ph.D. Greens, Lawrence, KS To Ban Lawn Pes�cide Use, Home Depot Stops Lani Malmberg, treasurer, Ecological Ser- Sales; Experts Discuss the Greening of Golf Courses vices, Lander, WY Caroline Cox, at-large, Center for Environ- mental Health, Oakland, CA 9 Wood Preservatives Avoid Ruth Berlin, LCSW-C, Maryland Pesticide the Axe Network, Annapolis, MD Shelley Davis, Farmworker Justice Fund, Washington, DC 11 Pesticides That Disrupt Lorna Donaldson, Donaldson Family Farm, Endocrine System Still Tiptonville, TN Jay Feldman, Beyond Pesticides, Unregulated by EPA Page 13 Washington, DC Tessa Hill, Kids for Saving Earth 14 Pesticides Trigger Parkinson’s Disease Worldwide, Plymouth, MN Chip Osborne, Orborne Organics, Marblehead, MA 21 Clearing the Air of Toxic Moth Repellents Warren Porter, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI Jim Riddle, University of Minnesota Organic 24 Resources Ecology Program, Winona, MN Healthy Child Healthy World: Crea�ng A Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home; Green Floribella Redondo, Campesinos Sin Fronteras, Yuma, AZ Babies, Sage Moms: The Ul�mate Guide to Raising Your Organic Baby; Raising Allen Spalt, Toxic Free North Carolina, Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care Carrboro, NC Andrea Kidd Taylor, DrPH, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD Printed on 100% post consumer waste with soy inks.