EPA Supports Banning Harmful Pesticide

For the first time in 20 years, the EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency, plans to ban a toxic pesticide used on common crops in the US and abroad.  The chemical, Carbofuran, has been found to be harmful humans and animals, particularly infants and toddlers.  Carbofuran is applied to about 1 percent of US crops, but is widely used around the world, including on crops imported to the US. It's been found in drinking water and food, and studies have linked the pesticide to neurological and reproductive damage. The EPA attempted to bad the pesticide two years ago, but its manufacturer, FMC Corporation, has been fighting in federal court to keep the chemical on the market. A 60-day comment period follows yesterday's decision.

As environmentalists and health experts praise the EPA's proposed ban, they are concerned about a second pesticide, they say, is just as dangerous but they are gaining little traction with the EPA.  Endosulfan is part of the same group of chemicals as DDT, which the EPA banned more than three decades ago. A coalition of farm worker, public health, and environmental groups filed a lawsuit Thursday demanding the EPA ban the pesticide.

Joshua Osborne-Klein, an attorney with Earthjustice, represents the plaintiffs in the suit.

"Over 20 other countries have banned endosulfan and many others have severley restricted its use. Also endosulfan is nominated to included to be included in Stockholm convention list of persist organic pollutants which would cause its ban almost globally. These other countries have found, as has EPA that theer are plenty Alternatives to endosulfan available so farm workers don't need it, it does not provide great benefits to agriculture, yet EPA has continued to keep in use in the United States while the rest of the world works to get rid of it."

According to the lawsuit, exposure to endosulfan may cause hyperactivity, convulsions, difficulty breathing, permanent brain damage, and death.  The suit also says a peer reviewed scientific study linked endosulfan to autism.
Osborne-Klein adds that this lawsuit is part of wider attempt to get EPA to more seriously assess the impact of pesticides on humans.

" This is the fourth or fifth lawsuit targeted at the worst pesticides on the market, and faulting EPA for not considering the risk to children, for not considering the risk to wildlife and for not really considering any objective basis for looking at benefits of pesticide when they make pesticide decisions." The EPA has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit.

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