The Myth of Safety - A Failed Regulatory
System
Excerpted from Reducing Pesticide Use in
Schools, An Organizing Manual, by Gregg Small,
Pesticide
Watch Education Fund
Despite what many government agencies and
corporations tell you, pesticide products
currently on the market are not safe. There
are a multitude of flaws in the way that pesticides
are registered and in our political process
that allows corporations to influence pesticide
policy to allow the continued use of their
poisonous products.
Pesticides Known to be
Hazardous are Allowed on the Market
Even if we know that a pesticide causes severe
health and environmental impacts, including
cancer and genetic damage, it may still be
allowed for use. The United States Environmental
Protection Agency, which is responsible for
registering pesticides, determines whether
to register a pesticide by weighing the risk
associated with its use against the benefit
obtained. In other words, the EPA may determine
that a cancer-causing chemical may be used
despite its public health hazard if its “economic,
social or environmental” benefits are deemed
greater than its risk.This approach to decision-making
has flooded the market with pesticides that
are known to be hazardous. According to the
U.S. EPA, more than 96 active ingredients
known to cause cancer in animal tests are
allowed for use.Over two dozen pesticides
known to be possible hormone mimicking chemicals
which impact reproductive cycles, including
many common pesticides like atrazine and 2-4-D,
are currently in wide use.
Testing for Health and
Environmental Impacts is Incomplete
Although the EPA does require testing of
pesticides for a number of environmental and
health impacts, the vast majority of pesticides
on the market have not been fully tested.
As of March 1997, only 148 of 604 active pesticide
ingredients had complete environmental and
health impact studies as required by law.The
passage of the Food Quality Protection Act
of 1996 requires testing of all pesticides
to measure their impact on children and infants,
reversing past standards that were based on
pesticide impacts to healthy adults. However,
it will take many years for these tests to
be completed, potentially exposing many at-risk
people to continued toxic threats
What We Don't Know Can
Hurt Us
Pesticides often contain inert ingredients
in addition to the active ingredients that
are designed to kill the target pest. Inert
ingredients are added to a pesticide product
to increase its efficacy. Unfortunately, the
public is not provided information about what
inert ingredients are included in pesticide
products in most cases, despite the fact that
inert ingredients may comprise over 99% of
the total pesticide formulation and may be
significantly more toxic than the active ingredient.
A recent study found that at least 382 of
the chemicals that the U.S EPA lists as inert
ingredients were once, or currently are, also
registered as active ingredients. Among the
ingredients listed as both inert and active
ingredients are chloropicrin, which has been
linked to asthma and pulmonary edema and chlorthanonil,
a probable human carcinogen.
Corporate Interests Dominate
the System
Corporate interests have a stranglehold on
pesticide policy in the United States. They
control much of the science, public debate
and politics over how government regulates
pesticides. According to Dan Fagin and Marianne
Lavelle, authors of Toxic
Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates
Science, Bends the Law, and Endangers Your
Health, “At the most fundamental level,
the federal regulatory system is driven by
the economic imperatives of the chemical manufacturers
– to expand markets and profits – and not
by its mandate to protect public health.”Twelve
of the leading chemical companies contributed
over $7 million from 1979-1995 to Congressional
campaigns.From 1979-1994, Monsanto and Dow,
two of the leading chemical producers on the
planet, gave $42.5 million to foundations
and universities, much of it to research pesticides.An
analysis of health studies of four chemicals
(atrazine, alachlor, formaldahyde and percloroethylene)
found this astonishing fact of studies performed
on these chemicals from 1989-1995:
· Of
the 43 studies funded by industry or corporations,
74% indicated that the chemical was safe.
· Of
the 118 studies funded by non-industry scientists,
only 27% showed favorable results.
In addition, the vast majority of advice
that farmers and urban pest managers receive
comes from the chemical industry, whose profits
stem directly from the sale of their pesticide
products, not from their ability to manage
pests safely with non-toxic alternatives.
In California, only 2.6% of the state Department
of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) budget is for
research into alternatives.
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