USA:

EPA APPROVES TOXIC PESTICIDE DESPITE PROTESTS BY 54 SCIENTISTS:

The United Farm Workers of the USA is calling for public support for a campaign demanding that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rescind their registration of Methyl Iodide as an approved fumigant for agricultural use. The manufacturer of the fumigant, Arysta, has spent 8 years and 11 million dollars to have the chemical approved. It also doesn't hurt to have an "in". Former Arysta CEO and President Elin Miller is now EPA North West Region Director of the EPA.

Molly Note: This is an all too frequent occurrence that says a lot about the "political way to reform". Staffing environmental oversight organizations with personnel from the very industries that they are supposed to regulate is only one example. The attraction of the left for bureaucratic solutions guarantees the perpetuation of this sort of thing. Environmental regulation is merely one example amongst dozens.

According to the Los Angeles Times this approval has happened despite the protests of 54 scientists, including 5 Nobel laureates in chemistry. The 54 scientists said that "pregnant women and the fetuses, children, the elderly, farm workers and other people living near application sites would be at serious risk". The signers of the petition against its approval have called for an independent review by the National Research Council.

The United Farm Workers, representing farm workers who will be on the "front line" of exposure to this chemical, have called for a public campaign to pressure the EPA to reverse its decision to authorize use of this chemical. You can read more and join this campaign at http://www.ufaction.org/campaign/methyl_iodide_1007/5uuwwurodn5m86? .

Molly Note:

Methyl Iodide is what is known as a "fumigant", rather than a "pesticide" as said in the above title. This means that it is used to essentially "sterilize" the soil in a field before planting. This may seem strange from a typical agricultural perspective, but it makes a perverted sort of "sense" in the context of industrial agriculture. For information on the toxicity of Methyl Iodide see Methyl Iodide Factsheet. For more information on the campaign against the use of methyl iodide see the Pesticide Action Network North America and their article 'Why US EPA Should Reverse Its Methyl Iodide Decision'.