AMERICAN LABOUR/ENVIRONMENT:

CHILDREN ARE NOT "PESTS":

The following story and appeal to pressure the US EPA about the use of farm pesticides near to schools and residential areas comes from the United Farm Workers.

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Help Protect Children From Toxic Pesticides:
Luis Medellin and his three little sisters, aged 5, 9 and 12, live in the middle of an orange grove in Lindsay, CA--a small farming town in the Central Valley. During the growing season, Luis and his sisters are awakened several times a week by the sickly smell of nighttime pesticide spraying. What follows is worse: searing headaches, nausea, vomiting.

The Medellin family’s story is not unique. From apple orchards in Washington to potato fields in Florida, drifting poisonous pesticides plague the people who live nearby--posing a particular risk to the young children of the nation's farm workers, many of whom live in industry housing at the field's edge.

This situation also often exists in schools in agricultural areas where it's not uncommom to have a school next to a field. According to a November 7 article in the Salinas Californian, "When schools use pesticides on campus, they post a warning a day before. But when acres of farmland next to classrooms are sprayed with industrial-grade chemicals, often no sign goes up."

Gonzales resident Aurora Valdez said she's fearful pesticides sprayed near Gonzales High School, where her kids attend classes, will harm her teenage sons. She said she often prays to the Virgin of Guadalupe to keep her sons from experiencing what she said her husband, Francisco, went through 12 years ago after being exposed to pesticides. "I worry constantly about pesticides," Valdez said.

That's why the UFW and a coalition of environmental groups petitioned the government to set safety standards protecting children who grow up near farms from the harmful effects of pesticide drift--the toxic spray or vapor that travels from treated fields. We're also asking officials to immediately adopt no-spray buffer zones around homes, schools, parks and daycare centers for the most dangerous and drift-prone pesticides.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken the first step in addressing this problem--opening up the petition for public comment. It's a promising sign. The agency's leadership needs to hear that you think they're on the right track. Because they'll surely be getting an earful from the pesticide industry telling them to keep the status quo. In fact, industry interests like Monsanto and CropLife have already started weighing in. If we want EPA to do the right thing and put immediate pesticide buffers in place around homes, schools, daycare centers and playgrounds, we need to push back. Please help.

In the past, the EPA has not made this issue a priority--ignoring a law Congress passed that requires the agency to protect children from all exposures to pesticide, including pesticide drift. The agency is already three years overdue in setting safety standards that protect children from drift. But there is new hope with the Obama administration. Will you please add your voice to those calling for a change?
Thank you!
http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/drift

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THE LETTER:

Please go to the link above to send the following letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

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We appreciate the opportunity to submit comments on the Petition to Protect Children From Pesticide Drift and the Draft Guidance for Pesticide Registrants on Pesticide Drift Labeling.
After years of delay under the previous administration, I am heartened to see the first step toward making sure all of our nation's children are protected from exposure to pesticides.

In 1996, Congress required the EPA to set standards by 2006 to protect children from pesticides. This deadline passed 3 years ago and the job is only partially complete. It?s great that the EPA has made some progress banning the use of some pesticides in the home and on lawns.

However, you also must protect children from these same pesticides when they drift from treated fields into nearby yards, homes, schools, parks and daycare centers. The threat to children is real and these risks must be fully evaluated.

The EPA must adopt immediate protective buffers. Without these protective buffers, children face the risk of drift exposure to such dangerous pesticides. This is simply unacceptable and must be stopped now.

Finally, the proposed general label warnings, while welcome, are not adequate alone to protect children from pesticide drift. Please adopt immediate protective buffers for the most dangerous pesticides. It may be many years before this process is complete--and children are being threatened by exposure to pesticide drift right now.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit these comments. I urge you not to let another growing season go by without taking action. The children who live, play, and go to school near our nation's fields and orchards are counting on you to protect them.

AMERICAN LABOUR:

PROTECTION FROM PESTICIDE MISUSE:

As any regular reader of this blog knows Molly is the furthest thing from a "health food nut". Quite frankly I think that the touchingly naive belief in magic words such as "organic" or "natural" reminds me of nothing more than the article of faith of a good Catholic that after magic words being said over unleavened bread and diluted wine that it is really "the body and blood of Christ". Perhaps transubstantiation may have even more logic to it. Yet...without supervision agricultural companies are more than willing to misuse chemicals to the extent that their residues actually are toxic. Because of the profit motive they are even more willing to expose their workers to obviously toxic concentrations of certain chemicals.



The following appeal for solidarity from the American United Farm Workers is about this issue, about the exposure of consumers and, especially, workers to toxic amounts of certain pesticides.
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Agricultural company wreaks havoc. Tell new EPA chief to protect us from pesticide abusers.:
N.J. fines Florida-based tomato grower one million dollars for misuse of pesticides
Calling the violations "the most serious...ever uncovered," the state Department of Environmental Protection fined a Florida tomato growing company nearly $1 million for improperly using pesticides on 17 fields it operates in New Jersey, putting workers and consumers alike in jeopardy.





Ag-Mart Produce Inc., which has an office in Cedarville, Cumberland County, is already facing fines and charges of pesticide misuse in North Carolina, where female employees claim their babies were born with serious defects...
--The Star Ledger, 1/29/08





According to news reports, New Jersey’s state Department of Environmental Protection cited Ag-Mart for hundreds of violations, claiming Ag-Mart denied state investigators access to facilities, applied pesticides to tomatoes more frequently than permitted and on 17 occasions harvested and shipped pesticide-sprayed tomatoes before they were safe for public consumption.





The state also charged Ag-Mart with careless record-keeping, failing to properly ventilate areas during pesticide use, failing to post pesticide-safety information for workers, using forbidden mixtures of pesticides and losing track of a 2.5-gallon container of toxic insecticide. The fines linked to the violations total $931,250.





In a statement put out by the NJ Department of Pesticides, Commissioner Mark N. Mauriello said, "Ag-Mart has repeatedly shown a stunning disregard of laws and regulations intended to protect the workers who harvest their tomatoes, the people who consume them and New Jersey's environment. Ag-Mart's pesticide violations are the most serious DEP inspectors have ever uncovered. We have imposed a record-high penalty not only to hold Ag-Mart accountable for their failure, but to make sure it doesn't happen again."





It’s great that New Jersey took action. But more needs to be done on a national level. We need the federal EPA to protect us from big companies like Ag-Mart who deal on a national scale and have repeat violations.





President Obama has just appointed a new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, who also hails from New Jersey. In a January 23 memo to her new EPA staff, Jackson said, “It is clear that we are not doing an adequate job of assessing and managing the risks of chemicals in consumer products, the workplace and the environment. It is now time to revise and strengthen EPA's chemicals management and risk assessment programs.”





This is an admirable goal. Please e-mail EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and tell her we look forward to seeing it put into action. The time for change is now. Her office carries the huge task of protecting the American people—consumers and farm workers alike—and we need the EPA to ensure situations such as happened with Ag-Mart do not occur again.
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THE LETTER:
Please go to THIS LINK to send the following letter to the new head of the EPA.
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Congratulations on your appointment as the new head of the Environmental
Protection Agency. It is exciting to have someone in office who can live up to
the ideals of the new Obama administration.





The American people--both consumers and farm
workers alike--need you to make one of your first priorities to protect us from
pesticides.





For example, according to The Star Ledger, on
January 29, New Jersey fined Florida-based tomato grower Ag-Mart one million
dollars for misuse of pesticides calling the violations, "the most
serious...ever uncovered." Florida based Ag-Mart Produce Inc. is already facing
fines and charges of pesticide abuse in North Carolina, where female employees
claim their babies were born with serious defects including a little boy born
without arms and legs.





The American people need the federal EPA to
shield us from big companies like Ag-Mart who deal on a national scale and or
have repeat violations.





In a January 23 memo to your new EPA staff,
you said, "It is clear that we are not doing an adequate job of assessing and
managing the risks of chemicals in consumer products, the workplace and the
environment. It is now time to revise and strengthen EPA's chemicals management
and risk assessment programs."





The United Farm Workers believes this is an
admirable goal. I look forward to seeing it put into action. Your office carries
the huge task of protecting us and we need the EPA to ensure situations such as
happened with Ag-Mart do not occur again.





Please write to tell me how you are going to
respond to these worst offenders and how you are going to ensure the present
laws are fully enforced.

AMERICAN LABOUR:

CHILDREN AT RISK FROM FARM CHEMICALS:

The following appeal is from the American United Farm Workers.For decades now the UFW has been campaigning against the use of toxic agricultural chemicals that affect not only the health of the workers but also that of their families and the people in surrounding communities. Here is their latest appeal for the US EPA to ban the use of the pesticide Endosulfan. To learn more about this chemical see this Wikipedia article and another from the Pesticide Action Network.

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Why does the US keep poisoning our children?
Deadly pesticide endosulfan banned in the European Union and 20 nations, but in the United States the EPA allows its continued use.

The UFW and a broad coalition of farm worker, public health, and environmental groups just filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop the continued use of the hazardous pesticide endosulfan. Science clearly shows that the use of this chemical puts the health of exposed farm workers and children in agricultural communities at risk. Endosulfan is part of the same family of chemicals as DDT, which the EPA banned in 1972. It is persistent in the environment and can be found in regions far from where it was applied. The EPA’s own analysis confirmed that the pesticide poses severe risks to humans and only minimal benefits to growers. Approximately 1.38 million pounds of endosulfan were used annually in the United States as of 2002--the most recent year for which national usage data are available from the EPA.

Earlier this year, more than 13,000 Americans concerned about these health and environmental risks signed a petition urging the EPA to discontinue endosulfan use. In addition more than 100 environmental and public health groups recently sent a letter to EPA’s Administrator Stephen Johnson and more than 50 international scientists, medical doctors, nurses, and other health professionals have urged the EPA to take action. To date the EPA has not responded.

There’s plenty of evidence and no need for more studies. Join us in demanding that the EPA take action. Send your e-mail today.

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Go to THIS LINK to send the following letter to the EPA:

THE LETTER:

I do not understand why the EPA refuses to do their job and protect the public from the dangerous pesticide endosulfan. The European Union and more than 20 other countries including Cambodia, the Philippines, and Tonga have already banned this toxic pesticide. In addition, it has been nominated for inclusion in the Stockholm Convention, an international treaty that bans persistent chemicals from global use.

Endosulfan is part of the same family of chemicals as DDT, which EPA banned in 1972. It is persistent in the environment and can be found in regions far from where it was applied. The EPA's own analysis confirmed that the pesticide poses severe risks to humans and only minimal benefits to growers. Approximately 1.38 million pounds of endosulfan were used annually in the United States as of 2002--the most recent year for which national usage data are available from the EPA.

Earlier this year, more than 13,000 Americans concerned about these health and environmental risks signed a petition urging the EPA to discontinue endosulfan use. In addition more than 100 environmental and public health groups recently sent a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson and more than 50 international scientists, medical doctors, nurses, and other health professionals have urged the EPA to take action.

To date the EPA has not responded. As a result the United Farm Workers & a broad coalition of farm worker, public health, and environmental groups just filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop the continued use of the hazardous pesticide endosulfan.

The science clearly shows that the use of this chemical puts the health of exposed farm workers and children in agricultural communities at risk. There's plenty of evidence and no need for more studies. Do your job and protect the American public by joining the European Union & 20 nations in banning this dangerous pesticide immediately.