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InstagramGuest Column: Paraquat and the deliberate production of ignorance
Nearly 60 years ago, a chemical company found that skin exposure to very high doses of its weedkiller paraquat caused “weakness and incoordination” in rabbits.
EPA
Almost nobody on Earth is safe from air pollution, study says
Nearly the entire global population is regularly exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution, according to a study published this week.
Researchers at Monash University in Australia analyzed air pollution data from across the globe between 2000 and 2019 to estimate global daily exposure to PM 2.5, a type of air pollution made up of inhalable particles 2.5 micrometers or smaller. The particles can enter the bloodstream through the lungs and contribute to an array of health problems, including premature death, asthma, and heart disease.
The team found that between 2000-2019, only 0.18% of the world’s land area and only 0.001% of the world’s population — about 78,000 people — had annual PM 2.5 exposure lower than the 2021 air pollution guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO’s guidelines recommend that a person’s annual exposure to PM2.5 should not exceed 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
“Almost no one is safe from air pollution,” said Yuming Guo, an author on the study and a professor of environmental health at Monash University. “All people might face serious air pollution.”
The new findings come as the United States and countries around the world are wrestling with how to regulate harmful air pollution, which was estimated to cause almost 7 million premature deaths in 2019, according to one study. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed lowering its standards for annual exposure to PM2.5 from the current standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to between 9 and 10 micrograms per cubic meter, a measurement it said reflects “the latest health data and scientific evidence.”
California pushes ahead with its new pesticide-reduction plan
By Pam Strayer and Carey Gillam
Amid mounting evidence of the risks some synthetic pesticides pose to human and environmental health, California regulators this week were pushing ahead with a recently announced “roadmap” aimed at transitioning the state to more sustainable options for managing weeds and insects,
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), in partnership with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), held two public webinars on Thursday seeking to explain the details of the plan – and bolster support for it – as the state nears the March 13 close of the public comment period on the proposal.
State officials announced the plan in January, saying the goal is to eliminate the use of “high-risk pesticides” by 2050 to “better protect the health of our communities and environment, while supporting agriculture, food systems and community well-being.”
That message was underscored in Thursday’s event: “The evolving science about risks and impacts from certain pesticide uses on our health and our environment, which too commonly impacts communities already overburdened by other environmental hazards, point to the importance of accelerating this system-wide shift,” Clare Mendelsohn deputy secretary for public policy at California Environmental Protection Agency, said in the evening webinar.
State officials say the Sustainable Pest Management (SPM) plan is visionary and will significantly overhaul harmful agricultural practices in the state, helping protect farmworkers and others put at risk through exposure to pesticides known to be harmful to human health.
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross has said that once implemented, the recommendations would “ensure an abundant and healthful food supply, protect our natural resources, and create healthy, resilient communities.”
But some say the plan falls short in many respects, and that faster and more aggressive actions are needed to protect and enhance soil health, adapt to climate change, and protect human health.
EPA announces $250 million for states, local communities to fight climate pollution
By Shannon Kelleher
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that is offering $250 million in grants for states, cities, tribes, and territories to further US goals of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, promoting clean energy, and supporting environmental justice.
The grants, which will be administered through the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), mark the first wave of funding for states and local communities from the $5 billion Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program, a part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Later this year, EPA plans to announce $4.6 billion in competitive grants to implement projects that recipients begin planning now.
“The climate and clean energy investments in [the Inflation Reduction Act] will drive, and in fact are already driving, new economic growth and creating good, high-paying jobs by reinvigorating American manufacturing, strengthening our clean energy supply chains, and building a clean energy future that will benefit all of us,” Kristina Costa, a deputy assistant to the president, said at at a press briefing.
States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico will be eligible to receive as much as $3 million in climate planning grants. The 67 most heavily populated US metropolitan areas will each be eligible for $1 million in grants, while the territories of Guam, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands are each eligible for up $500,000 and tribes are eligible for a total of $25 million.
“We know that eligible states, local governments, territories, and tribes are at different starting points in planning to address the challenges and opportunities posed by climate change,” Janet McCabe, EPA deputy administrator, said at the briefing. “This funding can be used to start work on a brand-new plan or to enhance work on an existing plan.”
California researchers link popular weedkiller to health problems in young adults
By Carey Gillam
Children exposed to a weedkiller commonly used in farming, as well as on residential yards and school playgrounds, appear to be at increased risk for liver inflammation and metabolic disorders in young adulthood and more serious diseases later in life, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
The research, which was conducted by several California scientists and health researchers, including from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, is the latest of many studies linking glyphosate herbicide to human health problems.
Glyphosate is better known as the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup products as well as scores of other weedkilling brands sold around the world. The chemical is considered the most widely used herbicide in history, and residues are commonly present in food and water, as well as in human urine.
Monsanto and Bayer AG, which bought Monsanto in 2018, maintain that Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides are safe when used as directed, and say the weight of scientific evidence demonstrates that safety. But more than 100,000 people in the US have alleged exposure to the weedkiller caused them to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Many independent scientific studies have linked glyphosate to cancers as well as liver disease, endocrine disruption and other health problems.
In the new study, researchers tracked 480 “mother-and-child duos” who live in the Salinas Valley of California, a key agricultural area, analyzing levels of glyphosate weed killer used in the area and levels of the weedkiller present in the urine of the mothers while they were pregnant and in the children as they grew. They also took into account levels of a degradation product of glyphosate known as AMPA in the urine of the study subjects. The researchers then assessed the liver and metabolic health of the children at the age of 18.
They concluded that higher levels of glyphosate residue and AMPA in urine in childhood and adolescence were associated with higher risk of liver inflammation and metabolic disorders in young adulthood. In addition, they found that agricultural use of glyphosate near participants’ homes from birth and up through age five was associated with metabolic disorders at age 18. Metabolic disorders in youth can lead to heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and liver disease later in life.
Both metabolic problems and liver disorders are increasing among children and young adults, according to the study.
A near-daily disaster; hazardous chemical accidents common across US
By Carey Gillam
Amid fears about the toxic chemicals released in the East Palestine train derailment, public officials have clamored to reassure community members that the resulting contaminated air, water and soil is being cleaned up, and their tiny Ohio town made safe.
In a recent press conference, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine lamented the toll taken on the residents there, saying “no other community should have to go through this.”
But an analysis of a combination of data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and by nonprofit groups that track chemical accidents in the US shows that accidental releases – be they through train derailments, truck crashes, pipeline ruptures or industrial plant leaks and spills – are happening regularly across the country. One data set shows incidents occurring, on average, every two days.
“These kinds of hidden disasters happen far too frequently,” said Mathy Stanislaus, who served as assistant administrator of the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management during the Obama administration. Stanislaus led programs focused on the cleanup of contaminated hazardous waste sites, chemical plant safety, oil spill prevention, and emergency response.
In the first seven weeks of 2023 alone, there were more than 30 incidents recorded by the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, roughly one every day and a half. Last year, the coalition recorded 188, up from 177 in 2021. The group has tallied more than 470 incidents since it started counting in April 2020.
The incidents logged by the coalition range widely in severity but each involves the accidental release of chemicals that pose potential threats to human and environmental health.
In September, nine people were hospitalized and 300 evacuated in California after a spill of caustic materials at a recycling facility. In October, officials ordered residents to shelter in place after an explosion and fire at a petrochemical plant in Louisiana.
In November, more than 1,100 gallons of firefighting foam containing toxic chemicals spilled out of a US Navy storage facility in Hawaii where a prior fuel leak had already contaminated drinking water and made some people ill. Also in November, more than 100 residents of Atchinson, Kansas were treated for respiratory problems and schools were evacuated after an accident at a beverage manufacturing facility created a chemical cloud over the town.
Among multiple incidents in December, an explosion at a biodiesel plant in Iowa injured 10 people and forced the evacuation of many others, and a large pipeline ruptured in rural northern Kansas, smothering the surrounding land and waterways in 588,000 gallons of diluted bitumen crude oil. Hundreds of workers are still trying to clean up the pipeline mess at a cost pegged around $488 million.
Citing birds and bees, groups petition EPA to close pesticide loophole
By Carey Gillam
The US should overhaul regulation of a class of insecticides tied to excessive honeybee and bird deaths, according to a citizen petition filed Wednesday with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by a coalition of more than 60 nonprofit groups.
Specifically, the groups are demanding the EPA revoke a nearly 40-year-old waiver that allows pesticide companies to bring their products to market without first providing data that proves the product benefits. The groups say the waiver dates back to a 1984 EPA declaration that stated: “rather than require efficacy data the Agency presumes that benefits exceed risks”.
The petition, which was submitted by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the American Bird Conservancy, is aimed at turning back the use of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, or neonics, which many studies have shown to be exceptionally harmful to hundreds of species.
Environmental advocates say numerous studies show neonics are not necessary and are so detrimental to the environment that they should be banned.
“This stuff is causing all sorts of environmental problems and the environmental tragedy is multiplied because in many cases these insecticides provide farmers no benefit but at the same time they’re doing all this damage,” said Peter Jenkins, a lawyer with PEER.
The European Union has banned the outdoor use of certain types of neonics, and the United Nations has said neonics are so hazardous that they should be “severely” restricted. But in the US, the pesticides remain widely used, typically as coatings on corn and soybean seeds planted by farmers to protect crops from insects and disease. Neonicotinoids are used across on an estimated 150m acres of US farmland annually.
When used as seed coatings, neonics are absorbed through the roots of plants as they grow. Residues of the chemicals can persist for years in the environment and are blamed, along with other pesticides, for a so-called “insect apocalypse.”
University under fire for handling of professor who testifies against Monsanto
By Carey Gillam
(UPDATED to include news that University drops restrictions on Carpenter.)
University officials in New York are wrongfully restricting the activities of a long-tenured professor and are helping Monsanto-owner Bayer AG undermine the professor’s credibility as an expert witness in litigation over the harmful impacts of toxic chemicals, according to a complaint submitted to the university on Tuesday.
The complaint was filed with the University at Albany by the Washington, D.C.-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), an advocacy group representing public employees involved in environmental work, on behalf of David Carpenter, director of the university’s Institute for Health and the Environment. The university is part of the State University of New York (SUNY).
The University at Albany has come under fire for taking various actions to limit Carpenter’s work over the last year, including banishing him from campus and barring him from teaching classes. The complaint alleges that the university did so because of pressure from the chemical industry, causing “social, emotional and reputational harm” to Carpenter.
“Dr. Carpenter’s work has drawn the ire of chemical companies because it provides scientific evidence of the toxicity and health impacts of their products and supports compensation for those who have been injured,” PEER states in its complaint. “It appears that the actions taken against Dr. Carpenter make the University complicit in an effort to silence him and undermine the credibility of his research and expert testimony regarding the health impacts of toxic chemicals.”
Supporters of Carpenter are planning a rally at the state capitol building in Albany on Thursday. They have also set up a website to support him, and have launched a petition drive demanding he be fully re-instated at the university. Roughly 900 people had signed the petition as of Monday.
The university issued a statement Tuesday saying the issue with Carpenter is a “matter of compliance and is wholly independent of the content of the testimony, the parties to the litigation or the work being performed.”
The university further said that it has a responsibility “to operate with the highest legal and ethical standards, and to follow the law and procedures without undue consideration of external influence and pressure.”
Guest column: Protecting industrial workers from toxic chemicals
February started with news that’s all too familiar in the United States: An incident involving highly toxic industrial chemicals sparked a large fire, threatening an explosion, forcing evacuations, and putting workers and community members directly in harm’s way.
Bill to strengthen pesticide protections offers farm bill “wish list”
By Shannon Kelleher
Advocates are cheering US Senator Cory Booker’s recent move to reintroduce a bill that would strengthen legal protections against dangerous pesticides used in agriculture. However, the bill may face a steep uphill journey towards being signed into law.
The measure, titled “Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act of 2023” (PACTPA) would ban several widely used pesticides that have been linked through scientific research to a number of human and environmental health problems.
“We’d like to see the Senate and House agriculture committees look at this as a wish list,” said Christina Stucker-Gassi, a program manager at the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides. “They have the budget, they have the authority to look at that wish list and advance on some of [these issues] within the [2023] Farm Bill process,” she said, referring to a package of legislation passed every five years that could be one channel for moving PACPTA priorities forward.
PACPTA would especially benefit children, farmworkers, and rural communities, who suffer disproportionately from exposure to these toxic chemicals, according to Stucker-Gassi. The bill would help enable local communities to enact their own protective legislation against harmful pesticides and would put in place strict rules requiring employers of farmworkers to report pesticide-related injuries.
“It’s high time that farmworkers are included within the farm bill in substantial ways,” said Stucker-Gassi.
Booker initially introduced the bill in 2021 but it failed to gain traction amid strong resistance from powerful farm lobbying groups and the agrochemical industry, which reaps billions of dollars in revenues from pesticide sales.