(Beyond Pesticides, August 6, 2010) Organic farmers and gardeners across a Washington state county suspect that herbicide-contaminated manure and compost obtained from non-organic farms and dairies are responsible for severe crop loss reported throughout the region, raising questions about the adequacy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) pesticide registration process. Tests of soil and [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, August 3, 2010) A new study shows that due to a flaw in standard risk assessments, which consider toxic effects at fixed exposure times, the risks posed by the neonicotinoid pesticides imidacloprid and thiacloprid are likely to be underestimated. The authors believe that minute quantities of imidicloprid may be playing a much larger [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, June 8, 2010) An Indian court in Bhopal, India, capital of Madhya Pradesh, found chemical company Union Carbide guilty of negligence and convicted eight former senior employees for their role in the world’s worst industrial disaster that killed thousands. The verdict came 25 years after the Union Carbide gas-leak and included a sentence [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, April 23, 2010) In recognition of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Dow Chemical Company is a proud sponsor of the Dow Live Earth Run for Water. Yes, that Dow Chemical Company. The same company that manufactures some of the most hazardous pesticides in the world, that was responsible for Agent Orange, [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, December 4, 2009) Twenty-five years ago, a toxic cloud of gas from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, enveloped the surrounding city, leaving thousands dead. Anywhere between 50,000 to 90,000 lbs of the chemical methyl isocyanate (MIC) are estimated to have leaked into the air, killing approximately 8,000-10,000 people within the first [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, November 17, 2009) According to a new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, exposure to low levels of the organophosphate insecticide chorpyrifos during pregnancy can impair learning, change brain function and alter thyroid levels of offspring into adulthood for tested mice, especially females. The study, “Long-term sex selective hormonal and behavior [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, October 27, 2009) U.S. District Judge Paul Huck (Miami) has said a multimillion dollar judgment against U.S. food giant Dole and the Dow Chemical Company cannot be enforced because, “[T]he judgment was rendered under a system which does not provide impartial tribunal or procedures compatible with the requirements of due process of law, [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, March 11, 2009) The new administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lisa Jackson, has put discussions with Dow Chemical Co. concerning dioxin contamination on hold, citing a need to have the process open and transparent. Negotiations with the industry giant began in the mid-1990s over how to clean-up dioxin contamination along [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, February 17, 2009) A U.S. District Court Judge has denied a request for remediation in resolving an on-going lawsuit between the victims of the worst industrial disaster in human history in Bhopal, India and Union Carbide, the company responsible for the disaster, according to Reuters, after Union Carbide objected to the victims’ request [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, January 8, 2009) Washington State’s model health protection programs are expected to be hit hard by Governor Chris Gregoire’s proposed budget cuts despite the minimal costs of running these essential programs, according to local activists in the state. The governor’s proposed budget will decimate the Washington Department of Health (DOH) Pesticide Program, including [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, November 13, 2008) The Canadian Cancer Society is holding a conference to look at the possibility of advocating for stricter farm pesticide laws. The Cancer Society has been a vocal advocate for the cosmetic pesticide restrictions that have passed in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec as well as many municipalities, but it [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, October 30, 2008) In an effort to keep its popular yet toxic herbicide 2,4-D on the market, Dow AgroSciences has filed a notice with the Canadian government claiming that Quebec’s ban on cosmetic use of pesticides breaches legal protections under the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA). The company is likely to pursue [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, June 25, 2008) Pesticides manufactured by Bayer (Germany), Syngenta (Switzerland), Monsanto (USA), BASF (Germany) and Dow Chemical (USA) pose the biggest threat to human health and the environment, according to a new Greenpeace Germany report, “The Dirty Portfolios of the Pesticides Industry.” The report provides the first-ever ranking of the world’s leading agrochemical [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, June 2, 2008) Residential properties in Saginaw, Michigan contain unacceptably high levels of dioxin contamination, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5. Soil from the Riverside Boulevard area, a neighborhood along the Lower Tittabawassee River and downstream from the Dow Chemical Company’s manufacturing plant, was recently sampled and analyzed by EPA [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, January 23, 2008) Agribusiness giants Dow AgroSciences and Monsanto have successfully persuaded the state of Minnesota to reconsider their water-quality limit for the chemical, acetochlor. Scientists representing the industry presented their own studies to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and explained that the state’s original draft limit for acetochlor was too [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, January 11, 2008) Talks between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Dow Chemical Company ended unsuccessfully when EPA determined that Dow’s offers were not comprehensive enough. Negotiations had centered around study and interim cleanup measures in the Saginaw and Tittabawassee rivers, wetlands, and Saginaw Bay. Dow agreed in July to clean up dioxin [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, November 8, 2007) In a landmark decision, a California jury on November 5, 2007 awarded $3.3 million to Nicaraguan farmworkers sterilized by pesticides made by Dow Chemical and used at Dole’s banana plantations. The lawsuit accused Dole and Standard Fruit Co., now a part of Dole, of negligence and fraudulent concealment while using [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, September 19, 2007) In Vietnam, attempts continue to be made to protect villages from the ongoing threat of Agent Orange, used by American forces to deforest the jungle canopy in the Vietnam War over 30 years ago, according to the New York Times. Reforestation and fencing are being carried out to prevent local [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, September 17, 2007) Mediterranean fruit flies were discovered last week in Dixon, California, and federal, state, and county agencies rushed to respond with traps, biopesticide treatment, and sterile mates to prevent the insect from infesting local agriculture. A total of eight Medflies have been found so far, and the three-pronged attack started with [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, August 16, 2007) The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent decision not to go through with a Special Review of 2,4-D’s carcinogenic properties is being touted by industry as the final word that the toxic chemical “has been found to have no human carcinogenic effects,” despite significant evidence to the contrary. The Special Review [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, July 20, 2007) Dow Chemical Company has reached agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin cleanup of dioxin contamination downstream of its Midland, Michigan facility immediately. The teratogenic (i.e. ability to cause developmental malformations) and mutagenic compounds are not only byproducts of manufacturing processes but are contained in one of Dow’s [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, July 12, 2007) More than 5,000 agricultural workers from Central America have filed lawsuits in the United States, claiming that a pesticide used on banana trees has rendered them sterile. The pesticide, dibromochloropropane (DBCP), was used by workers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama to kill worm infestations in the trees’ [...]
(Beyond Pesticides, May 7, 2007) Beyond Pesticides is encouraging its members, activists and others in the Midwest to join Students for Bhopal and Amnesty International in a protest at the Dow Chemical Company Annual General Meeting (shareholder meeting) on Thursday, May 10, 2007, in Midland, Michigan. The purpose of the protest is to send a [...]
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