Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog

(Beyond Pesticides, January 30, 2009) In a report released last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) added the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to its list of agencies in most need of reform. EPA appears in GAO’s High Risk Series: An Update, alongside the newly added U.S. Financial Regulatory System and the Food and Drug Administration [...]

Beyond Pesticides will hold its 27th National Pesticide Forum, Bridge to an Organic Future: Opportunities for health and the environment, April 3-4, 2009 in Carrboro, NC (next to Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina). This national environmental conference will include sessions on Pesticides and public health; Organic agriculture; Domestic fair trade; Organic lawns [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 28, 2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) national sewage sludge survey identifies high concentrations of toxic contaminants with heavy metals, steroids and pharmaceuticals, including the antibacterials, triclocarban and triclosan. Despite the prevalence of these toxic chemicals in the environment and their potential adverse impacts to human health and the environment, EPA [...]

Transforming Government’s Approach to Regulating Pesticides to Protect Public Health and the Environment is a document drafted by Beyond Pesticides and Pesticide Action Network North America that captures grassroots pesticide priorities for the Obama Administration. While we have already submitted these priorities to the Obama transition team, we ask for your support and suggestions because [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 26, 2009) University of California at Irvine researchers have discovered that sulfuryl fluoride, an insecticide widely used to fumigate termite-infested homes and buildings, stays in the atmosphere at least 30-40 years and perhaps as long as 100 years and is about 4,000 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping heat, though [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 23, 2009) A study by researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute has found that the seven- to eight-fold increase in the number children born in California with autism since 1990, a trend which shows no sign of abating, cannot be explained by either changes in how the condition is diagnosed or [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 22, 2009) A new English study has found that chemicals found in rivers and waste waters could be linked to male infertility. These chemicals, known as anti-androgens, block the action of the male sex-hormone testosterone and could impact the development of male reproductive organs in humans.
The study entitled, “Statistical Modeling Suggests That [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 21, 2009) Without federal legislation mandating schools adopt safer pest management strategies, around 75% of U.S. schools continue to use hazardous pesticides. As a result, a diverse group of school pest management stakeholders have developed a new document, Pest Management Strategic Plan for IPM in Schools, that they hope will help reinvigorate [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 16, 2009) The first comprehensive look at toxic contamination throughout the Columbia River Basin has been released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Issued today, the Columbia River Basin State of the River Report for Toxics compiles currently available data about four widespread contaminants in the Basin and identifies the risks they [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 15, 2009) On January 13, 2009, the European Parliament adopted a pesticide regulation, implementing its 2006 proposal, to allow the phase out of hazardous pesticides across the European Union. According to the EU, “The new legislation will increase the protection of human health and the environment, will lead to a better protection [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 14, 2009) Two-headed bass found in the Noosa River are at the center of a controversy surrounding pesticide drift from neighboring farms in Queensland, Australia. The pesticides, endosulfan and carbendazim, have been implicated in the contamination of the river, which has yielded thousands of chronically deformed fish.
Experts believe that the mutated fish, [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 13, 2009) In another stinging defeat for the Bush Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), on January 7, 2009, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a clear rebuke of the administration’s 2006 rule which exempted certain commercial pesticide applications from the oversight provided by Congress under the Clean Water Act. [The National Cotton [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 12, 2009) Propelled by state legislation prohibiting pesticides use on school grounds that has yet to go into effect, Branford, Connecticut is a model for others around the country in managing town playing fields, parks and public lawns without using pesticides. The town’s Parks and Recreation Department’s remarkable success in implementing an [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 9, 2009) Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry has published a study (Vol. 27(12):2496–2500) entitled “Effects of Malathion on Embryonic Development and Latent Susceptibility to Trematode Parasites in Ranid Tadpoles.” It shows that malathion used as an agricultural insecticide is responsible for interfering with the normal development of pickerel frog embryos, thus leaving them [...]

(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, January 7, 2009) To best feed the world, a growing number of researchers, development experts, farming groups and environmentalists are calling for new emphasis on sustainable agricultural practices that make a sharp break from current policies.
A recently released Rodale Institute research paper, titled “The Organic Green Revolution” and reviewing replicated research, shows that [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 6, 2009) According to a new study published December 10, 2008 in the online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives, climate change is likely to increase human exposure to agricultural contaminants, including pesticides. Risks of many pathogens, particulate and particle-associated contaminants could increase significantly. The study, “Impacts of Climate Change on Indirect Human [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 5, 2009) According to a new study published December 2008 in the online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives, hexavalent chromium (or chromium VI) found in the wood preservatives chromated copper arsenate (CCA) and acid copper chromate (ACC), is a human carcinogen following chronic oral exposure. Previous studies have shown that hexavalent chromium [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 2, 2009) Household pets and other animals are commonly exposed to toxic pesticides in lawns and parks, from homeowner use of bug sprays, in contaminated air or water, or from flea and tick control products, potentially poisoning the animal and causing acute and chronic health effects. A new website has been designed [...]