Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog

(Beyond Pesticides, February 27, 2009) Twenty-six leading corn insect scientists at public research institutions submitted a comment to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which charges that patent-holding companies, including Monsanto, Syngenta, and others, interfere with their genetic engineering (GE) research on crops. The statement says,
“Technology/stewardship agreements required for the purchase of genetically modified seed explicitly [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 26, 2009) On February 24, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency settled with an Oakland, California, importer for $61,000 for allegedly selling and distributing illegal mothballs, a violation of federal pesticide laws. The importer is accused of distributing unregistered naphthalene mothballs from imported from Taiwan.
Venquest Trading, imported unregistered naphthalene mothballs from Taiwan and [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 25, 2009) After three years of legal battle, the North Carolina Pesticide Board on February 19, 2009 fined Florida-based Ag-Mart Produce Inc. a substantially lower fine of $3,000 than the originally proposed $185,000, after deciding that it can only prove six of about 200 worker safety accusations that had been levied against [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 24, 2009) NIEHS staff scientist Freya Kamel, Ph.D., Harvard School of Public Health professor Chensheng (Alex) Lu, Ph.D., and Wake Forest University’s Center for Worker Health director Thomas Arcury, Ph.D. will speak as Science and Health panelists at Bridge to an Organic Future: Opportunities for health and the environment, the 27th National [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 23, 2009) Permethrin and lindane metabolites are found in children who use lice shampoos containing the insecticides, according to researchers affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study, “Pesticide exposure resulting from treatment of lice infestations in school-aged children in Georgia,” published in the February issue of the [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 20, 2009) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will conduct an “internal pilot” in conjunction with the agency’s Design for the Environment Formulator Program (DfE) to further explore a policy change that would allow claims of environmental preferability in regard to non-porous hard surface disinfectants and sanitizers. The agency’s plans were announced at [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 19, 2009) The Endocrine Exchange (TEDX) has released a new database on the prenatal origins of endocrine disruption, called Critical Windows of Development. It compares human development in the womb with laboratory research showing where and when low-dose exposures to chemicals have effects. The timeline currently charts three chemicals: dioxin, bisphenol A [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 18, 2009) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting through February 23, 2009 public comments on a petition to cancel all registrations for the herbicide 2,4-D and to revoke all of its tolerances. The petition was filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in November and published by EPA on December [...]

(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, February 13, 2009) The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) has ended its organic certification program, which was established in 2000, two years before federal organic standards. The state’s effort to save itself an unknown amount in its budget will force organic farmers to pay significantly more for out-of-state certification. Larry Lewis, [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 12, 2009) Genetically modified (GM) crops are benefiting biotech food giants instead of the world’s hungry population, which is projected to increase to 1.2 billion by the year 2025 due to the global food crisis, according to a report released yesterday by the Center for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 11, 2009) Connecticut lawmakers are taking an interest in the much debated cause of a massive die-off of lobsters that has all but wiped out the state’s 40 million dollar industry, according to the Easton Courier. Fishermen and environmentalists blame the use of the insecticide malathion, a hazardous organophosphate, currently used in [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 9, 2009) Baldemar Velásquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), AFL-CIO, will be speaking at Bridge to an Organic Future, the 27th National Pesticide Forum, April 3-4, 2009 in Carrboro, NC. FLOC, founded by Mr. Velásquez in 1967, is both a social movement and a labor union focusing on migrant [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 9, 2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently soliciting comments on Monsanto’s second application to extend its experimental use permit for soybeans genetically engineered (GE) with the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This will be the new administration’s first test on how it handles the issues surrounding GE crops. Among [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 6, 2009) President Obama’s new administration has introduced changes across the federal government, and those at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been on display with the confirmation of new Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. In her recent testimony at her Senate confirmation hearing and open letter to EPA employees, Ms. Jackson pledges [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 5, 2009) Former chief environmental correspondent for The New York Times Philip Shabecoff and freelance journalist Alice Shabecoff will be making a rare public talk at Bridge to an Organic Future, the 27th National Pesticide Forum, April 3-4, 2009 in Carrboro, NC. They will be speaking Friday evening at the conference and [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 4, 2009) A new test for triclosan, developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), could help to expedite environmental monitoring of this widely used antibacterial chemical which has been found at high concentrations in rivers and other water resources. Triclosan is linked to a range of [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 3, 2009) A corporate tomato grower faces an unprecedented penalty of more than $931,000 for misusing pesticides and jeopardizing the health and safety of workers in its New Jersey farm fields and packing houses, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Acting Commissioner Mark N. Mauriello announced January 30, 2009.
In its enforcement [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 2, 2009) As part of the Township of Bernards, New Jersey’s new Pesticide Management System Resolution that designates pesticide-free zones and requires adoption of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program for all its municipal grounds, the mayor and town council are also asking its citizens to adopt such measures on their own [...]