Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog

(Beyond Pesticides, April 30, 2009) On April 20, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released a Biological Opinion (BiOp) finding that three additional pesticides, carbaryl, carbofuran, and methomyl, harm salmon and steelhead protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The BiOp prescribes measures necessary to keep these pesticides out of salmon waters in Washington, Oregon, [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 29, 2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced earlier this month that it is finally ready to move forward with preliminary testing of 67 active and inert pesticide ingredients for possible endocrine disrupting effects. But, according to prominent researcher and author Theo Colborn, PhD, these tests are outdated, insensitive, crude, and [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 28, 2009) On April 23, 2009, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a lawsuit, NRDC v. Albertsons, Inc. et al, in California against major pet product retailers and manufacturers for illegally selling pet products containing a known cancer-causing chemical called propoxur without proper warning labels. In new scientific analysis also released [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 27, 2009) Spurred by widespread concerns about children’s environmental health in schools, an array of government entities and child health advocates are celebrating National Healthy Schools Day today with nearly forty activities planned in twenty-one states and Canada. National Healthy Schools Day, coordinated by the Healthy Schools Network, is a day to [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 24, 2009) The California Department of Pesticide Regulation this week finalized looser pesticide rules that will allow more emissions from soil fumigant pesticides. Environmental activists are alarmed that this new ruling will only serve to slow efforts to clean the smoggy air in California’s Central Valley.
This regulatory action revises the total pesticide [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 23, 2009) Pollinators, including honey and bumble bees, butterflies and moths, play an essential role in putting food on our tables through the pollination of many crops and other flowering plants. These insects are susceptible to a variety of disease and environmental threats, including a variety of common pesticides, some of which [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 22, 2009) The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) released its “Top Pesticide Blunders” report to remind the public to avoid illness and injury by using household cleaning and gardening products that pose the least risk to their health and the environment. The blunders also include situations in which users of toxic [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 21, 2009) According to a new study by the New York City (NYC) Department of Health, Columbia University and the NYC Housing Authority published in the online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives on April 15, 2009, “single visit” integrated pest management (IPM) at the building level (rather than individual rental units) is [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 20, 2009) For years, the biotechnology industry has trumpeted that it will feed the world, promising that its genetically engineered crops will produce higher yields. That promise has proven to be empty, according to a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Despite 20 years of research and 13 years [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 17, 2009) Thirteen years after the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) ordered EPA to develop a screening process for endocrine disrupting chemicals, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a final list of chemicals to be included in Tier 1 testing for endocrine disrupting effects of pesticides in use. While the list [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 16, 2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) convened the first ever National Bed Bug Summit (April 14-15, 2009) to solicit recommendations from scientists, state and local officials, pest control operators and the general public on how to tackle the resurgence of the blood sucking insects. Bed bugs have rebounded in [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 15, 2009) Stating that it represents a danger to the environment, Germany’s Federal Minister for Nourishment, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Ilse Aigner, announced an immediate ban on Monsanto’s MON810 genetically engineered (GE) maize yesterday. Claiming the decision is based on science and is an individual case, not a broad banning of all [...]

G(Beyond Pesticides, April 14, 2009) Groups are seeking an end to a failed U.S.-supported herbicide spray program that between 2000 and 2008 cost U.S. taxpayers more than half a billion dollars to apply the toxic herbicide glyphosate on approximately three million acres of land in Colombia—the world’s second most biodiverse country. The herbicide spraying, targeted [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 13, 2009) Rebuffing the Department of Agriculture, the Justice Department announced that it will not seek rehearing of a recent significant environmental decision that enables improved protection from pesticides under the Clean Water Act. In a letter dated March 6, 2009, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack had asked EPA Administrator Jackson to request reversal [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 10, 2009) In the U.S., lindane is a pesticide approved for use in children’s lice shampoo, but not on pets or plants. In much of the rest of the world, including Mexico, all uses of lindane have been banned for years. Parents, health professionals, and Arctic communities – whose food and breast [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 9, 2009) On April 2, 2009, Greenpeace USA, joined by Beyond Pesticides and others, sent a letter (Senate, House) urging Congress to pass comprehensive chemical security reform. Beyond Pesticides believes chemical security is an important step, but only one piece of larger chemical reform, which would ban toxic chemical production when safer [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 8, 2009) The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) and Beyond Pesticides are asking that you take action to help secure everyone’s right to know about “secret” hazardous ingredients found in commonly used farm and household pesticide products. Please e-mail Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lisa Jackson at Hazardous_Inerts_Ingredients@epamail.epa.gov, no later [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 7, 2009) McDonald’s Corp., the largest purchaser of potatoes in the United States, has agreed to take steps towards adopting a program that might reduce the amount of pesticides used in producing potatoes for its U.S. restaurants. As the largest buyer of potatoes in the nation, McDonald’s also said it would share [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 6, 2009) Despite an earlier report showing a decrease in pesticide use in the state, pesticide-related illnesses and injuries in California have doubled in 2007 from 2006, according to new data from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR). The 2007 pesticide exposure data also shows that twice as many illnesses investigated [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 3, 2009) A few dandelions in city parks is a good thing, says the Chicago Park District, they signify a healthy lawn and a chemical-free park. After the success of limiting the use of pesticides throughout the district last year, the Chicago Park District is again partnering with Safer Pest Control Project [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 2, 2009) Last summer, when a pesticide tank exploded at a Bayer chemical plant in West Virginia, comparisons between the site’s potential risk and the 1984 Bhopal disaster, in which an explosion and leak at the Bayer site’s sister plant killed thousands, were drawn. The investigation into the West Virginia incident is [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 1, 2009) A study published in the April 2009 issue of the medical journal Acta Paediatrica reports that the highest rates of birth defects for U.S. babies arise when conception occurs during the spring and summer months, when pesticide use increases and high concentrations of pesticides are found in surface waters.
The study [...]