Toxic Free News - Summer 2004

The Ontario College of Family Physicians is warning people to avoid contact with pesticides in any form, citing effects on fetuses, children and adults. The organization examined 12,000 studies from around the world, and found no evidence that any pesticides are less dangerous than others.
Their study, likely the most comprehensive pesticide survey ever conducted, found that the negative effects of pesticide exposure can be passed down through generations.
Many communities in Canada are already taking action. Toronto recently banned lawn pesticides, and has launched an ad campaign featuring posters with the caption, “Relax. It’s just a weed.” Source: The Globe and Mail

USDA Organic Standards Upheld
In April of this year, the Agricultural Marketing Services division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture altered organic standards without consulting the National Organics Standards Board, as is required by law. The changes were rescinded the following month following massive public outcry.
“The organics labeling program is still in its infancy, and this is a critical time for its credibility,” Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), sponsor of the National Organic Program, said. If the changes had gone forth, the use of certain pesticides with banned inert ingredients would have been permitted. Source: The NY Times

One Mexican Worker Killed Every Day
Mexican workers are four times more likely to die in the workplace than their U.S. born colleagues, according to a special Associated Press investigation, and are now dying on the job at a rate greater than one person per day nationwide. Though Mexican immigrant workers are concentrated in higher-risk fields like agriculture and construction, their death rates are still far greater than those for whites and other minority groups working in the same fields.
The AP’s findings show that several Southeastern and Western states – including North Carolina – claim even higher rates of death for Mexican workers than the national average, almost all of which are preventable. Reasons include language barriers, little to no training or safety equipment, and, as explained by Susan Feldmann of the Centers for Disease Control, “They’re considered disposable.” Source: the Associated Press

Monsanto Wins Patent Rights, Loses to Canola Farmer
This May, the Supreme Court of Canada found that Monsanto Inc. does in fact have a valid patent over genetically modified canola seeds and plants found growing on the farm of Percy Schmeiser. However, since Schmeiser derived no profit from the presence of the modified canola, the Court also found that he is not financially responsible for the $140,000 in technology use fees and other penalties for which Monsanto sued him.
The modified canola, called “Roundup Ready”, is resistant to Roundup herbicide which is also produced by Monsanto. Schmeiser claims that the genetically-modified canola genes drifted onto his property from a neighboring farm or passing truck without his knowledge. Schmeiser has been farming and saving seeds in Saskatchewan for 50 years.
Meanwhile, state legislative efforts are underway across the U.S. to hold biotech companies liable for drift on to croplands that contain conventional crops, which could be worth more than engineered food. Sources: The Toronto Globe and Mail, Beyond Pesticides

Babies Bigger After Pesticide Ban
A study released in Environmental Health Perspectives this March found that elevated levels of chlorpyrifos and diazinon in umbilical cord blood correlated with lower birth weight. The study also found that pesticide levels in cord blood decreased and birth weight increased after an EPA ban on those pesticides for household use took effect.
The study, conducted with mothers in upper Manhattan’s largely minority neighborhoods by Columbia University researchers, was the first to show such an immediate and positive effect after an EPA public health action. Birth weight is an important indicator for health later in life. Source: Collaborative on Health and the Environment

Scientist Attacked for Atrazine Research
In 1998, UC Berkeley professor Tyrone Hayes worked for a private research consulting company in the employ of Syngenta AG to research the effects of their product atrazine on frogs. He found that exposure to extremely low doses of atrazine, the most commonly used herbicide in the US, caused male African reed frogs to be born as hermaphrodites.
Syngenta wanted to pay Hayes for his silence, but he resigned from the private atrazine research team and replicated the experiment independently. Hayes' study was published in the journal Nature in 2002. More information from Our Stolen Future.
Since that time, legions of scientists and agricultural associations with funding from Syngenta have attacked Hayes and tried to discredit his work. Hayes' initial findings helped spur the US EPA to conduct a review of atrazine, which they reapproved for use in October of 2003.
Atrazine earns $500 to $800 billion dollars each year for Syngenta. Source: SF Weekly | See the whole SF Weekly article.

Toxic Free News is a publication of
Toxic Free North Carolina
206 New Bern Place, Raleigh, NC 27601, (919) 833-5333, -1123
http://www.toxicfreenc.org

Mission: Toxic Free NC advocates for alternatives to toxic pesticides in North Carolina by empowering people to make sound decisions about their health and environment.

Staff: Fawn Pattison, Executive Director; Billie Karel, Program Coordinator; Natalie Lamela, SAF Intern

Board of Directors: Allen Spalt, President; Katherine M. Shea, Vice President; Jane Sharp MacRae, Secretary; Mary Jo Windley; Savi Horne; Cindy Soehner; Billie Rogers, Emeritus.

Contributors: Billie Karel, Fawn Pattison, Kate Pattison; Webmaster: Billie Karel