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"Half the Size of His Fingernail"

Farm Fraud?

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Archive

February 28, 2006

EPA Study: Week of Organics Cleans Pesticides from Kids' Blood

A new EPA study fed 23 Seattle children an all-organic diet for a week and saw the pesticide levels in their blood drop to virtually zero. As soon as the kids started back on their conventional diets, their pesticide levels rocketed back up. The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, focused on agricultural rather than household and lawn pesticides, but does show conclusively that, as Grist puts it, "pesticide-free food leads to pesticide-free kids." And since expsoure to pesticides can cause birth defects and other developmental problems in children, this one definitely puts another feather in organics' cap.

February 24, 2006

N.C. Pesticide Laws Lack Teeth

Tomato giant Ag-Mart couldn't be in bigger trouble in North Carolina for alleged pesticide violations that may have caused birth defects in three field workers' children, but the state ag department says it's powerless to ensure that the company shapes up. The state's biggest fines only amount to a slap on the wrist for big growers, and the understaffed department doesn't have the resources to police conditions on the ground.

When Ag-Mart's fields were inspected last April, department officials found the state's worst-ever violations, including workers lacking training and protective gear, and workers in freshly-treated fields that were supposed to be avoided for at least seven days for safety.

EWG's work on pesticides is available here.

February 23, 2006

Minnesotans See Their Future – And It Ain’t Green

Talk about taking matters into your own hands! Seeing that there was no answer to the question, ‘How’s our environment doing?’, a nature-loving Gopher-stater took it upon himself to find out. His composite report, paid for with privately raised funds, shows development and population trends that threaten the green spaces the Land of 10,000 Lakes is famous for. One of the report’s findings that shouldn’t surprise anyone: state spending on environmental quality continues to decline under the current governor. Given how the state’s environmental agencies behave, it’s no wonder a private citizen had to step in. St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on the report.

"Half the Size of His Fingernail"

The Associated Press reported that Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine testified in a court case over lead paint that swallowing a chip of lead paint just half the size of his (Landrigan's) fingernail could send a child into a coma or convulsions.

The heavy metal lead is a neurotoxin that can permanently damage the brains of developing children and lead to lower IQ and behavioral problems. Evidence of health problems associated with lead led to its removal from gasoline and paint.

In a court ruling announced yesterday, a jury found three paint manufacturers responsible for creating a public nuisance that harms children.

According to the Associated Press, paint companies made two claims in court, one with which EWG agrees and one with which we don't:

1. Levels of lead in children's blood have gone down. True! Proof that actions to limit our exposures to known toxins work.

2. Lead paint is only a problem in a small number of poorly maintained homes. False! In Ohio alone, EWG mapped out state data showing that the approximately 19,000 children under age six have unsafe levels of lead in their blood come from both rural and urban counties. Lead poisoning is a risk for all children living in older housing structures, especially those built before 1950.

The judge in this case will decide how the paint companies will cleanup, mitigation, public education or other programs.

February 21, 2006

Farm Fraud?

AP reports that some Washington state farmers may have faked results in tests of a federal conservation program designed to reduce pesticide and fertilizer use. The farmers received tens of thousands of dollars in subsidies under the Conservation Security Program for using greener practices, but an audit of the program found that some individuals may have altered soil samples and given false information. Everything you never wanted to know about farm chemical runoff in your water supply is in our Tap Water Report.

EWG supports shifting some commodity subsidy money to conservation programs, which are popular among farmers and have wide eligibility. To find out more, visit EWG's farm subsidy database or read about subsidies in the Evergreen state.

February 20, 2006

Let's Talk About Fuel

Whether or not you agree with the Bush Administration on energy policy, one thing is clear: when a President brings up the need to become energy independent in a State of the Union address, public debate increases. And as Martha Stewart says, "that's a good thing."

On Monday alone, we saw the debate over alternative fuel for our automobiles raging in Washington State, Colorado, Indiana and, of course, Michigan.

EWG's work on transportation and energy issues is viewable online at http://www.ewg.org/issues/siteindex/issues.php?issueid=5032

February 17, 2006

New York Battles EPA for Household Chemical Records

New York state is suing the EPA for its refusal to release information on the smog-causing properties of some common household chemicals. Smog-heavy states like New York and California need the records to plan for reducing pollution in order to meet their stringent Clean Air Act requirements. Per ususal, the companies under fire, like paint-maker Sherwin-Williams, say the information can't be released because it's trade secrets.

Volatile organic compounds, the smog-forming components found in household products like paint and varnish, may also contribute to increased asthma rates. Last year EWG released "Smoggy Schools," a report on what air pollution costs California measured in missed school days and children's medical expenses.

February 16, 2006

DuPont Employee Union Maps Company’s Toxic Legacy

The people who know DuPont best – its workers – have launched a website that pulls no punches about the company’s health and safety practices. “Throughout its history, DuPont has ignored scientific evidence whenever it threatens to hurt company profits,” reads the home page. And it’s not just chemicals, either: DuPont’s side business is operating nuclear facilities. Check out the map of DuPont accidents-waiting-to-happen, and take some time to read the PDF’s – substantial stuff is in there. EWG's years of work on DuPont's Teflon chemical is here.

February 3, 2006

EPA’s Folk Theory of Clean Air Threatens Rural America

In a proposal that “drew praise from the mining industry”, the EPA recently suggested we all stop worrying about air quality in America’s less populous areas, instisting that dust from those fruited plains and majestic mountains can’t possibly hurt you, as if the only air pollution in the world was the black stuff from tailpipes and smokestacks. But how can the experts at EPA harbor these quaint notions about air pollution when we know what farming does to air (and water), and mining is famous for the debris it kicks up? Maybe they need some re-education, starting with EWG’s work on air quality, here.

CDC Tests Show Rocket Fuel Levels May Be High in Food

A study of CDC employees designed to test new methods of looking for the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate in humans stumbled upon unusually high levels of perchlorate in its subjects. Since Atlanta's water has extremely low levels of the chemical, and all 62 subjects' urine tested higher than the water, CDC scientists suspect that perchlorate is getting into people through their diets at higher levels than previously believed.

Perchlorate has been found in milk and lettuce. The EPA needs to know how much people are getting from food so safe levels can be set for drinking water. Perchlorate may affect the thyroid, brain and nervous system, especially in developing children.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise article is here, and EWG's work on rocket fuel is here.

Chemical Mixtures More Toxic Than Sum of Their Parts

A new study from the University of California Berkeley found that combinations of low doses of toxic chemicals can be more harmful than any of the chemicals alone, suggesting that the vacuum EPA and other government agencies study individual chemicals' toxicity in does not mirror conditions in the real world. The study gave a cocktail of agricultural pesticides commonly found in runoff water to frogs. Although each chemical was at levels 10 to 100 times below safety standards, the mix created significant harmful health effects.

The Oakland Tribune story is here, and EWG's work on body burden is here.

February 2, 2006

Bush Backpedals On Vow to Break Oil Addiction

It depends on what your definition of “import” is. Turns out the president was simply, well, exploiting American anxiety when he vowed during his State of the Union speech to break our addiction to Middle East oil in coming decades. This story from Knight-Ridder has Bush energy officials on and off the record admitting that the Oil Man in Chief was just being rhetorical and really has no plan for replacing fuel from the Middle East with more reliable (or cleaner) alternatives. Fortunately, EWG’s analysis of American driving habits and oil consumption, Stuck in the Sand, shows how we really CAN break the addiction.

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