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    Lightbulb Dangerous Pesticide to be allowed by EPA

    One would think it was something from a Monsanto horror-story...

    EPA prior to director Scott Pruitt's signing on was about to end this substance from infiltrating foodstuff's in the US. However, Pruitt signed a document saying ALLOW IT to continue to be used.

    What is this pesticide?

    It is called Chlorpyrifos.

    Chemical Class: Organophosphate insecticide (nerve agent)

    Uses: on food and feed crops, golf courses, as a non-structural wood treatment, and as an adult mosquitocide

    Health and Environmental Effects
    • Cancer: Not documented
    • Endocrine Disruption: Yes (30 studies)
    • Reproductive Effects: Yes (6 studies)
    • Neurotoxicity: Yes (8 studies)
    • Kidney/Liver Damage: Yes (17 studies)
    • Sensitizer/ Irritant: Yes (4 studies)
    • Birth/Developmental: Yes (6 studies)
    • Detected in Groundwater: Yes (6 studies)
    • Potential Leacher: Yes (6 studies)
    • Toxic to Birds: Yes (8 studies)
    • Toxic to Fish/Aquatic Organisms: Yes (8 studies)
    • Toxic to Bees: Yes (8 studies)

    Status - (prior to Pruitt's rescinding the ban)

    EPA and Dow Chemical agreed to stop the sale of most residential uses because of health risks to children.

    ref: http://www.beyondpesticides.org/reso...pesticideid=17

    Quote (3-29-2017): EPA director Scott Pruitt signed an order denying the agency's own proposal to ban chlorpyrifos, according to a Wednesday afternoon press release.

    "We need to provide regulatory certainty to the thousands of American farms that rely on chlorpyrifos, while still protecting human health and the environment,” Pruitt said in a written statement.

    “By reversing the previous Administration’s steps to ban one of the most widely used pesticides in the world, we are returning to using sound science in decision-making – rather than predetermined results.”

    By Friday, President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency will have to make a momentous decision: whether to protect kids from a widely used pesticide that's known to harm their brains—or protect the interests of the chemical's maker, Dow AgroSciences.

    The pesticide in question, chlorpyrifos, is a nasty piece of work. It's an organophosphate, a class of bug killers that work by "interrupting the electrochemical processes that nerves use to communicate with muscles and other nerves," as the Pesticide Encyclopedia puts it. (nerve agent).

    Chlorpyrifos is also an endocrine disrupter, meaning it can cause "adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune effects," according to the National Institutes of Health.

    Low doses of chlorpyrifos inhibits kids' brain development, with effects ranging from lower IQ to higher rates of autism.

    Major studies from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the University of California-Davis, and Columbia University have found strong evidence that low doses of chlorpyrifos inhibits kids' brain development, including when exposure occurs in the womb, with effects ranging from lower IQ to higher rates of autism.

    Several studies—examples here, here, and here—have found it in the urine of kids who live near treated fields.

    In 2000, the EPA banned most home uses of the chemical, citing risks to children.

    Stephanie Engel, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina and a co-author of the Mount Sinai paper, says the evidence that chlorpyrifos exposure causes harm is "compelling"—and is "much stronger" even than the case against BPA (bisphenol A), the controversial plastic additive.

    She says babies and fetuses are particularly susceptible to damage from chlorpyrifos because they metabolize toxic chemicals more slowly than adults do. And "many adults" are susceptible, too, because they lack a gene that allows for metabolizing the chemical efficiently, Engel adds.

    But even after banning chlorpyrifos from the home, the EPA allowed farms to continue spraying it.

    While US farmers eased up on it in recent years, they're still using quite a bit, mainly on corn and soybeans in the Midwest and on fruit, vegetable, and orchard crops in Washington, California, and the Southeast.

    About a fifth of all the chlorpyrifos applied on US farms happens in California.

    There, the main target crops are alfalfa, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, tomatoes, and strawberries.
    More - http://www.motherjones.com/environme...ging-pesticide (Mother Jones)

    Is there an antidote? For a poisoning incident, the treatment is similar to having been exposed to a weapon of mass destruction, a Nerve Agent.

    Quote Antidote and Treatment of Chlorpyrifos Intoxication. Atropine (a parasympatholytic drug) is the antidote for the acute muscarinic symptoms, the most dangerous ones. It is an antagonist of acetylcholine in the muscarinic receptors of the nervous system.
    In addition to atropine, pralidoxime (2-PAM) and benzodiazepines (eg, diazepam).are mainstays of medical therapy.

    Reported LOW dose exposure:

    Relatively mild poisoning can result in eye watering, increased saliva and sweating, nausea and headache. Intermediate exposure may lead to muscle spasms or weakness, vomiting or diarrhea and impaired vision. Symptoms of severe poisoning include seizures, unconsciousness, paralysis, and suffocation from lung failure.

    Dow Chemical itself says on its website for the neuro-toxin that Farm Workers should be monitored for "cholinesterase" inhibition (a symptom of poisoning by the nerve agent). http://www.chlorpyrifos.com/human-he...rm-workers.htm

    On the Dow Chemical Health Page for Chlorpyrifos, they cite "studies" that show there is no "real risk".

    The substance has been withdrawn from regular "consumer use" (home and workplace use), but it is allowed worldwide on foodstuff (alfalfa, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, tomatoes, and strawberries), cotton, golf courses..

    Dow Chemical does admit: "Sensitivity of chlorpyrifos to a large variety of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife has been determined under laboratory conditions, including birds, mammals, fish, water fleas, earthworms, and honeybees.."



    Cleaning food sprayed with chlorpyrifos


    (above from http://www.academicjournals.org/jour...t/4C4879459401)

    Tamarind juice solution: 50 g of tamarind without its seed was weighted. Then, 1 Litre of water was added to tamarind and it was soaked for 15 min.

    Quote As shown in Table 3 (above), after the cauliflower had been cleaned using five types of cleaning solutions, the removal rates of chlorpyrifos by using tamarind juices solutions is very good compared to others cleaning solutions. While filtered flour and vinegar solutions removal rates are the same which is less than 20%. However, by using soda-salt solution and tap water, there are no removal of chlorpyrifos detected.

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    Default Re: Dangerous Pesticide to be allowed by EPA

    Where is chlorpyrifos showing up?

    The Scotts Miracle-Gro company pleads guilty to knowingly selling poisoned birdseed, and lawn and garden care products containing undocumented pesticides, to an unsuspecting public..

    According to court documents, the Scotts Miracle-Gro company added the pesticides, Storcide II and Actellic® 5E, to their wild bird feeds to prevent insects from consuming the products during storage. Neither pesticide is licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use in bird foods. This is in direct violation of FIFRA -- the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

    Storcide II contains the active ingredient, chlorpyrifos-methyl, and Actellic® 5E contains the active ingredient, pirimiphos-methyl. According to the product label attached to Storcide II containers and Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) information accompanying this pesticide, it is toxic to fish, birds and wildlife.

    Scotts Miracle-Gro company manufactures and distributes several widely-used and popular brands of food for wild birds, marketed under the names, "Country Pride" and "Morning Song", as well as "Scott's Songbird Selections" and "Scott's Wild Bird Food", which are collectively known as "Morning Song". These brand lines include bags of seed and seed mixes, suet blocks and other foods intended for wild birds.

    Quote According to court documents, Scotts Miracle-Gro was warned about the toxicity of these chemicals by two employees. One employee, a pesticide chemist, approached management about these dangers in the summer of 2007, whilst the other employee, an ornithologist, notified management in the autumn of that same year. The Scotts Miracle-Gro company ignored these warnings and continued to produce and distribute their poisoned birdseed products for at least another six months, until March of 2008.

    At the same time, a federal registrations manager employed by the Scotts Miracle-Gro company intentionally falsified pesticide registration documents for two other products sold by the company, "Scotts Garden Weed Preventer & Plant Food" and "Scotts Lawn Service Fertilizer With Halts".

    Neither of these products were registered with the EPA and thus, both were illegally sold to the public.

    When the EPA contacted the Scotts Miracle-Gro company asking for the required documents and certificates, the manager then "fabricated correspondence and agency documents ... in an effort to deceive EPA into believing it had registered these products but lost its files", according to court documents. The EPA then launched an investigation.

    According to court documents, the Scotts Miracle-Gro company voluntarily disclosed to the EPA and the USDA that they had manufactured and sold poisoned birdseed, but discontinued doing so in March 2008.
    ref: "USA v The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company - FIFRA Criminal Prosecution", United States District Court for the southern district of Ohio, Eastern Division, Case: 2:12-cr-00024-JLG Doc #: 1 Filed: 01/25/12. Retrieved 19 March 2012.

    Examples, a very short and incomplete list
    • Chlorpyrifos is a common surface water contaminant in California, USA
    • Chlorpyrifos is used in Ghana in cocoa production
    • Chlorpyrifos Exposures listed in Egyptian Cotton Field Workers
    • Chlorpyrifos used in agricultural regions in central Czech Republic
    • Chlorpyrifos application in apple trees in Uruguay
    • Chlorpyrifos application to tomatoes in the Meru district of Arusha region, one of the key tomato producers in Tanzania
    • Chlorpyrifos applications worldwide to citrus fruits, apples, cherries - i.e. India, Pakistan,
      Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Israel - It is authorized for use in about 100 nations, including the U.S., Canada, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Philippines, Germany, Spain (bananas, apples, etc.)
    China has been the global largest production base (by capacity) of chlorpyrifos

    Chlorpyrifos is also registered for direct use (application to) on sheep and turkeys, for horse site treatment, dog kennels, domestic dwellings, farm buildings, storage bins, and commercial establishments.

    Dursban* and Lorsban* insecticides are frequently used trade names for chlorpyrifos, also Lock-On, Empire, Eradex, and Cobalt

    Use in UK

    The use of pesticides in England and Wales has increased by 33 per cent since 2008, despite only a four per cent increase in growing area, according to a new Defra report.

    Over this period, the use of insecticides has increased by 37 per cent, fungicides by 21 per cent, growth regulators by 21 per cent and herbicides by five per cent.

    "Much of the increase is due to increased areas of dessert apples, which are relatively intensively treated, and a combination of increased areas and more intensive usage on crops such as cherries and cider apples," the report concludes.

    In all, fungicides accounted for 64 per cent of the total pesticide-treated area of orchard crops in 2014 and 67 per cent of applied pesticides by weight, with insecticides accounting for 12 per cent by area.

    Captan was the most extensively used fungicide while chlorpyrifos was the most widely used insecticide.
    Last edited by Bob; 31st March 2017 at 06:19.

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    Default Re: Dangerous Pesticide to be allowed by EPA

    The EPA itself evaluated the studies on children, and concluded that damage occurred at exposure levels that were below the levels which triggered the cholinesterase damage indicator flag.

    The agency focused on epidemiological studies from three US cohorts: 1) The Mothers and Newborn Study of North Manhattan and South Bronx performed by the CCCEH at Columbia University; 2) the Mt. Sinai Inner-City Toxicants, Child Growth and Development Study or the “Mt. Sinai Child Growth and Development Study;” and 3) the Center for Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas Valley (CHAMACOS) conducted by researchers at University of California Berkeley. The agency has evaluated these studies and sought external peer review (FIFRA SAP reviews in 2008 and 2012; federal panel, 20136) and concludes they are of high quality.

    In the three US epidemiology cohort studies, mother-infant pairs were recruited for the purpose of studying the potential health effects of environmental exposures during pregnancy on subsequent child development. Each of these cohorts has evaluated the association between prenatal chlorpyrifos and/or OP exposure with adverse neuro- developmental outcomes in children through age 7-11 years.

    In summary, the EPA’s assessment is that the CCCEH study, with supporting results from the other 2 U.S. cohort studies and the seven additional epidemiological studies reviewed in 2015, provides sufficient evidence that there are neuro-developmental effects occurring at chlorpyrifos exposure levels below that required for AChE inhibition.

    The study data was enough for the EPA in November 2016 to recommend pulling chlorpyrifos from use in the United States. It was scientifically peer reviewed.

    However, late last year, a group called "Croplife America" - the main trade and lobbying group for the pesticide industry - petitioned the EPA to block the expected ban. In its appeal, Croplife argued that the EPA should disregard the findings of epidemiological studies documenting that the pesticide impaired American children's IQs and brain development.

    The EPA's analysis of children's sensitivity to chlorpyrifos drew upon studies by Columbia University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the University of California, Berkeley.

    The study and recommendation to ban and de-register chlorpyrifos - https://www.regulations.gov/contentS...ontentType=pdf

    The head of the EPA, Pruitt, said this, ignoring the results of the scientific peer reviewed study data:

    Quote "We need to provide regulatory certainty to the thousands of American farms that rely on chlorpyrifos, while still protecting human health and the environment,” Pruitt said in a written statement.

    “By reversing the previous Administration’s steps to ban one of the most widely used pesticides in the world, we are returning to using sound science in decision-making – rather than predetermined results.”
    Pruitt has no scientific background and is not qualified to review any scientific papers, but has the authority to allow a dangerous substance to persist, in the environment, risking our children's health.

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    Default Re: Dangerous Pesticide to be allowed by EPA

    Well, I guess we can all see where where this new, about to be gutted EPA, is headed. With the stroke of a pen, thousands are about to be poisoned. With a crazy man like Pruitt in charge, the EPA has become irrelevant.

    This sickens me. What a twisted and evil start for Trump's new regime.

    I'm not gonna say "I told you so."

    I lied: I told you so.

    Brian
    A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

    Albert E.

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    Default Re: Dangerous Pesticide to be allowed by EPA

    What does Earth Justice dot Org observe about the travesty? A ban on chlorpyrifos is needed, here's why:


    A growing body of evidence shows that prenatal exposure to very low levels of chlorpyrifos—levels far lower than what EPA was previously using to establish safety standards—harms babies permanently.

    Peer-reviewed studies (solid real science) that have tracked real-world exposures of mothers and their children to chlorpyrifos have associated the pesticide with similar findings.

    In November 2016, EPA released a revised human health risk assessment for chlorpyrifos that confirmed that there are no safe uses for the pesticide. EPA found that:
    • All food exposures exceed safe levels, with children ages 1–2 exposed to levels of chlorpyrifos that are 140 times what EPA deems safe.
    • There is no safe level of chlorpyrifos in drinking water.
    • Pesticide drift reaches unsafe levels at 300 feet from the field’s edge.
    • Chlorpyrifos is found at unsafe levels in the air at schools, homes, and communities in agricultural areas.
    • All workers who mix and apply chlorpyrifos are exposed to unsafe levels of the pesticide even with maximum personal protective equipment and engineering controls.
    • Field workers are allowed to re-enter fields within 1–5 days after pesticide spraying, but unsafe exposures continue on average 18 days after applications.
    Farmworkers and people living in agricultural communities, particularly children, are disproportionately affected by this toxic pesticide. In addition to food exposures, they are more likely to have contaminated drinking water, and they are, quite literally, getting hit from all sides by drift exposures at school, daycare, on the playground, at work, and in their homes.

    USDA’s Pesticide Data Program found chlorpyrifos residue on citrus and melons even after being washed and peeled.

    If EPA cannot ensure that a pesticide won’t harm children, the law requires EPA to ban uses of the pesticide.

    The 1996 Food Quality Protection Act—passed unanimously in Congress—requires EPA to protect children from unsafe exposures to pesticides.

    Scott Pruitt, the head of the EPA in March 2017 signs a document stating that the EPA refuses to ban chlorpyrifos, despite the overwhelming evidence that the pesticide harms children, workers and the environment.

    That action would be the EPA (and Pruitt apparently) in violation of the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act.

    ref: http://earthjustice.org/library/?f[0...bulary_7%3A432

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    Default Re: Dangerous Pesticide to be allowed by EPA

    Thank you Bob. This plummets me. I am a strong advocate for no pesticides. When we built and owned a home we had no pesticides, only using natural organic means to control our landscape. No problems. Fire ants yes, but cayenne pepper takes care of that. Then with the economic crash we lost our home and found a lovely senior community near the beach. However, the HOA which you cannot control, sprays endlessly. For years I coughed. I believe we each have to find our place where we can live without the onslaught.
    When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kindhearted as a grandparent, dignified as a king. -- I Ching

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    Default Re: Dangerous Pesticide to be allowed by EPA

    California, Hawaii and New York Banned this Pesticide that Harms Children's Brains. Ask Your State to Do the Same.

    "Chlorpyrifos is a neurotoxic organophosphate insecticide that, even at very low levels, has been linked to severe birth defects, brain damage and mental disorders in children, including ADHD and autism.

    So why is it still being sprayed on more than 50 fruits and vegetables? Considering that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists, under the Obama administration, said it should banned?

    Because the chemical’s maker, DowDuPont, has a lot of money and influence. And because the Trump administration loves a profitable corporation—especially one that’s happy to bribe politicians.

    Absent any indication that federal regulators will step up to protect the public, some states are enacting their own bans on this toxic pesticide.

    Could your state be next? We shouldn’t have to beg for laws that protect our kids from poisons. But if that’s what it takes . . .

    TAKE ACTION: Ask your Governor and state legislators to ban chlorpyrifos!
    https://advocacy.organicconsumers.or...B+625+Saturday

    Hawaii, California and New York (awaiting the governor’s signature) have passed laws banning chlorpyrifos.

    Connecticut and Oregon are poised to join them. Bills to ban chlorpyrifos ban have also been introduced in Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia.

    TAKE ACTION: Ask your state legislators to ban chlorpyrifos! (If your state has already taken action, please change your letter to a thank-you note)."

    https://advocacy.organicconsumers.or...B+625+Saturday
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