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Thread: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

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    Default Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    Global Research, August 05, 2019
    Center for Biological Diversity 2 August 2019


    The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it will end long-running safeguards meant to protect children from harmful pesticide ingredients used in bug sprays, pet shampoos and on fruits and vegetables.

    After receiving data from the pesticide industry – and ignoring contradictory evidence from peer-reviewed studies – the EPA says it will triple the amount of exposure to pyrethroids considered safe for children.

    Studies have shown that repeated exposure to pyrethroid insecticides can cause learning deficiencies and neurodegenerative effects associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, among others.

    Today’s decision will make it easier for the pesticide industry to get new uses of these pesticides approved, including those previously off limits. For example, it could result in higher levels of the pesticides being used on fruits and vegetables and for flea treatment of pets.

    “Make no mistake, the Trump administration is selling out the health of America’s children in order to boost the profits of pesticide companies,” said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s disgusting and absolutely repugnant.”

    One of the roles of the EPA is to establish what it considers to be safe levels for adult exposures to pesticides – and then it is supposed to set a more protective level for young children.

    Under the Food Quality Protection Act, unless they have research supporting a less-restrictive level of protection, EPA officials must apply a standard safety factor of “10x,” meaning 10 times more protective for children than adults. The goal is to ensure that children – who are often at increased risk of harm from pesticides – are adequately protected.

    For pyrethroids, the “10x” protections were replaced by “3x” protections in 2010. Under today’s EPA proposal, the 3x level of protection will be eliminated. This means that the EPA has greenlighted exposing children under the age of 6 to three times more of the toxic pesticide than is currently considered safe.

    The EPA’s decision to reduce the safeguard for children is based on studies and a model developed by a group called CAPHRA, a working group of pesticide companies that sell pyrethroids. That model estimated how quickly pyrethroids would be metabolized by adults and children under the age of 6. It concluded that there were no significant differences.

    The industry group finding conflicts with previous peer-reviewed studies showing that children are more sensitive to pyrethroids than adults.

    Epidemiological data has also revealed higher incidences of autism spectrum disorders and developmental delay among children whose mothers were living within 1.5 kilometers of sites of pyrethroid applications during the third trimester of pregnancy.

    Pyrethroids are also highly toxic to honey bees and highly to very highly toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates.

    “Just as they did with the brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos, Trump’s EPA is putting pesticide industry profits ahead of children’s health,” said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center. “The fact that they released the decision to eliminate protections for kids from these neurotoxins less than two weeks after they decided to continue allowing use of chlorpyrifos makes clear exactly who they are interested in protecting.”

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    Brain-Damaging Pesticide for Use on Foods Kids Eat. It’s Legal
    The original source of this article is Center for Biological Diversity
    Copyright © Center For Biological Diversity, Center for Biological Diversity, 2019

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    Bees and Beekeepers Feel the Sting of Trump Administration’s Anti-Science Efforts

    Bee populations are suffering nationwide, yet regulators continue to approve anti-bee actions.
    https://earthjustice.org/blog/2019-j...-die-off-trump

    It’s been a particularly terrible summer for bees. Recently, the U.S. EPA announced it is allowing the bee-killing pesticide sulfoxaflor back on the market. And just a few weeks prior, the USDA announced it is suspending data collection for its annual honeybee survey, which provides critical information to farmers and scientists by tracking honeybee populations across the U.S.

    The Trump administration pushed for these two anti-bee actions, even though our nation’s honeybee populations are plummeting. Last winter, beekeepers reported a record 40 percent loss of their colonies.

    Longtime beekeeper Jeff Anderson, owner of California-Minnesota Honey Farms, says the picture is even grimmer if you look at bee losses across the entire year, particularly when farmers are spraying pesticides. It’s not just bees that are suffering, he says. Beekeepers are also feeling the sting of the Trump administration’s anti-bee and anti-science efforts. And consumers of healthy, fresh foods are next.

    Article continues at:
    https://earthjustice.org/blog/2019-j...-die-off-trump

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    E.P.A. Won’t Ban Chlorpyrifos, Pesticide Tied to Children’s Health Problems

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/c...icide-ban.html

    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration took a major step to weaken the regulation of toxic chemicals on Thursday when the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would not ban a widely used pesticide that its own experts have linked to serious health problems in children.

    The decision by Andrew R. Wheeler, the E.P.A. administrator, represents a victory for the chemical industry and for farmers who have lobbied to continue using the substance, chlorpyrifos, arguing it is necessary to protect crops.

    Article continues here:
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/c...icide-ban.html

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    So we get sick, the major corporations get rich, and the cycle continues.

    Killing the bees is another dent in the self-sufficiency life. Suck on the governments teat or starve.

    Do other countries have the same morale high ground that the USA stand on? Honest question...
    Last edited by RogueEllis; 7th August 2019 at 01:33.

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    I find it really, really difficult to not make a snide comment about Q fans and 45's valiant imagined war against people that endanger children.

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    Trump EPA Sides with Bayer/Monsanto over Science, Claims Cancer-Causing Glyphosate Weedkiller ‘Safe’

    The Environmental Protection Agency said today the active ingredient in Bayer-Monsanto’s carcinogenic weedkiller Roundup is safe, ignoring a growing body of independent research showing a strong connection between glyphosate and cancer in humans.

    https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-...r-safe/5676157

    “Today’s decision by Administrator Wheeler, like virtually every one he and the Trump administration make, completely ignores science in favor of polluters like Bayer,” said EWG President Ken Cook. “This move by EPA should not come as a surprise. Under the control of Trump and Wheeler, the agency is virtually incapable of taking steps to protect people from dangerous chemicals like glyphosate.”

    A report published in January in the Environmental Sciences Europe documented how the EPA ignored a large number of independent, peer-reviewed studies that link glyphosate to cancer in humans. Instead, the report found, the EPA used research paid for by Monsanto to support the agency’s position that glyphosate is not carcinogenic.
    EPA Proposes Re-approving Glyphosate, Ignoring Cancer Risk

    In 2015, after reviewing extensive U.S., Canadian and Swedish epidemiological studies on glyphosate’s human health effects, as well as research on laboratory animals, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, classified the chemical as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

    Genotoxicity is the damaging effect a chemical can have on DNA, triggering mutations that can lead to cancer. IARC scientists reviewed 118 different assays and found strong evidence that glyphosate may cause genotoxicity. But the EPA’s assessment included fewer than half of these studies.

    In the past year, two separate juries found glyphosate caused cancer in two California men who were exposed to the herbicide while handling Roundup. There are now more than 13,400 similar cases against Bayer.

    Earlier this month, the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released an analysis that gave weight to studies connecting glyphosate and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and recommended monitoring children’s exposure to this toxic weedkiller.

    Last year, two separate rounds of laboratory tests commissioned by EWG found glyphosate in nearly every sample of popular oat-based cereals and other oat-based foods marketed to children. The EPA’s decision to allow continued glyphosate uses fails to protect children’s health from glyphosate, and puts polluters’ profits first.

    https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-...r-safe/5676157

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    That is concerning. If it's not bad policy, based on bad data, it is if nothing else bad optics.
    In 2009, the EPA determined that developmental toxicity studies (DNTs) previously required for pyrethroid insecticides did not adequately characterize potential susceptibility of the young. In a Sep. 4, 2009 letter, we stated that registrants that had not already complied with DNT requirements could instead cite six previously submitted pyrethroid DNT studies rather than conduct a new study. We noted that other data may be needed to fully address the potential for increased susceptibility of young organisms to the pyrethroids, focusing on pyrethroid-specific effects related to the mode of action and pharmacokinetic characteristics of this class of compounds.

    In a Feb. 16, 2010 letter to the registrant and stakeholder community, EPA asked companies and other interested parties to voluntarily submit study protocols designed to better understand the potential susceptibility associated with pyrethroids. We reviewed proposals submitted and presented them to the FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) for comment at their July 23, 2010 meeting on Comparative Adult and Juvenile Sensitivity Toxicity Protocols for Pyrethroids.

    In 2010, EPA developed a science paper that discussed the DNT study and related data issues. View Pyrethroids: Evaluation of Data from Developmental Neurotoxicity Studies and Consideration of Comparative Sensitivity.

    [in which it is stated]

    It has been determined that, for pyrethroid pesticides, DNTs do not provide sensitive endpoints for risk assessment or provide sufficient information related to the susceptibility of infants and children; furthermore, the effects they do show can be found in other guideline studies. Certain results were similar across the six submitted pyrethroid DNT studies. As a result the Agency has concluded that the six available DNTs on pyrethroids, when considered together, provide sufficient information to determine that the conclusions drawn from DNTs are applicable to all pyrethroids (Memo, R. Keigwin, Director, PRD/OPP, 9/4/2009). The attached document provides the major scientific evidence supporting the Agency’s conclusion.

    [further..]

    Based on feedback from the SAP and EPA, the industry research proposal was revised. The Council for the Advancement of Pyrethroid Human Health Risk Assessment (CAPHRA) worked with academic scientists to develop assays and models to assess the potential for juvenile post-natal sensitivity to pyrethroids. The CAPHRA presented their research at an SAP meeting on May 19, 2015.

    In the following write-up, as confirmed at the EPA website, in apparent opposition of the OP Global Research article, they state the study was properly peer-reviewed.

    CAPHRA submitted a peer-reviewed physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PbPk) model for pyrethroids to EPA in 2018. After reviewing the new CAPHRA data and the current public literature for pyrethroids, EPA has now concluded that the factor for PD differences should be maintained at 1X, but the factor for PK differences should be reduced from 3X to 1X. Collectively, these determinations mean that EPA has concluded that there are reliable data to support a determination that infants and children are not more susceptible to the neurotoxic effects of pyrethroids than adults, so there is no need to retain either the default FQPA safety factor of 10X or the previous FQPA safety factor used for pyrethroids of 3X.

    In summary, the EPA report states the following:
    Risk assessments incorporating the new lower FQPA safety factor for pyrethroids will be utilized in developing proposed registration review decisions for these compounds, and EPA has stated it will be taking public comment on the OPP report reducing the FQPA safety factor for pyrethroids after EPA publishes a notice of availability for the proposed registration review decisions.[Link]

    It doesn't sound good no matter what. Pesticides aren't good for children, or any of us! Maybe something will come out in the review. Alarm bells here certainly, and Trump needs to hear them. But maybe not a klaxon of doom just yet.
    "When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
    ~ Jimi Hendrix

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    Quote Posted by jcking (here)
    I find it really, really difficult to not make a snide comment about Q fans
    No reason to hold back or feel that you are being snide by noting the obvious contradictions between the Q reality proclaimed here on Avalon and the real horrors of the Trump administration's action. We have a presidential administration that is degrading the environment and human health with pyrethroids, asbestos, glyphosate, sulfoxaflor and 5G, and is cancelling nuclear arms treaties to pursue an agenda of building even more destructive nuclear weapons. It is allowing more arms to be sold to Saudi Arabia to further the genocide against Yemen. Please Q people, tell us how polluting our environment and destroying our health and bringing about death and destruction in Yemen and Palestine is all part of some ridiculous "swamp draining" by someone who is "playing 5 dimensional chess in global politics"?

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    I agree with you Kryz- the world would be a far better place if Hillary had been elected!!!

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    Quote Posted by JRS (here)
    I agree with you Kryz- the world would be a far better place if Hillary had been elected!!!
    Um, no, there was absolutely no such implication to that effect in my post. Just because you don't like apples, it doesn't logically imply that you do like oranges. Just because I don't like the violence and criminality of the Crips, doesn't imply that I like the violence and criminality of the Bloods.

    Last edited by Kryztian; 7th August 2019 at 13:52.

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    In 1979 there were woodpeckers hammering at the roof around here. I have not seen a bee in many many years, and I now give shelter to the wasp hives which attach themselves to various parts of the exterior of the building in order to help them. Years ago, there were hundreds of redbreast birds; and one Spring, most of them fell dead to the ground. It appears they must have eaten something poisonous before making it to our yard. There are far fewer birds and creatures than there used to be. I guess we are next.

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    How US regulators embrace toxic pesticides & the corporations that make them
    https://www.rt.com/usa/466001-us-reg...-corporations/


    A farm worker sprays pesticides on a grapefruit grove in Vero Beach, Florida.

    As an increasing number of hazardous chemicals are banned around the world, they remain legal in the US. Why are American regulators so slow to move, and who benefits from their inaction?

    Dozens of pesticides, up to 85 in total, approved for widespread agricultural use in the United States have been banned elsewhere in the world. For example, the US allows 11 different pesticides banned in China, and 17 that have been prohibited in Brazil.

    The contrast is especially stark in Europe. The recently banned pesticide chlorpyrifos has serious genotoxic and neurological effects, especially in children, the European Food Safety Authority warned in a report published over the weekend. The pesticide, which comes up for re-approval in January, does not comply with EU health regulations because a safe exposure level cannot be established, even at the lowest experimental quantity.

    With no safe dose, there can be no responsible use of the substance, no matter how cheap and effective it is compared to other pesticides. This seems like common sense, but the EU regulator’s decision to advise against chlorpyrifos stands in contrast to its American counterparts, which have stubbornly refused to ban the pesticide in commercial agriculture, along with many other deadly substances manufactured by wealthy agrochemical conglomerates.

    Not only does chlorpyrifos remain in use in the US, concerns about its negative effects on living creatures (including humans) are dismissed by regulators and media marching to the tune of Big Business. The poisonous pesticide, and dozens more like it, are zealously protected by watchdogs who seem to have devolved into lapdogs for industry.

    Agency of no ban

    That is just one example of collusion between US regulators and the industries they’re supposed to regulate. Communications between Monsanto executives and EPA scientists show the former bullying, cajoling, and coercing the latter into downplaying troubling experimental results regarding the carcinogenicity of Monsanto’s blockbuster herbicide glyphosate (marketed as Roundup). It remains legal in the US, despite multiple court rulings awarding hefty sums to customers stricken with non-Hodgkins lymphoma from using the product.

    Monsanto, now owned by the German giant Bayer, has been caught ghostwriting scientific studies and journal articles and paying sympathetic scientists to use their names, thus allowing the company to present the work – including studies it has shown off in court as proof of Roundup’s safety – as “independent.”

    In 2017, the EPA’s inspector general launched an investigation the agency over an email in which its Office of Pesticide Programs appeared to conspire with Monsanto to “kill” an investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services into glyphosate.

    The International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined the herbicide was “probably carcinogenic to humans” based on a wealth of peer-reviewed studies, but the EPA refused to change its classification. Instead, the agency has relied on proprietary industry-funded studies even as former EPA scientists insist on re-evaluating the herbicide following a study that found exposure raised the risk of developing non-Hodgkins lymphoma by an eye-popping 41 percent.

    This regulatory capture has been aided by the media. Monsanto has “pet journalists who pushed Monsanto propaganda under the guise of ‘objective reporting,’” according to one of the Roundup cancer lawsuits. The lawsuit described the “reputation management” consultants who infiltrated news outlets, including the BBC, in order to influence the “real” journalists writing about the company, supplying pro-GMO talking points and storylines while slapping their names on Monsanto-written articles. The company has also sought to smear and discredit hostile journalists, using an astroturfed journal called Academics Review. More recently, the EPA itself has started going after journalists who pursue stories exposing the regulator’s collusion with Big Pharma.

    Tip of the chemical iceberg

    Glyphosate and chlorpyrifos are far from the only chemical pariahs the US continues to embrace. The US Food and Drug Administration dismisses the danger of food dyes like Blue #2 and Yellow #5, linked to brain cancer and genotoxocity, respectively, arguing that they’re used in such small doses in American products that they couldn’t possibly have an effect – even though some people are sensitive enough to Yellow #5 that US companies are legally required to list it on their labels.

    Bovine growth hormones (rBGH and rBST) given to cows to increase milk production remain legal (if controversial) in the US, where the dairy industry has fought against laws that would require products containing them to be labeled. Milk containing these hormones contains IGF-1, an ingredient linked to tumor development by the American Cancer Society.

    While other countries tighten the screws on corporations that would abuse the public trust, the US lets them write the regulations. Many chemical and pharmaceutical companies belong to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a powerful lobbying group that actually writes bills for friendly members of Congress to pass into law.

    Meanwhile, the Trump administration has elevated regulatory capture to an art form. Not only was Pruitt named to head the EPA, but former Monsanto lawyer Aurelia Skipwith was appointed director of Fish and Wildlife Services, while Alex Azar, former president of pharma giant Eli Lilly, runs the Department of Health and Human Services.

    After nearly a decade of lawsuits, the Obama administration finally promised in 2015 to ban chlorpyrifos. The Environmental Protection Agency even produced studies showing that the pesticide harmed brain development in children. But Trump’s EPA director Scott Pruitt reversed that decision before it could take effect, shortly after a meeting with executives from Dow Chemical, its manufacturer. Prior to his appointment, Pruitt worked so closely with the energy industry in fighting the EPA and environmental legislation, that he actually allowed energy lobbyists to use his official stationery (as Oklahoma attorney general) to file complaints against the regulator.

    These appointments demonstrate to companies like Monsanto and Lilly, who have been caught time and again covering up evidence of their misdeeds, that all is forgiven as long as they turn a profit. Not only has the EPA green-lighted chlorpyrifos, glyphosate, and sulfoxaflor – a pesticide known to harm bees, which are dying at an unprecedented rate, posing a serious threat to the world’s food supplies – but it has given up on the pretense of actually regulating agribusiness.

    Last month, the EPA dropped “surprise” inspections of chemical and power plants, a move the agency claims is “aimed at fostering a better working relationship between the agency and states.”

    The fox governing the henhouse

    Washington’s dismantling of regulations meant to protect Americans is only the culmination of a long history of regulatory capture, fueled by hefty contributions from the nation’s top corporate predators. A 2015 law banning states from requiring genetically modified foods to be labeled as such was pushed through by lawmakers receiving six-figure sums from the agrochemical industry, even though some polls showed 90 percent of voters were against it.

    Bayer, Monsanto’s parent company, spent $3.6 million on lobbying in 2018. The pharmaceutical industry spends more money on lobbying than any other, dumping $283 million into elections last year alone, and over $4 billion over the last two decades. These industries pay good money for friendly government, while the people that the government is supposed to protect just can’t compete. Especially in the wake of the 2010 Citizens United decision that infamously determined “corporations are people” whose political donations are legally protected speech, ordinary Americans don’t stand a chance of seeing their interests represented in government.

    As a result, glyphosate is found in almost every foodstuff tested – including organic foods supposedly grown without it, and even breast milk – but the Centers for Disease Control doesn’t include the herbicide in the 200 industrial chemicals it monitors in Americans’ blood and urine. The EPA actually raised the limits for glyphosate allowed in food in 2013 – perhaps because most American food wouldn’t pass inspection at safety levels set by watchdogs like the Environmental Working Group.

    Pesticide residues are found in 70 percent of produce sold in the US, and have been measured at levels harmful to aquatic life in 60 percent of rivers and streams in rural areas – even though the World Health Organization says pesticides are “intrinsically toxic.”

    On top of all this, over 40 million Americans (and a quarter of those over the age of 60) are taking psychotropic drugs, despite serious side effects especially associated with long-term use.

    After all this, it’s no surprise that just 11 percent of Americans trust Congress, and even Big Business only enjoys 23 percent support, according to a Gallup poll conducted earlier this year. A Princeton University study in 2014 – while Barack Obama was president – confirmed that the US is no longer a democracy, but an oligarchy. When the interests of average Americans clash with the interests of the rich, the rich always prevail.

    https://www.rt.com/usa/466001-us-reg...-corporations/

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    You know things are upside down when you have to sue government agencies for poisoning the land and all living things.


    Trump’s EPA Sued for Not Banning Brain-Damaging Pesticide

    Chlorpyrifos producer Dow Chemical falsely claims the pesticide “protects.” It’s been poisoning the earth and people for nearly half a century.

    The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) “for a healthy planet and safer world” said Dow is the main beneficiary of the EPA’s failure to ban chlorpyrifos.

    The agency “said (it’s) OK to spray this brain-damaging chemical on the array of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and cereal crops that we and our children consume on a daily basis,” UCS explained, adding:

    Quote “With this decision, the EPA continues to sideline science, put public health at risk, and roll back public safeguards in favor of private interests.”
    Chlorpyrifos is a significant health hazard to pregnant women, their fetuses, young children, farmworkers, and virtually everyone else eating the crops they harvest.

    Friends of the Earth (FOE) denounced Trump’s ecocidal threat to people and the planet by gutting environmental protections — serving corporate polluters at the expense of public health.

    FOE explained that

    Quote “(c)hlorpyrifos is a pesticide that was designed to attack the brain and nervous system — and studies show links to brain damage in children.”
    Earth Justice attorney Patti Goldman said the

    Quote “EPA has repeatedly found chlorpyrifos unsafe, especially to children, yet time and time again it refuses to protect kids.”

    “But Earth Justice and our clients won’t stand for this. The science and the law call for a chlorpyrifos ban. We are hopeful the courts will do the same for the sake of children and farmworkers.”
    Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate pesticide in use since 1965. It’s harmful to human health if touched, inhaled or otherwise ingested.

    It blocks an enzyme that controls messages between nerve cells. When blocked, the nervous system can’t send normal signals, causing it to malfunction — how it kills pests.

    Exposure to small amounts of the pesticide can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, abdominal muscle cramps, muscle twitching, tremors, weakness, loss of coordination, diarrhea, and blurred or darkened vision.

    Heavy exposure resulting in severe poisoning can cause unconsciousness, loss of bladder and bowel control, convulsions, difficulty in breathing, and paralysis. It’s not believed to be carcinogenic.

    READ MORE: Europe Says ‘No Safe Level’ of Brain-Damaging Pesticide Trump EPA Refused to Ban

    In 2000, the EPA banned chlorpyrifos for household use. In 2007, the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) unsuccessfully petitioned the EPA to ban all uses of the pesticide.

    In 2015, the Obama regime announced it would ban its use, based on scientific evidence and assessment of EPA scientists of its risk to human health. It didn’t happen.

    In March 2017, shortly after Trump took office, his EPA rejected a petition to ban the pesticide, falsely claiming the decision was based “sound science.”

    Hawaii banned chlorpyrifos. California announced it’ll follow suit. New York approved legislation to ban it by December 2021. New Jersey and Maryland are considering statewide bans. The EU may ban it in 2020.

    Earth Justice, health, and labor organizations are suing the EPA for not prohibiting its use.

    National Hispanic Medical Association Dr. Elena Rios said

    Quote “scientific evidence (of chlorpyrifos’ toxicity) has been clear for years,” adding:

    “Trump’s EPA might want to dismiss the science and the law to protect corporate profit, but we are confident the courts won’t stand for this.”
    According to Farmworker Justice attorney Iris Figueroa,

    Quote “Trump’s EPA has yet again failed farmworkers and children when it refused to ban chlorpyrifos despite all the science that called for the opposite,” adding:

    “We hope the courts will take the lead and amend this grave mistake. Farmworkers, families, and developing children must be safe from chlorpyrifos and most importantly, from preventable illness.”
    Pesticide Action Network executive director Kristin Schafer expressed outrage over having to ask a court to force the EPA to do its job.

    Established by Richard Nixon’s July 1970 executive order, the EPA is mandated to protect human and environmental health. The agency’s website states:

    EPA works to ensure that:

    Quote “Americans have clean air, land and water…reduce environmental risks…based on the best available scientific information (so that) human health and the environment are” protected.
    Most often the EPA protects the sales and profits of corporate polluters at the expense of public health and welfare.

    Straightaway in office, Trump proved he’s no friend of the earth, letting Big Oil, Big Chemical, and other corporate polluters contaminate air, water, and soil unobstructed for profit.

    According to the Center for Public Integrity, corporate polluters, oil and drug giants, insurers, tobacco companies, automakers, and tech giants bought Trump straightaway by donating millions of dollars to his inauguration.

    Dow Chemical alone donated $1 million in December 2016. Numerous other companies made six-figure or larger contributions to the event.

    United Farm Workers of America national vice-president Erik Nicholson said

    Quote “(h)aving chlorpyrifos in our fields means that women and men who harvest our food are in harm’s way every day.”

    “We will fight to right this wrong in the court of law and the court of public opinion until a ban is in place.”
    Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) senior scientist Miriam Rotkin-Ellman stressed that the

    Quote “EPA knows this stuff is toxic. Its own scientists have been sounding the alarm for years now, but this administration is shameless in its push to keep it on the market.”

    “We are urging the court to side with children over a powerful chemical industry with friends in high places. Chlorpyrifos does not belong on our food or in our fields.”
    *

    Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

    Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

    His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

    http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
    A million galaxies are a little foam on that shoreless sea. ~ Rumi

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    Eight days after the Trump EPA authorized cyanide bombs ....
    Trump administration reverses decision to use 'cyanide bombs' to kill wild animals
    The poison-filled traps are used by the federal government to kill coyotes, foxes and other animals for farmers and ranchers

    https://www.theguardian.com/environm...mbs-trump-m44s


    After sustained public outcry, the Trump administration has voided its decision to reauthorize controversial cyanide traps for killing wildlife.

    The traps, which are known as M-44s and dubbed “cyanide bombs” by critics, are spring-loaded devices that emit a spray of sodium cyanide to kill their targets. The traps are most frequently used by Wildlife Services, a little-known federal agency inside the United States Department of Agriculture, to kill coyotes, foxes and other animals at the behest of private agriculture operators.

    Last year, Wildlife Services killed more than 1.5 million native wild animals across the country, including bears, wolves, birds and more. Roughly 6,500 of these deaths were caused by M-44 traps.

    “I am announcing a withdrawal of EPA’s interim registration review decision on sodium cyanide, the compound used in M-44 devices to control wild predators,” Andrew Wheeler, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, announced in a public statement. “This issue warrants further analysis and additional discussions by EPA with the registrants of this predacide.”

    In an announcement last week, the EPA said that it had authorized government officials to continue using M-44s on an interim basis. The decision sparked fury among wildlife advocates and others, who decried the decision as a reckless threat to humans and the environment. M-44s, which are deployed on public and private land across the US, have led in the past to the inadvertent deaths of endangered species and domestic pets. They have even harmed humans, including a teenage boy who was poisoned by an M-44 in Pocatello, Idaho, in 2017.

    Brooks Fahy, the executive director of Predator Defense, a wildlife group that is a leading opponent of M-44 traps, said the EPA’s announcement was a welcome reversal.

    “Obviously somebody at EPA is paying attention to the public’s concerns about cyanide bombs,” Fahy said in a statement. “It would appear they’re responding to public outrage over the interim decision from last week. Our phone has been ringing off the hook from concerned citizens regarding their greenlight to continue using these horrific devices. We’ll have to see how this plays out.”

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    Quote Posted by jcking (here)
    I find it really, really difficult to not make a snide comment about Q fans and 45's valiant imagined war against people that endanger children.
    Yes, you do, .... don't you.

    Related:

    Executive Order Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption


    Trump targets human rights abusers with executive order


    DOJ Awards More Than $100 Million to Combat Human Trafficking and Assist Victims – Awards Given to South Florida Partners
    Last edited by edina; 15th November 2019 at 22:42.
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  30. Link to Post #16
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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    You're angry that I don't "believe in" Q, so you're reviving old threads. Fine. If you like the story you heard this time, I have a fake university and a bankrupt casino that'll be right up your alley.

  31. Link to Post #17
    United States Avalon Member edina's Avatar
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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    Quote Posted by jcking (here)
    You're angry that I don't "believe in" Q, so you're reviving old threads. Fine. If you like the story you heard this time, I have a fake university and a bankrupt casino that'll be right up your alley.
    Nope, just decided to take a closer look at you, and saw this comment.

    Helps me understand you better.
    I happily co-create a balanced world culture harmonized with Infinite Intelligence. ~ edina (Renaissance Humanity)

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    OK, yes, you probably understand that I personally think that part of the Q material/propaganda campaign (depending on how one looks at it) is to send people down rabbit holes for a mythology that does image rehab for a corrupt capitalist billionaire president that (I believe) has never really shown any propensity toward helping the weak and disadvantaged in a long-form way. Which, by the way, is part of the actual topic of this thread that you've now revived. You got me, and that's ok. And no, I'm not a fan of the Clintons either. These people are often a lot closer to each other than we like to admit, of course. I'm trying to be civil about it, as in the other thread, which is something I try to do periodically when I see people that (imho) are still "falling for" really manipulative stuff, especially material that I thought had largely been settled.

    My comment from this last summer about Trump and being suspicious of him wanting to "protect children" was specifically alluding to his old affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein. Maybe you can forgive me for being suspicious of *anyone* that used to regularly hang out with that guy.

    I don't think there's anything wrong with a reminder that, like my grandfather always said, "it's good to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out". I'm not trying to make you believe anything, just a small reminder that these are common propaganda and disinformation tactics. Perhaps it's total coincidence.
    Last edited by jcking; 15th November 2019 at 23:57.

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    Quote Posted by jcking (here)
    OK, yes, you probably understand that I personally think that part of the Q material/propaganda campaign (depending on how one looks at it) is to send people down rabbit holes for a mythology that does image rehab for a corrupt capitalist billionaire president that (I believe) has never really shown any propensity toward helping the weak and disadvantaged in a long-form way. You got me, and that's ok. And no, I'm not a fan of the Clintons either. These people are often a lot closer to each other than we like to admit, of course. I'm trying to be civil about it, as in the other thread, which is something I try to do periodically when I see people that (imho) are still "falling for" really manipulative stuff, especially material that I thought had largely been settled.

    I don't think there's anything wrong with a reminder that, like my grandfather always said, "it's good to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out". I'm not trying to make you believe anything, just a small reminder that these are common propaganda and disinformation tactics. Perhaps it's total coincidence.
    Yes, ... I understand and recognize manipulation when I see it.
    I happily co-create a balanced world culture harmonized with Infinite Intelligence. ~ edina (Renaissance Humanity)

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    Default Re: Trump Administration Ends Long-standing Safeguards Protecting Kids from Dangerous Class of Pesticides

    Cool, must be awesome to be all-knowing like that.

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