PANUPS: EPA Waffles on Dursban

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PANUPS: EPA Waffles on Dursban

Wed, 05 Jan 2005 12:05:02 -0800

 

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P A N U P S

Pesticide Action Network Updates Service

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EPA Waffles on Dursban

January 5, 2005

 

 

Late last year, Beyond Pesticides in Washington D.C. revealed that the

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had made a private agreement

with the Dow Chemical Company to permit use of Dursban (chlorpyrifos is

the active ingredient) in new home construction for as long as three

years after a scheduled ban. After newspapers publicized the secret deal

with Dow, EPA changed course and signaled that it would enforce the

phase-out of the potent neurotoxin.

 

EPA had announced in 2000 that chlorpyrifos, widely sold under trade

names Dursban and Lorsban, would be phased out as a termiticide for new

construction (as well as most home uses) due to its unacceptable health

risks to children. U.S. production of Dursban for this purpose was

scheduled to end December 31, 2004, and use of the chemical in new

construction was banned after December of 2005. Then in 2003, Dow

provided EPA

with a " safety analysis " of the chemical which has not been made

public. That analysis, according to Dow spokesman Garry Hamlin,

employed new

EPA mathematical modeling to gauge pesticide exposures linked to

construction and found " it [i.e. Dursban exposure] falls within an

acceptable

range. " Hamlin told Scripts Howard News Service that EPA notified Dow

earlier in December that a new indoor air monitoring study was needed,

and that home construction use could continue for up to three years

while the study was completed. When reporters contacted EPA about the

alleged agreement, EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs announced that the

agency expected Dow to stop production of Dursban for home

construction on

Dec. 31, but that the administration would review the company's

petition over the next month and a half to consider permitting

production and

use during the indoor air monitoring study. Finally on December 27th,

EPA wrote Dow that the new data are " not sufficient to allow " a deadline

extension.

 

Every year, builders in the U.S. spread an estimated 500 million

gallons of Dursban around building foundations; 380 gallons of the

pesticide

is pumped into the ground under a 2000 square foot home. Both chemical

and structural alternatives to chlorpyrifos are commonly available.

Borates are a less toxic chemical applied in a dry form, and steel

barriers and mesh shields are also laid under foundations to prevent

infestation.

 

Within days of the revelation that EPA had made a private deal with

Dow, the Natural Resources Defense Council sent EPA a letter co-signed by

PANNA and other environmental and health groups, urging the agency to

follow its public process for pesticide registration. The letter called

on EPA to immediately cease private negotiations with Dow, publish the

company's petition in the Federal Register and allow a period for

public comment, and make public the underlying data that Dow relied upon.

 

" The EPA itself recently decided that Dursban was too toxic to use in

residential settings, " said Susan Kegley of PANNA. " Doing an about face

on this now shows just how deep the Bush philosophy of 'If you don't

like the science, just ignore it' permeates the EPA, " she said.

 

PANNA's analysis earlier this year of Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

data on pesticides found in U.S. residents reports that metabolites of

chlorpyrifos are nearly twice as high in children (age 6-11) than

adults (See Chemical Trespass: Pesticides n Our Bodies and Corporate

Accountability

http://www.panna.org/resources/panups/panup_20040511.dv.html).

 

Also this year, a New York City study associated exposure to

chlorpyrifos (and diazinon, another organophosphate insecticide

commonly used in

homes) with a significant decrease in infant birth weight. The study

examined residential exposures of the two insecticides used to control

termites and roaches. Children's health specialist Dr. Robin M. Whyatt,

principal author of the study, remarked, " We were surprised to see such

a significant association between exposure to the pesticides and birth

weight. There is no question that this is an instance where regulation

worked, the EPA imposed a ban, and there was an immediate benefit. "

 

Unfortunately, EPA's phase-outs of residential uses of chlorpyrifos are

not being applied in agricultural settings. Approximately 10 million

pounds of the pesticide are used in agriculture each year, with

farmworkers and their children at greatest risk. Shelly Davis of the

Farmworker

Justice Fund reports that chlorpyrifos consistently ranks as one of the

most hazardous workplace poisons on the farm, poisoning hundreds of

farmworkers and applicators every year. " When EPA phased out consumer

uses

of chlorpyrifos, and left most agricultural uses in place, they gave us

half a loaf, " stated Davis. " What EPA needs to do is impose greater,

not lesser, restrictions on all uses, so we're going in the wrong

direction here. "

 

Sources: Beyond Pesticides Press Release, December 20, 21, 2004,

Scripts Howard News Service, Deadline Extended on Pesticide Phaseout,

December 20, 2004; Washington Post, EPA May Lift Ban on Dow's Termite

Killer

Dec 21, 2004; Washington Post, Dow Chemical Told to Curtail Pesticide

Sales, Dec 29, 2004; PANNA, Birth Weights Higher After Pesticide Ban,

April 16, 2004; PANNA, Chemical Trespass: Pesticides in Our Bodies and

Corporate Accountability, May 2004.

Contact: PANNA.

 

PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and

reporting on pesticide issues that don't always get coverage by the

mainstream media. It's produced by Pesticide Action Network North

America, a

non-profit and non-governmental organization working to advance

sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide.

 

You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations for our work and

all contributions are tax deductible in the United States. Visit

http://www.panna.org/donate.

 

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