PANUPS: DDT scandal at WHO; Toxic tours across U.S.; Physicians in Canada call f

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Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:37:28 GMT

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PANUPS: DDT scandal at WHO; Toxic tours across U.S.;

Physicians in Canada call for pesticide ban

 

 

 

 

A Weekly News Update on Pesticides, Health and Alternatives

 

 

DDT scandal at WHO; Toxic tours across U.S.; Physicians in Canada call

for pesticide ban and more

 

September 28, 2006

 

Scandal brewing over WHO's promotion of DDT, health advocates call for

investigation: Public and environmental health advocates from around

the world demanded that the World Health Organization (WHO) withdraw

its recent controversial announcement advising increased use of DDT

for malaria control in Africa, and called on WHO governors to

investigate the scandal within the global health agency. In a

statement delivered to the hundreds of officials gathered in Budapest

for the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety meeting this week,

a broad coalition of medical professionals and toxics experts revealed

dissension within WHO over the Sept. 15th press statement by Dr Arata

Kochi, Director of WHO's Global Malaria Program. The announcement was

significantly made in Washington DC instead of WHO headquarters in

Geneva and was not based on any new assessment by WHO of DDT. The

decision directly undermines the global treaty on Persistent Organic

Pollutants (POPs). Several WHO malaria experts have resigned in

protest. Read the coalition response.

 

Indian activists protest DDT factory: In the wake of the WHO

announcement promoting DDT for malaria control, residents living near

the Hindustan Insecticides Ltd. DDT manufacturing plant in Kerala,

India gathered to declare that their communities and livelihoods have

been destroyed by DDT and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

On September 17, 2006, more than 500 people from Eloor and Edayar,

India, presented nine community demands to the Indian government and

WHO after suffering more than 50 years of pollution. The Eloor-Edayar

statement read, " There is a growing political understanding that a

paradigm where the present and future generations are denied clean air

and water cannot be seen as development. Scientists all over the world

are working towards a dream of a hazardous pesticides- and

chemical-free world by 2020. This vision statement is being put

forward with a lot of hope by the people of Eloor and Edayar villages

with the intention of achieving this dream. "

 

National tour of communities impacted by toxics: Calling for

precautionary policies as a solution to unnecessary toxic

contamination, environmental justice and chemical policy change

activists are coordinating bus tours of three regions of the U.S. from

September 24 through October 1. The tours are offering local

perspectives, wisdom, dialogue and solutions from people impacted

harder than most by toxic contamination. Each tour brings activists,

policy-makers, and the media together to expose increasing toxic

pollution, especially in communities of color. " Toxic chemicals are

making people sick in communities throughout the nation, " said Martha

Arguello, California tour coordinator from Physicians for Social

Responsibility - Los Angeles and Californians for Pesticide Reform.

Learn more.

 

Farmworkers sickened by aerial organophosphate spraying: On September

21, more than forty farmworkers became ill when an aerial application

of Bayer Corporation's Di-syston on an asparagus field drifted into

the neighboring orchard where they were working. The incident occurred

southwest of Sacramento, California. Disulfoton, the active ingredient

in Di-syston, is a Pesticide Action Network " Bad Actor "

organophosphate pesticide, a class of chemicals highly toxic to the

nervous system. Anne Katten of California Rural Legal Assistance told

reporters, " This is an extremely toxic chemical... workers should not

enter a field...treated with Di-syston for 26 days, according to

product information about its usage. " The Sacramento Bee reports.

" Editor's note: Anne Katten's name was misspelled in this newspaper

article. "

 

Canadian physicians group calls for cosmetic pesticide ban: Physicians

at the annual meeting of the Prince Edward Island Medical Society

called for a ban on all cosmetic pesticides, but failed to call for an

government study of links to rising cancer rates. " I'm disappointed

that a study (on rising cancer rates) was not passed, but then the

feeling I got today was that not many physicians are aware of the

pesticide issues and that's dismaying,'' said Dr. Ron Matsusaki.

Nonetheless, he continued, " We've got a foot in the door now and it's

the first time in history that the medical profession on Prince Edward

Island has taken a stand on the issue. " The Prince Edward Island

Guardian has the story.

 

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