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.
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