Discuss: Pesticide Drift

Rebecca Clarren has truly captured how these often invisible Central Valley communities are confronting persistent pesticide exposure from industrialized agricultural. Her story depicts the remarkable courage of farmworker families who’ve begun to demand their rights to a healthier environment. The article also portrays accurately the exemplary collaboration between new grassroots activists and environmental justice organizations to enable residents to gather their own scientific data with the pesticide Drift Catcher. We must add that it was at the urging of Commonweal’s Sharyle Patton that urine samples are also being collected from residents, showing the same pesticides present at levels of concern in residents’ bodies. Under California’s new biomonitoring law, we expect to see growing evidence that pesticide drift is intolerable for all of us. Thank you for telling this story, and to Commonweal for expanding the picture.

Steve Scholl-Buckwald, Managing Director, Pesticide Action Network

Thank you for this important article. I wanted to also let people know about similar work being done by another member of Commonweal, Steve Lerner.

He is collecting stories called “Chemical Contamination in Fenceline Communities” which are available online at:  http://www.healthandenvironment.org/

Steve Lerner is research director at Commonweal and is currently working on a book, tentatively entitled “Fenceline Communities: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure in the U.S.” It is a follow-up to his earlier book, called “Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor,” which provides case study reports on 11 low income and minority communities around the country dealing with intense pollution from adjacent heavy industries and military bases.

Big credit to Pesticide Action Network-North America for leading on this issue. PANNA’s work is a great example of the effectiveness and importance of grassroots action.

Erik
Orion Grassroots Network
—
Providing services and support to grassroots groups working for people and planet.

Thank you for publishing this story. I’ve heard similar stories many times before. We need to keep telling these stories until we have an acceptable change in policy. Until that time I simply buy organic fruit and vegi’s. The last thing I want to support are farms and farmers that pollute our air and water and show no concern for the folks living near the farms and more importantly the farm workers in the field.

It is one thing to feel helpless. Its another thing when you know it hits other people in other lands. But, desperation leads to prayer and prayer leads to faith. I hope your paper cultivates faith by featuring the action of others combatting the same scourge of toxic spray.

The more people praying in action… the sooner we rid ourselves of helplessness. The stronger the faith in the justness of our struggles, the more people find their voice.

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Read about the issues in the Philippines

More power to the people!!!

see sample article below:

The Endosulfan Toxic Cargo Poses a Serious Threat to Health and Environment
Dr. Romeo F. Quijano
Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila

The toxic cargo, endosulfan,  still lying inside the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars, poses a very serious threat to health and environment.  The huge amount involved (10 metric tons) and its very high toxicity potential make it a veritable �time bomb�. Responsible government agencies should not trivialize the serious danger we are faced with. News reports stating that an official of the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority �allayed fears the hundreds of drums containing endosulfan would cause massive marine pollution�, and that �there would only be a very slight amount of endosulfan that would be dissolved in water� are false and grossly misleading. Endosulfan is a marine pollutant. In fact, its bill of lading carries the UN designated label �marine pollutant� and �toxic�, with the skull and crossbones warning pictogram.

Endosulfan is extremely toxic to aquatic life and is very highly toxic to other organisms, including humans. A massive global environmental pollution would occur if the 10 tons of endosulfan were released into the seawater.  The �slight amount� that would be dissolved in water would be sufficient to kill fish and to cause adverse health effects in animals and humans. While the solubility of endosulfan in water is only 0.22-0.33 mg/L(milligrams per liter), this is already about 2,500X the concentration levels that would kill fish (0.05-0.13 ug/L), about 800X the concentration that is toxic to the sperm and that would increase the risk of breast cancer (.407 ug/L). This concentration is also enough to poison an unprotected person who might be immersed in contaminated seawater for a few minutes. Furthermore, once the packaging of endosulfan is breached, the released endosulfan will find its way into the surface and will be subsequently dispersed over a very wide area of sea water, potentially stretching out to thousands of kilometers from the point of release. Substantial amounts will be taken up and accumulated by marine organisms and lipophilic organic aggregates in seawater which will eventually find their way into nearby coastal areas and terrestrial communities. A significant amount of the released endosulfan will volatilize and will be further transported by air currents over long distances and will be deposited in different parts of the globe. Ten metric tons of endosulfan is no small addition to the global burden of toxicants already creating much havoc on health and environment.

Contrary to government pronouncements, leakage of endosulfan from its containers from the sunken MV Princess is likely.  The bill of lading indicated that the outer packaging material used was fibreboard, with polyethylene plastic as the immediate packaging material for the endosulfan. Fibreboard material, even if moisture resistant,  will eventually give way after prolonged immersion in seawater. Once the fibreboard packaging is breached, the inner polyethylene bags will not be able to contain the chemical for long and endosulfan will be discharged into the surrounding seawater and beyond. The scenario is even worse if another typhoon visits the area. Considering that the endosulfan in the sunken ship amounts to 10 tons and considering that endosulfan is a persistent organic pollutant, the marine pollution that would occur will be a global nightmare.  The fact that the seawater samples taken from the immediate vicinity of the toxic cargo turned out to be negative so far is not very reassuring. In the first place, the sensitivity of the equipment measuring the samples is limited. According to a senior official in charge of the laboratory, their equipment can only detect a concentration equal to or greater than 0.1mg/L.  A slow release of the toxic cargo resulting to low-level but chronically toxic seawater concentrations may not be detected. Secondly, negative results do not, in any way, indicate that the toxic cargo will not leak in the immediate future. The observation that there has been no fish kills in the vicinity of the sunken ship so far is also not reassuring for the same reasons: the effects of sub-lethal but toxic concentrations are not detected and the absence of fish kills so far does not indicate that there will be no fish kills in the near future. Indeed the endosulfan toxic cargo is a �ticking time bomb�.

Endosulfan residues in food and drinking water are already widespread globally and constitute a serious threat to human health. There is already significant levels of contamination of human tissues, including breastmilk, adipose tissue, placental tissue and umbilical cord blood. The unborn child is exposed, and then re-exposed on birth through breast milk�both exposures taking place at critical periods of development where endosulfan is known to have profound life-long adverse effects. There are many cases of reported acute poisonings, occurring mostly in developing countries, resulting oftentmes in deaths or severe disability. Effects in chronically exposed survivors include congenital deformities, delayed male sexual maturity, female hormonal disorders, congenital mental retardation, cerebral palsy and other neurologic disorders, immune system disease, cancers, disorders of the kidney, liver, skin and other organs, and many other diseases.

Endosulfan is extremely toxic to fish and has caused massive fish kills. It is also highly toxic to all other aquatic organisms and demonstrates a range of chronic effects, including genotoxicity, reproductive and developmental effects. Toxicity is increased by increased temperatures: more problems can be expected with global warming.                                                                 

It is also highly toxic to birds, bees, earthworms, beneficial insects and microorganisms.                                 

Environmental contamination is widespread and has been found in soil, ground and surface waters, marine sediments, air, rainfall, snow and ice pack, grasses and tree bark all over the world�-from areas in which it is still in use to high remote mountain lakes and the Arctic and Antarctic regions. In the Philippines, endosulfan residues have been found in food, surface and ground water, sediments, soil, watershed areas and air. In fact, in the Global Air Pollutants Survey done recently, Philippines was among those with the highest levels of contamination for Persistent Organic Pollutants, including endosulfan.  Endosulfan is persistent in the environment and biomagnifies in terrestrial food chains.

Given the above facts, any additional release of endosulfan into the environment, more so from the 10 tons of 94% pure endosulfan in the sunken MV Princess, can only mean disaster.

Questions must then be asked why we (and the entire global community) are in this predicament.

Why is endosulfan still allowed to be used by Del Monte and Dole until now despite the fact that endosulfan has been banned nationally in 1994?

Endosulfan was strongly recommended to be banned completely by the FPA’s technical experts as far back as 20 years ago. The FPA eventually banned Endosulfan 35% in 1994. Del Monte and Dole were granted a phase-out period upon their request with certain conditions, including monitoring of their workers for chromosomal abnormalities. The FPA and Del Monte claim the results of the monitoring were all �normal� when in fact there were significant abnormalities, and anomalies, in the monitoring. The phase-out period was extended until 2002. The senior medical toxicologist in the Pesticide Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) refused to agree to further extension after that. The FPA, nevertheless, on their own and over the objections of the senior medical toxicologist, decided to allow Del Monte and Dole to use endosulfan until December, 2008. The FPA never convened the PTAC after 2002. Curiously, at that time, the owner of Del Monte was a high ranking government official, a Cabinet Secretary.

Why was Del Monte allowed to import 10 tons of pure endosulfan, an amount far exceeding the requirements until the end of 2008 ?

Del Monte’s permit to use endosulfan is due to expire on Dec. 31, 2008.

Clearly, Del Monte was confident that it will get another extension to use endosulfan from the FPA even before any formal deliberations could occur on the issue. However, why did Del Monte import such a huge amount of endosulfan, way above their expected requirements for the year? Was it because they were hoarding endsulfan, anticipating that the supply of endosulfan will be further tightened due to the increasing international pressure for global banning?

Why was Sulpicio Lines allowed by government authorities to load endosulfan in a passenger ship and why did Del Monte and Sulpicio Lines load the toxic cargo in that ill-fated ship, apparently with no sufficient safeguards and information about the toxic cargo?

The strict guidelines stipulated by the United Nations Convention on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) code,  to which the Philippines had committed to adhere to, were clearly violated by all the parties. The government agencies concerned, the shipping company, and the owner of the cargo must be held accountable for seriously jeopardizing people’s health and the environment by such violations of internationally agreed guidelines.

Endosulfan belongs to the group of highly toxic chemicals called persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and has been formally proposed by the European Union to be included in the official list of chemicals for global elimination under the Stockholm Convention, which the Philippines has already ratified. In fact, the Philippine government had proposed in 1996 that endosulfan be included in the initial list of POPs under the said treaty but due to the intervention of vested interests, regulatory authorities allowed endosulfan to be used almost indefinitely in this country.

There is an urgent need to address the immediate danger that the toxic endosulfan cargo poses on the entire planet. Preventive and remedial measures should not be dependent on the willingness of the accountable companies to pay. The resources of the government and international bodies should be mobilized while undertaking measures to ensure the accountability of those companies involved. There should be an effective participation of people�s organizations in the task force addressing this issue. People�s welfare is in serious jeopardy.

Dr. Romeo F. Quijano
Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila
 
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Long a resident of Bakerfield (kern CO.)and friends with others who worked in the farm service business, it is clear that pesticide drift has been going on for a very long time. The smell was heavy way back in the 70’s on the west side.  MacFarland, Ca., mostly Latino, had 7 children in _one block_ die from the same kind of cancer during the early 90’s and the dr. who did post-mortem found incredibly high amounts of pesticide residue in their bodies. A lawsuit got some recompense for the families but no amount of money can fill in a space left in such tight families as these.  The overwhelming disregard corporations have for “people” these days, I can see fierce stuggles ahead; but that the only thing that will move them. “Power has never conceded anything without a struggle.  It never has and never will. Those who want results without struggle want crops without working the earth.”    -Frederick Douglass

how can I get one of these drift catchers.  I will be moving into an area which is still predominantly farm land.  Should I be concerned for such pesticide drifts in Illinois?

I consider that it is necessary to fertilize the ground that it yielded fruits. Because all pesticides are a chemistry which badly influences an organism of the person. It is necessary to apply special fertilizers and then pesticides will be not necessary to the ground. In the world and so it is a lot of chemical plants, factories, and we also eat pesticides.