permaculture

[John Schinnerer <eco_living@yahoo.com>]

Aloha,

> The surfactants used to spread it are also very toxic.

This is a crucial issue that is beginning to get more publicity. 
Sometimes the 'active ingredient' is one of the *least* toxic
ingredients in herbicides and pesticides.  

In brief, the labeling laws are such that only declared "active"
ingredients have to meet or pass whatever the (often
questionable/biased, but that's another thread... ;-) "safety" tests
are.  So-called "inert" ingredients are often very "active" - and
toxic, and persistent - in actual fact of use, sometimes more so and/or
in different realms of life than the listed "active" ingredients.  And
in the land of legal technicalities, that's OK - no
environmental/safety laws are being broken! 
There is info out there about this issue in various places, don't have
any URLs at hand at the moment, these folks may have some, or leads to
it:

> National
> Coalition Against Misuse of Pesticides (NCAMP) web site has the data


=====
John Schinnerer, MA
-------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
Food - Water - Shelter - Community - Technology
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net

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