permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

DuPont's Imprelis Herbicide Goes Rogue | Common Dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/17-2

"Published on Saturday, September 17, 2011 by OtherWords
DuPont's Herbicide Goes Rogue
The company's landscaping weed-killer turned out to be a tree-killer.
by Jim Hightower

In the corporate world's tortured language, workers are no longer
fired. They just experience an "employment adjustment." But the most
twisted euphemism I've heard in a long time comes from DuPont: "We are
investigating the reports of these unfavorable tree symptoms," the
pesticide maker recently stated.

How unfavorable? Finito, flat-lined, the tree is dead. Not just one
tree, but hundreds of thousands all across the country are suffering
the final "symptom."

The culprit turns out to be Imprelis, a DuPont weed-killer widely
applied to lawns, golf courses, and — ironically — cemeteries.

Rather than just poisoning dandelions and other weeds, the herbicide
also seems to be causing spruces, pines, willows, poplars, and other
unintended victims to croak.

"It's been devastating," says a Michigan landscaper who applied
Imprelis to about a thousand properties this spring and has already
had more than a third of them suffer outbreaks of tree deaths. "It
looks like someone took a flamethrower to them," he says.

At first, DuPont tried to dodge responsibility, claiming that
landscape workers might be applying the herbicide improperly. The
corporation even urged customers to be patient and leave the tree
corpses on their lawns to see if they'd come back to life in a few
years.

However, faith-based landscaping was a hard sell. Disgruntled
homeowners began filing lawsuits. Then DuPont had its own "aha!"
moment when trees on the grounds of the DuPont Country Club also
developed the "unfavorable symptoms" of Imprelis poisoning.

So, with DuPont's cooperation, the EPA has finally banned sales of the
tree-killing herbicide. But because of inadequate testing and a rush
to profit, the poison will remain in the soil — and our water— for
many moons. Trees will continue to die. Will we never learn?"