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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Environmental advocates target possible flaws in EPA pesticide system
  • Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 09:38:05 -0500

Environmental advocates target possible flaws in EPA pesticide system
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-environmental-advocates-flaws-epa-pesticide.html
The honeybees that pollinate one-third of Americans' daily diet are dying,
and in the eyes of some environmentalists one culprit may be a decades-old
Environmental Protection Agency system The system is called "conditional
registration," and it's essentially a way to get
pesticides<http://phys.org/tags/pesticides/>on the market quickly. But
to environmentalists and some experts, the
system has become too loose, letting some potentially dangerous pesticides
on the market, or letting them stay there too long. Department of
Agriculture. "To continue to risk the collapse of our honeybee population
and other insects that support our ecosystems is a tragedy," said Jonathan
Evans of the Center for Biological Diversity, a national environmental
advocacy group. The criticism of the EPA's conditional registration system
is nothing new. A Government Accountability Office report from August, for
example, said the agency has a confusing recordkeeping system for tracking
pesticides - a problem the GAO first flagged in 1986. The recent report
helped revive claims that conditional registration is unsafe. "I think it's
really concerning that they have acknowledged that they have all these
problems and missing data, but they are still trying to go full steam
ahead," said Mae Wu, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council,
another advocacy group. For its part, the EPA said its own 2012 review
showed that recordkeeping troubles have not affected the safety of products
it has approved. The EPA also said it was taking steps to improve the
tracking of its pesticides, seeking to "promote consistency and enhance
transparency" of its system. The conditional registration system began in
1978 with an amendment to the law that governs insecticide use. It allows
some pesticides to be sold before all necessary studies are completed as
long as the company follows up with required data by a designated date, the
pesticide will not cause "any unreasonable risk to the environment" and
"the use of the pesticide is in the public interest," according to EPA's
website. About 16,000 pesticides are currently registered with the EPA, and
each manager in the agency's Office of Pesticide Programs is responsible
for keeping track of about 800. But without a centralized system, managers
monitor their products in different ways - some with spreadsheets, others
handwritten notes, others their own memory, said Alfredo Gomez, director of
the natural resources and environment division of the GAO. As a result, the
GAO found that the EPA is unable to provide accurate information on the
current number of conditionally registered products. (Both the NRDC advocacy
group <http://phys.org/tags/advocacy+group/> and the EPA have said about
two-thirds of pesticides are conditionally registered, although the flawed
recordkeeping make it difficult to confirm that number.) And environmental
advocates say the EPA's bookkeeping problems point to a larger issue: Too
many products have gone into use prematurely, often without strict
deadlines for submitting the final - required - data. "I think the public
is unfortunately putting its faith in a process that is broken," said Evans
of the Center for Biological Diversity. In response to the most recent GAO
report, the EPA has again promised to better track conditional
registrations. But experts at top environmental watchdog groups say they
are worried about the EPA's ability to follow through on those promises,
and they also believe the EPA has overused conditional registration
altogether in approving pesticides. One of those is nanosilver, an active
ingredient comprised of tiny particles of silver. Nanosilver is used in
antimicrobials designed to protect an array of common products from
organisms that may cause stains or odors. It is still unclear whether the
size of nanosilver may make it toxic to humans or wildlife. A conditional
registration for a new active ingredient "shall be granted only if the
administrator determines that use of the pesticide ... is in the public
interest," according to the law. NRDC's Wu said nanosilver products do not
fit that bill. "We are missing a lot of information about how this chemical
may behave in the human body," said Wu. "If we are going to be putting this
untested pesticide out on the market without understanding how it will
affect us and our children, then we are treating ourselves like guinea
pigs." The NRDC took the EPA to court in 2012 over a nanosilver product
called AGS-20, which the EPA had conditionally registered after determining
the substance would not expose humans to dangerous concentrations of
nanosilver. In November, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in
San Francisco, granted one of the NRDC's three claims, effectively sending
the pesticide back to the EPA for further review. One judge in the case,
Lynn S. Adelman, said the EPA's conclusion that exposure to AGS-20 posed no
risk to people and the environment "is not supported by substantial
evidence." When questioned about conditional registration, the EPA told
McClatchy that its internal 2012 analysis "did not show the agency's past
use of conditional registrations was inappropriate," only that its
"tracking system was inefficient and confusing." Environmental advocates
aren't convinced, especially in light of the honeybee crisis, termed colony
collapse disorder <http://phys.org/tags/colony+collapse+disorder/>. In
2003, Bayer CropScience received conditional registration for clothianidin,
a type of neonicotinoid. Neonicotinoids are insecticides that target the
central nervous system in insects; they were introduced as an alternative
to other pesticides that are more toxic to humans and wildlife, according
to the EPA. Bayer followed up with more data about how clothianidin affects
pollinators in 2007 - three years late, according to the NRDC. EPA
reviewers determined Bayer's study had structural flaws but classified it
as "supplemental," meaning they thought it provided some scientifically
sound information but did not follow testing protocol, according to a 2011
letter posted on EPA's website from the director of the Office of Pesticide
Programs, which responds to concerns about clothianidin. Still,
clothianidin was switched to full registration in 2010. "The EPA is not
aware of any data demonstrating that bee colonies are subject to elevated
losses due to long-term exposure to this compound," the agency says on its
website. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also says that the science on
colony collapse disorder is still unclear, and it could be because of
several factors, and that neonicotinoids are only one possibility. It said
that the students "that reported a negative impact on honeybees by
neonicotinoids relied on large, unrealistic doses and gave bees no other
choice for pollen, and therefore did not reflect risk to honeybees under
real-world conditions. " In a statement, Bayer says, "There has been no
demonstrated effect on bee colony health associated with the proper and
labeled use of neonicotinoids." Even so, the European Commission voted
recently to severely limit or ban three major neonicotinoids across most of
Europe for two years while it studies the issue. In addition, beekeepers
and environmental and consumer groups joined forces in another lawsuit
against the EPA, for its failure to follow the lead of European officials.
Although the GAO cited the history of clothianidin and nanosilver, the
purpose of its report wasn't to evaluate the pesticides - only to assess
EPA's recordkeeping. But the GAO did make three recommendations to the EPA
to improve its recordkeeping system and website, which the GAO said
contains inaccurate information about conditional registration. In a
statement to McClatchy, the EPA said it has recently updated its website
with clearer content.
*Explore further:* Thousands of pesticides dodge US
regulation<http://phys.org/news/2013-03-thousands-pesticides-dodge.html#inlRlv>
http://phys.org/news/2013-03-thousands-pesticides-dodge.html#inlRlv

<http://phys.org/news/2013-12-environmental-advocates-flaws-epa-pesticide.html#jCp>



  • [permaculture] Environmental advocates target possible flaws in EPA pesticide system, Lawrence London, 12/20/2013

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