The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has signed a final rule that will prohibit carbofuran residue in fruits and vegetables. The agency is also canceling all existing carbofuran registrations. Effective January 1, 2010, the rule will apply to both domestic and imported produce, including alfalfa, barley, beets, corn, cranberries, cucumbers, grapes, peppers, rice, soybeans, and wheat. According to the agency, “carbofuran products pose an unreasonable risk to man and the environment which outweighs the benefits of continued use, and therefore all uses must be canceled.” EPA has been investigating the insecticide, sold under the brand name Furadan®, for several years. Its granular form was banned in the mid-1990s because it was blamed for killing millions of migratory birds. EPA claims that the pesticide “can overstimulate the nervous system, causing nausea, dizziness, confusion and, at very high exposures, respiratory paralysis and death.” The rule has been forwarded to the Federal Register for publication.…
Tag Archives pesticide
According to the Environment Group of the Pew Charitable Trusts, salmon farming companies producing fish for export to the United States from Canada, Norway and Scotland are using pesticides and antibiotics that do not appear on the FDA/CVM Approved Drugs in Aquaculture list. In an April 23, 2009, letter to the acting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, the Pew Environment Group notes how FDA inspections have successfully addressed the use of banned drugs in Chile’s salmon farming facilities and calls for the agency to expand its focus to imports from other countries. Contending that these drugs pose threats to human health and the environment, the group cites detailed evidence suggesting that other countries are using unapproved drugs in salmon aquaculture and asks the FDA (i) whether it intends to require all companies exporting salmon to the United States to adhere to U.S. regulations; (ii) how it reconciles its requirement…
The pesticide-exposure claims of Nicaraguan banana-plantation workers were dismissed in two cases after a hearing that began April 21, 2009, in a state court in Los Angeles, California. Meija v. Dole Food Co., No. BC340049 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty.); Rivera v. Dole Food Co., No. BC379820 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty.). Additional details about the events leading to the court’s show-cause order and hearing appear in issue 297 of this Update. The court agreed with Dole Food Co. allegations that Nicaraguan lawyers, seeking to collect millions of dollars in damages from the company, recruited poor men to pose as plantation workers and claim that pesticide exposure caused their sterility. Dole introduced evidence showing a decade-long conspiracy to defraud U.S. companies and perpetuate a massive fraud on the court. Dole alleged that the attorneys intimidated witnesses and paid plaintiffs, showed them videos depicting plantation life, falsified sterility documents,…
In response to a shareholder resolution, McDonald’s Corp. this week reportedly agreed to take preliminary steps to reduce pesticide use in its domestic potato supply. According to a news source, the fast-food chain will survey its U.S. potato suppliers, compile a list of best practices in pesticide-use reduction and recommend those practices to global suppliers. The results, to be shared with investors, will be included in the company’s annual corporate social responsibility report. McDonald’s is the largest purchaser of potatoes in the United States and said in a statement that the process would support ongoing efforts to make its supply chain sustainable. “Our U.S. potato suppliers are already working with their growers to advance sustainable pesticide practices, such as reductions and alternative methods.” See Reuters.com, March 31, 2009.
A California judge has reportedly ordered the parties to litigation over the exposure of banana-plantation workers to a pesticide that allegedly caused their sterility to explain why two lawsuits should not be dismissed as a sanction for the alleged misconduct of the plaintiffs and their lawyers. Mejia v. Dole, No. BC340049 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty.). In 2008, a jury awarded six Nicaraguan workers $5.8 million in damages in the first of several such cases to be tried in the United States; the court reduced the verdict by half, and the case is on appeal. Thereafter, the defendant began filing the depositions of Nicaraguan witnesses who claimed that (i) some of the plaintiffs had never worked on banana farms, (ii) work certificates and lab reports had been falsified, and (iii) some of the plaintiffs have children, despite their sterility claims. The court reportedly stayed the personal-injury lawsuits and ordered…
The Air Resources Board (ARB) of California’s Environmental Protection Agency has published a request for research concepts for its 2009-2010 annual research plan. Among the general areas of research that ARB would like to fund are issues related to agriculture and to health and exposure. The deadline for concept submissions is January 20, 2009. Due to anticipated budget shortfalls, the agency has indicated that co-funded proposals are more likely to be approved and funded. ARB is interested in funding research relating to confined animal facility operations emissions, pesticide emission assessments, air emissions in agricultural ecosystems involving “nitrogen fate from fertilizer application,” and “[c]omparative assessment of emissions from various agricultural practices, including conservation management, conservation tillage, and use of equipment to reduce particulate entrainment emissions or VOC emissions.” Under the “health and exposure” rubric, ARB is seeking concept submissions relating to the “[i]mpact of nanoparticles in products and materials on personal…
EPA has published a notice seeking public comment on a petition filed by a number of environmental and consumer interest groups calling on the agency to classify nano-silver as a pesticide, require “formal pesticide registration of all products containing nanoscale silver, analyze the potential human health and environmental risks of nanoscale silver, [and] take regulatory actions under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) against existing products that contain nanoscale silver.” Comments must be submitted by January 20, 2008. According to the notice, potentially affected parties are those businesses “engaged in the manufacturing of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals.” The petitioners, including the International Center for Technology Assessment, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch, and the Consumers Union, apparently note that “scientists have identified that nanoscale materials can have fundamentally different properties from the non-nanoscale or bulk forms of the same compounds, and that these unique properties…
SHB Tort lawyers James Andreasen and Christopher McDonald have co-authored an article that discusses developments in the drafting of an agricultural sustainability standard under the auspices of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Noting that the initial draft, “if finalized, could have broad-reaching impact,” the authors observe that a number of stakeholders have already “expressed concerns about certain aspects of the draft,” which is intended to cover agricultural activities “from seed to store.” Among the draft’s requirements for agricultural producers would be (i) the adoption of organic practices, (ii) limitations on and phase-out of “synthetic” pesticides and fertilizers, and (iii) employment practices in the areas of collective bargaining rights and union organizing activities “that may go beyond existing legal requirements.” The article notes that voluntary ANSI standards are often adopted by governments as legal requirements and indicates how interested parties can become involved in the standard’s development.
A California jury has reportedly awarded an organic farm in Santa Cruz $1 million for the contamination of its edible herbs by pesticides applied on neighboring farms. Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo v. W. Farm Serv., Inc., No. ___ (Cal. Dist. Ct., Santa Cruz Cty., September 29, 2008). Pesticide drift from aerial spraying allegedly made it impossible for the plaintiff to sell large portions of its sage, rosemary and dill harvests in 2006 and 2007. The defendant, a pesticide application company, has reportedly indicated that it intends to appeal the verdict; a spokesperson was quoted as saying that the verdict “raises concerns about future use of organophosphates in California.” The company apparently claims that it followed all product labeling standards and county agricultural permits when it applied the pesticides and that decisions about the uses and risks of pesticides should rest in the hands of government regulators and not juries. The company also…
Japanese health officials have reportedly warned consumers that particular lots of frozen green beans imported from China are tainted with the organophosphate insecticide dichlorvos, resulting in the illness of at least three people. Residents of Kashiwa in the Chiba Prefecture experienced mouth numbness, vomiting and other symptoms after eating adulterated beans manufactured by Shandong-based Yantai Beihai Foodstuff Co. and sold in Japan under the Ingen brand. Japanese regulators stated that the beans contained 6,900 parts per million of the pesticide, or approximately 34,000 times the legal limit. At this level, a 132- pound person would feel acute symptoms if she consumed just 0.07 gram of the product, according to officials. Quarantine authorities have since halted all food imports originating with the company, urging retailers to pull 265 tons of the frozen beans from shelves pending an investigation. The ministry also noted that it was willing to work with Beijing to resolve…
