US to phase out cancer-causing pesticides
The US government will begin phasing out use of 36 pesticides that are known to cause cancer and which until now have been allowed as residues in juices, canned fruits and vegetables, cooking oil and other processed foods, according to a far-reaching settlement announced on October 12.
Parties to the settlement are the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), AFL-CIO, Public Citizen, a California farm worker, the state of California and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The agreement settles a lawsuit brought in 1989 by NRDC and the other groups against the EPA, alleging that the agency routinely allows residues of cancer-causing pesticides in numerous processed foods, in violation of the Delaney clause of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The clause prohibits additives in processed foods that have been found to "induce cancer in man or animal".
The 36 pesticides include some of the most widely used on the market. Among them are alachlor, a herbicide used on soybeans and peanuts; benomyl, a fungicide used on apples, citrus, grapes, rice and tomatoes; captan, a fungicide used on grapes, plums and tomatoes; mancozeb, a fungicide used on cereal grains and grapes; and dicofol, an insecticide used on many kinds of fruits and tomatoes.
The settlement also calls for the EPA to review within five years an additional 49 cancer-causing pesticides to determine whether they, too, should be eliminated from certain uses.
The settlement comes two years after the Ninth Circuit of the US Court of Appeals upheld the validity of the Delaney Clause. Acting on a test case brought by NRDC and others, the court ruled that carcinogens cannot be present in processed foods. This settlement implements the ruling for dozens of chemicals on a host of crops.
The agreement should also help protect water supplies from pesticide contamination. Agricultural chemicals are one of the biggest water pollutants, and the EPA has found that one of every 10 public water supply wells in the US contains at least one pesticide.
Said Jennifer Curtis, NRDC senior research associate: "Every day people unknowingly consume not just one chemical, but a hodgepodge of dangerous chemicals along with their food. And no-one — including the EPA and pesticide industry — knows the cumulative effects of these chemicals in combination, especially on children. That's why a policy of prevention remains valid, enforceable and practical."
[From Pesticide Action Network North America Updates Service.]