US EPA Sued Over Pesticides
8 de abril de 2008 Environmental and farmworker advocates have sued U.S. President Bush’s administration for allowing the continued use of four pesticides, despite the government’s own findings that the chemicals are dangerous to workers, children and wildlife, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, challenged the Environmental Protection Agency (Agência de Proteção Ambiental (EPA)) decision in 2006 to reauthorize the fruit and vegetable pesticides ethoprop, methidathion, methamidophos, and oxydemeton-methyl despite the dangers reported by EPA because of the economic importance of the products to farmers.
“These four pesticides put thousands of farmworkers and their families at risk of serious illness every year,” said Patti Goldman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs of the nonprofit firm Earthjustice.
EPA spokesman Tim Lyons said the agency would review the lawsuit and respond in court. Lyons declined to comment on the decision to approve the pesticides, but said, “Our mission is to protect the environment and human health.”
Ethoprop has been classified as a carcinogen by the California government, and while the state requires manufacturers to disclose that risk on product labels, it cannot ban the pesticide ouright because of the EPA approval. The pesticide, used mainly on potatoes, sugarcane, and tobacco has been linked to fish kills and has also drifted from fields into rural communities, according to the state of California’s assessment.
Methidathion was listed as an air contaminant by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation earlier this year because of potential health hazards. It is used on artichokes, oranges, almonds, peaches and olives.
Methamidophos, used mostly on potatoes and cotton, and oxydemeton-methyl, used on broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, corn, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts, have been associated with bird kills. Methamidophos has been banned or severely restricted in several countries, and oxydemeton-methyl is linked to birth defects, according to the suit.
The suit seeks a court order requiring EPA to re-evaluate the pesticides. Plaintiffs include the United Farm Workers, o Teamsters, Pesticide Action Network North America, Beyond Pesticides, e o Natural Resources Defense Council.
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