APR 17

Those crazy folks over at the EPA are at it again. Only thirteen years after the passage of the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act, the EPA is ready to start testing pesticides for their potential effects on the endocrine system of animals and humans.

The EPA announced on Wednesday that it would finally start testing 67 of the most commonly used pesticides. The testing protocols, long anticipated by the agriculture and chemical industry, are now ready for implementation.

The endocrine system regulates the growth, metabolism, and reproduction for both animals and humans. Researchers have long feared that pesticides introduced into the environment have been affecting aquatic species. For example, some male fish in the Potomac River have been found carrying eggs – indicating hormone irregularity.

Testing begins this summer and will eventually grow to include the hundreds of pesticides used in industrial agriculture. Still, don’t expect definitive results any time soon. Linda Phillips who runs the Endocrine Disrupter Screening Program anticipates it will take about two years to obtain usable data from the study and then another year for the EPA to issue its findings.

While it may be too late to help the egg bearing male fish and the hermaphroditic frogs that are popping up with frightening regularity, these tests are a signal that the EPA will finally start implementing thorough testing procedures for the thousands of chemicals that are dumped into our environment every day. And that is well worth the wait.

Via The Washington Post

Comments (9)

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Are We Going Back To The Past, Yet Again
written by Back, April 17, 2009

Isn't about time we switched to organic produce, meaning using other alternative to pesticide. After all pesticide is poison. Whether the poison is taken in lower, or higher dosage, it is still damaging to living things including ours! So why is there all this talk now?
Is that because some pesticide company wants to make more profit? Or do they fear loosing profits to organic produce wanting consumers?

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Atrazine
written by Katie, April 18, 2009

I know that atrazine is a herbicide, but atrazine is my class's Project Citizen project. Project Citizen is when a class takes on a problem in our community and try to find a public policy to solve it. We picked atrazine and I was wondering if this is going to be tested too because it would be good research, our class's publicj policy is an all out ban on this herbicide in the USA and we actually present this to officials

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...
written by Jon, April 19, 2009

Organic produce requires far more worker input and is less suitable for scaling up to large levels than current agricultural practices. Feeding the world's population with older practices would require a far greater percentage of people to be working in the agricultural economy and at a lower living standard. Besides being politically infeasible, we want large quantities of people to be free of tedious labor so that they support an economy that allows technological progress. That will lead to solutions of environmental problems, not social changes or treaties.

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Finally?
written by George Darroch, April 22, 2009

Not 13 years since 1996.

47 years since Silent Spring was published. Almost a half century to even start testing these chemicals comprehensively.

And expect another decade before even one of these pesticides is banned.

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This is ridiculous!
written by julie, April 24, 2009

I am sorry, but who the heck thinks waiting any amount of time is worth it when we are talking about chemicals that can make our children sick...and 13 years?? Come on! These pesticides should have been tested many, many, many years ago. They should have been tested before they were released into our air and water. All chemicals should be tested before they are released into the food we eat, clothes we wear and and the water we drink. This is what technological progress has brought us..poisons.

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Oasis turned wasteland
written by Ray-ray, April 28, 2009

Its a no brainer the lobster industy fell on Long Island NY as a result of spraying "Anvil" to kill West-Nile. Also the sound became hypoxic from fertilizer run off. At least are grass is green. Beaches are closed to swimmers after it rains and the shellfishing industry has hit bottom. Organic fertilizers may disrupt the thyroids ability to absorb iodine.

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Ridiculous Profits
written by Ray-ray, April 28, 2009

Julie,
you know the answer to your own question, right? The tests are done and reworded until the shareholders approve it. CA put MSG in their produce and labeled it fertilizer one year and fungicide the next. MSG causes excitotoxin death to human cells. But it sure tatstes good.

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No safe levels
written by Freeflydude, April 28, 2009

There is no safe level of chemicals. All of these pesticides are toxins, they are designed to kill the little critters that feed on crops. You have to be an idiot to think that those chemicals will only harm the little pests and not the rest of us. Environmental toxins are destroying our health and no one is immune or safe. Even if you eat organic produce you are still exposed to these toxins in a myriad of other ways. It's no wonder autism is on the rise and cancer is becoming epidemic. Imagine all the other health problems we have that are caused by exposure to these toxins. Oh, but it's alright if you have a headache you can take a pill, stomach ache-take a pill, can't get an erection-take a pill... more chemicals you take for problems partly due to toxic chemical exposure. The environmental toxins are one of the biggest health threats we face and the only solution is to ban them. Of course that won't happen because there's too much money made from selling the chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and toxins. Let's face it people, we're on a road to oblivion driven by the almighty dollar. The human race will go down as the shortest lived species on the planet caused by our own self-destructive stupidity. Kind of ironic when you think that the dinosaurs roamed millions of years and they were not exactly bright. So the moral of the story is, if you break the laws of nature you have to pay the price. We are.

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...
written by Fred, June 26, 2009

Why are they just testing them now? if they were harmful, it's now too late...

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