SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2018 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“HIGH TIME FARMS ABANDON NAZI-DERIVED NERVE GAS”
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2018 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“HIGH TIME FARMS ABANDON NAZI-DERIVED NERVE GAS”
After almost 15 years of squabbling over whether the
federal Environmental Protection Agency should ban the nerve gas pesticide
chlorpyrifos from fields and groves in California and elsewhere, a federal
appeals court has now ruled that it must issue a ban within 60 days.
President Trump’s administration appears all but certain to
appeal that ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, either taking the
case straight to the U.S. Supreme Court or to an 11-judge “en banc” panel of
judges from the same circuit that ruled the pesticide must go.
But despite any delays, the handwriting is clearly on the
wall for the California farm that use more than 1 million pounds of the
chemical on everything from broccoli and melons to nuts and oranges. The
pesticide is used most heavily in Kern, Tulare and Monterey counties.
It gives the lie to the old saying that “an apple a day
keeps the doctor away,” as there are proven links between this noxious
substance and neurodevelopmental disorders affecting the brain and nervous
system, including autism and intellectual and behavioral disabilities. Small
children are most affected.
This product, primarily manufactured by the Dow Chemical
Co., which once produced the infamous chemical weapon napalm, is not your
ordinary pest killer. It is an organophosphate very similar to and based upon
the nerve gas Zyklon B used by Nazi Germany to execute six million Jews and
eight million other victims in its notorious death camps.
If it were still called by its Nazi name, there would be no
tolerance for using this chemical.
But because it’s effective and has a complicated-sounding
name in today’s use, many farmers embrace it. Never mind that in May 2017, 50
farm workers exposed to its spraying near Bakersfield suffered immediate symptoms
like vomiting, nausea and vomiting. No one knows what long-term effects the
spray might have on them, and that’s just one example.
Trump’s disgraced former EPA director Scott Pruitt knew
most of this before he ruled in early 2017 that use of chlorpyrifos could
continue nationally – just weeks after a lengthy private meeting with Dow’s
chairman.
Now it’s a sure bet the EPA will appeal the court ruling,
delaying a ban indefinitely.
But the decision still lets farmers know they can’t keep
using this stuff forever. Even if Trump wins reelection in 2020, his time in
office will be up no later than early 2025 and given the history of this
pesticide and the strength of the negative evidence, its days are surely
numbered.
And farmers have alternatives. They can fight insects with
botanically sourced pesticides including cinnamon oil and garlic oil. State
officials report some have already switched to another family of insecticides
known as neonicitinoids. One problem with that family: It can threaten bees,
even if it’s easier on people.
Of course, many farms using chlorpyrifos are owned by the
same people and companies who have long argued that water distribution in
California favors fish over people, particularly resenting protection of the
silvery, minnow-like Delta smelt.
Are these same folks now going to argue for favoring bees
over people?
It’s also true that the former Barack Obama administration
dragged its feet on the chlorpyrifos issue so long that in a 2015 hearing by a
Ninth Circuit panel, longtime appellate Judge Wallace Tashima scolded an EPA
lawyer about the eight years the agency had then worked on a possible ban. “I
think this is a pretty miserable record,” said Tashima.
And a scientific panel of California’s Office of
Environmental Health Hazard Assessment earlier this year voted unanimously to
place chlorpyrifos on the list of dangerous substances under the 1986
Proposition 65. That group included professors from Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA
and UC Davis, along with a representative of the pharmaceutical firm Genentech.
All this makes it plain spraying of chlorpyrifos will end
pretty soon.
Farmers who don’t recognize this now, especially after the
appellate decision, could be left struggling to find a substitute when the
inevitable ban arrives. They’re better off if they act now, getting ahead of
the game and maybe even making hay by advertising safer food products.
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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