Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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varied by food type (for example, 6.1 percent of imported vegetables violated
tolerance levels). According to the report, “Many of the violative samples
contained pesticide residues which were not registered in the United States
for use in the commodities in which they were found; 15 domestic samples
and 146 import samples fell into this category.” Of the 396 pesticides that
were detectable with the tests used, 117 pesticides were actually found in
our food. This list includes banned pesticides such as BHC, chlordane, DDT,
dieldrin, endrin, and heptachlor. Notice how this list of pesticides actually
found in our food supply in 2000 matches the EPA's list of UN-PIC pesticides
that are banned but produced in the United States for export. So we see that
banning a pesticide for use in the United States does not mean that it
will never be present in our food or our environment; quite the opposite.
Chemical corporations simply sell these chemicals to developing countries
that have lower environmental regulatory standards; the banned pesticides
are used to produce food that is then imported by the United States. Weir
and Schapiro (1981) call this the
Circle of Poison
. It is a prime example of
corporations circumventing environmental laws for profit.
[23],
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ne Example: Aldrin
Do not assume that these banned chemicals are just harmless substances that
really could safely still be on the market in the United States and elsewhere.
Let's use aldrin as an example. Aldrin quickly breaks down to dieldrin in
the body and in the environment. Both were widely used pesticides for
crops like corn and cotton from the 1950s until 1974 when the EPA banned
all uses except to control termites. Finally in 1987, EPA banned all uses
according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is
part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (ATSDR 2002).
As mandated by Congress, ATSDR provides health information to prevent
harmful exposures related to toxic substances.
Why did the EPA ban these chemicals? They determined that aldrin and
dieldrin are probable human carcinogens. But that is not the end of the story.
The various pesticide regulating agencies have studied these chemicals. The
EPA set the tolerance for aldrin or dieldrin at a concentration of 0.0002mg/L
in drinking water; this level has been scientifically proven to limit a person's
lifetime risk of developing cancer from exposure to each chemical to 1 in
10,000. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has
established the maximum average of 0.25 milligrams of aldrin and dieldrin
per cubic meter of air (0.25 mg/m3) in the workplace during an eight-
hour shift, forty-hour week. And the National Institute for Occupational
[23],
(23)
