Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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“active” ingredients in pesticides. All the “inert” ingredients are never tested,
with the excuse that this would divulge company trade secrets. The EPA
does not require testing of actual pesticide products, but rather only the
separate “active” ingredients. The EPA has identified four categories of these
secret inert ingredients: toxicological concern; potentially toxic; unknown
toxicity; and minimal risk/safe (USEPA-Inert Ingredients 2003). Thus we do
not know the true health effects of off-the-shelf pesticide products as they
are actually purchased and applied. Obviously, we don't want to conduct
trials on humans, but a study of lab animals was alarming. Scientists tested
common weed control products at extremely low levels and found a strong
link to increased miscarriages (Cavieres et al. 2002). The amounts used in
this study were lower than what the EPA mandates in product registration
tests - parts per billion, which according to the authors is approximately one
drop of pesticide infive hundred bathtubs of water. But even the lowest doses
used had strong effects. Overall, it is clear that we need intensive research
on these “inert” ingredients, which are present in all pesticide formulations.
Our current knowledge base is miniscule at best, and this could lead to
dangerous results.
[25], (25)
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O ur Water
So far, I have focused on the direct human health-related aspects of pesti-
cides from conventional agriculture. But the ecological aspects of pesticides
and agricultural fertilizers are equally disturbing. These agrichemicals par-
ticularly impact our water supplies, both groundwater and surface water.
Pollution is geographically widespread, as chemicals from any local farm
flow into a nearby stream, which flows into a river, which flows into a reser-
voir, which provides drinking water for the region, and outlets into another
river which, after thousands of miles, dumps into a bay and the ocean. In
other words, one farmer could impact many waterways, many downstream
states, and a large number of people. This exemplifies the complexity of
non-point source pollution. Rather than one obvious effluent pipe spew-
ing into a stream (a point source), agrichemical-laden water runs off many
farm fields and flows into many streams and rivers.
Some of the best information on U.S. water quality is from the U.S.
Geological Survey's NationalWater-Quality Assessment (NWQA) Program, a
comprehensive study of fifty major river and aquifer systems that comprise
watersheds covering half of the conterminous United States (USGS 1999).
This research shows that “pesticides are widespread. At least one pesticide
was detected in more than 95 percent of stream samples” and in over “60
[25], (25)
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