Unions Seek Tougher Pesticide Rules

Unions representing 9,000 Environmental Protection Agency scientists and other employees have written a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson asking him to strictly regulate more than 20 organophosphate and carbamate pesticides or to cancel their use altogether. The letter, released on May 25 by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), says agency managers and industry officials are exerting political pressure on EPA scientists to allow the continued use of these pesticides.

“We are concerned that the agency has not … summarized or drawn conclusions about the developmental neurotoxicity data received from [pesticide manufacturers],” the unions write. They contend that many steps in the risk assessment process are being eliminated in a rush to meet an Aug. 3 deadline to regulate the two types of pesticides under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA).

In particular, the letter says, agency officials are failing to consider exposures to infants and children who commonly enter fields treated with these pesticides while accompanying their farm worker parents. Nor are officials considering that the workers and their children are exposed to pesticide drift in their homes.