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Finally.
OK, so maybe the Obama guy is not perfect. Maybe the stuff he talked about during the campaign has not gone as well as it might. Maybe you’re mad at him. Maybe you feel the sword and shield are not too shiny.
There are a hundred thousand forms of ‘change’ and ‘hope’. If there is nothing else to tell us that there is change here and is here NOW, it’s this:
“EPA officials said in a statement that the agency will take a close look at Atrazine™ the weed-killer’s potential to cause cancer, as well as birth defects, low birth weight, and premature births. Agency scientists also will conduct research for the first time examining whether Atrazine interferes with the hormone and reproductive systems of humans and amphibians…As recently as June, Steve Bradbury, deputy office director of the EPA’s office of Pesticide Programs, [said] "we have concluded that Atrazine does not cause adverse effects to humans or the environment…The EPA’s announcement of its new Atrazine study follows a private September meeting between the EPA’s senior staff and the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, led by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) According to a senior staffer on the committee, Boxer’s team encouraged the EPA to open a new analysis of the risks of Atrazine and to keep the public informed about the levels of the weed-killer in drinking water.
The committee plans to hold a hearing on Atrazine and the EPA later this year, the staff member said.
Atrazine™ is a herbicide, 2-chloro-4-(ethylamine)-6-(isopropylamine)-s-triazine, an organic compound consisting of an s-triazine-ring is a widely used treatment in corn fields. Atrazine
Its use is banned in Europe; in 2003, 76 million pounds of the stuff was used in US commercial agriculture. A study from Cornell University from 1999,reviewed the literature on studies then available which indicated increased ovarian cancer in women and non-Hodgekins Lymphoma in men who had been exposed as well as endocrine pathway interruptions. Cornell Breast Cancer Study
Another major issue with the use of Atrazine ™ in agriculture (and if you go to the Wikipedia page, you can see a map where the highest uses are) is that in the US, the greatest use is in the northern reaches of the basin that feeds the Mississippi River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico. There is strong feeling that this chemical is one of the factors in the growth of the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which basically is an area now where the water is so oxygen poor that the entire fishing/crabbing/shrimping industry in Louisiana is basically on life support – all because the corn farmers upstream refuse to live without their Atrazine™. This dead area) is about the size of New Jersey and is growing. Gulf Dead Zone
So, maybe all the change and hope are not coming from the direction of Obama-land. But I think we can all recognize that to get the EPA to turn on a dime like this is good change and perhaps is an indicator that spines are being encouraged to regenerate. Now if we could only get the Department of Agriculture to make some changes in terms of food safety…
(photos courtesy of squeekerd1 and biggreymare)
6 Comments
I think there are a lot of changes going on. The first is a re-energized government employee, which effects all things top to bottom. We are only focusing on a few issues publicly.
WRT Atrazine: There is only one plant that I willingly use an herbicide on: POISON IVY! I don’t advocate the mass extrmination of the plant. I am very good at spotting it and avoiding it. (Obviously I am horribly allergic.) But when I do find it in my yard, and it is too big to pull up by the root with a plastic bag, I paint the brush killer on with a paint brush that is destined for the trash can.
I welcome this, personally. A recent article in the times mentioned my town as being one place the levels of this spike up repeatedly (it’s at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08…..#038;scp=1 if anyone wants to read it)
If you look at the map at the wiki link, you can see that any place where corn is grown extensively (you can see the whole corn belt in Upstate New York), Atrazine is there, which means that it is in the water too.
Thanks, nice to hear some positive news.
Indiana is one of those states with higher concentrations of Atrazine. It’s a given, with our abundance of corn. What’s needed is a push towards sustainable, organic methods of growing crops. Farmers will use what they know because they are afraid of losing yields, even though it’s been shown that organic farms will often outperform chemical farms, especially in times of drought. Composting helps rebuild soils to hold water better, and returns needed nutrients to the soil.
It would take a a good size program to back up farmers that switch to organic methods. I think it would give them the confidence to take that risk. There was a brief program this spring, that had only a month’s window (IIRC). It was too little time and too little funding to make much of a difference.
Sustainable farming is the only way to go, as petroleum products (chemicals) continue to cost more in real dollars and as this article illustrates, increased health costs yet unacknowledged.
Our food supply is so vital, so basic, that the lack of attention given to it is astounding.
Good news indeed.