Sick and Wrong
EPA finally looks at how three common pesticides harm endangered species — and the results are horrifying
It’s amazing what you find when you bother to look. The Environmental Protection Agency just released the results of the first rigorous nationwide analyses of how two common pesticides impact endangered animals and plants.
The results? Some 97 percent of more than 1,700 animals and plants protected under the Endangered Species Act are likely to be hurt by malathion and chlorpyrifos. Another 79 percent are likely to be hurt by diazinon.
Don’t let the numbers or complicated chemical names obscure what’s happening: The vast, vast majority of the nation’s rarest birds, frogs, flowers, fish and mammals are being exposed to direct and serious harm by these pesticides. We know that now for a fact.
Sure, the findings are stunning but they come as no surprise.
For years, scientists and activists have raised concern about how the 1 billion pounds of pesticides dumped on the American landscape each year are affecting people, wildlife, water and air. And for years the EPA has been blithely approving pesticides without bothering to fully examine whether they’re actually safe. That has change.
The Center went to court in 2014 to spur that change in the EPA. Predictably the agency dragged its feet. The analyses released last week on malathion, chlorpyrifos and diazinon were the first in a series of nationwide biological evaluations the EPA must complete as part of legal settlements with the Center.
The three pesticides are all organophosphates, a dangerous old class of insecticides found in 87 percent of human umbilical-cord samples and widely used on crops such as corn, watermelon and wheat. The Center, along with allies from public-health, workers’ justice and child-advocacy groups, recently called for a ban on organophosphates, citing studies linking them to cognitive delays in children and a host of other human health effects. The World Health Organization last year announced that malathion and diazinon are probable carcinogens.
So, we’re glad that, after being spurred along by legal action, the EPA has at least released the results of the first analyses on these insecticides. But it can only be the start.
The EPA has allowed chemical companies to register more than 16,000 pesticides without properly considering their impacts. It’s a broken system that needs to be fixed — and fast. The EPA needs to move forward with the analyses for other dangerous products but also quickly implement on-the-ground efforts to prevent the extinction of rare and unique wildlife from these pesticides.
The data is clear, the science is clear. What’s needed now is the willingness to do what’s right for people, wildlife and the environment we all depend upon — before another billion pounds is dumped on us next year.
