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Toxic Deception: Book, book review, and re: Atrazine (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 20:06:29 -0500
From: Patricia Dines <PDines@compuserve.com>
To: Patricia Dines <73652.1202@compuserve.com>
Subject: Toxic Deception: Book, book review, and re: Atrazine
Thought this information might be of interest to you (re: the book, the
book review, and the information) - Patricia Dines
--- FORWARD ---
From: C, INTERNET:THCLAX00@UKCC.uky.edu
To: Patricia Dines, 73652,1202
To: CONS-EQ-HORMONE-MIMICS@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
Date: Mon, Feb 17, 1997, 9:13 PM
Subject: Toxic Deception: Atrazine
Web page: HTTP://www.nytimes.com:80/yr/mo/day/oped/17herb.html
>
>
>February 17, 1997
>
>IN AMERICA*/ By BOB HERBERT
>
>Dangerous Deception
>
>How is it that an herbicide considered to be such a threat to human
health
>that it is banned in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands,
>Norway and Sweden somehow manages to remain the most widely used
pesticide
>of any kind in the United States?
>
> The herbicide is atrazine, a white crystalline powder that when sprayed
>over cornfields very quickly displays its remarkable ability to kill the
>grasses and broadleaf weeds that make a corn farmer's life miserable
while
>leaving the corn itself alone.
>
> Atrazine is cheap. It's long-lasting. And it doesn't dissolve in water.
You
>can even spray it in the rain. Farmers have taken to atrazine the way
>toddlers take to candy. For the giant chemical outfit Ciba-Geigy,
atrazine
>has been an absolute bonanza.
>
> The downside of atrazine is spelled out in a new book, "Toxic
Deception:
>How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and
Endangers
>Your Health." The book was written by a pair of environmental
journalists,
>Dan Fagin and Marianne Lavelle, who did their research in conjunction
with
>the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity in Washington.
>
> The Federal Government has classified atrazine as a possible human
>carcinogen. Some studies (disputed by Ciba-Geigy) have shown that
atrazine
>can damage DNA and induce gene mutations. Mr. Fagin and Ms. Lavelle
report
>that animals fed high doses of atrazine have suffered liver, heart and
>kidney damage. And recent studies have linked the chemical to hormonal
>changes.
>
> "Indeed," wrote Mr. Fagin and Ms. Lavelle, "out of 10
hormone-disrupting
>pesticides (including several known carcinogens) tested in a recent
study,
>only DDT had as damaging an effect as atrazine on how the body
metabolizes
>estrogen."
>
> Atrazine has been showing up in supermarket corn, and in beef and milk.
>(Atrazine-treated corn is routinely fed to cattle.) And it has become
one of
>the leading contaminants of drinking water. The chemical was found in
990 of
>1,604 water samples drawn from streams, rivers, reservoirs and aquifers
in
>the Midwest between 1989 and 1994.
>
> The magnitude of the health threat of this chemical can be gauged from
the
>estimate by the Environmental Protection Agency that some corn farmers
face
>a 1 in 863 lifetime risk of developing cancer from atrazine. Nonfarmers
in
>the Midwest face a 1 in 20,747 risk, and a 1 in 13,850 risk if they use
>atrazine on their lawns.
>
> By way of comparison, Mr. Fagin and Ms. Lavelle note, the E.P.A.
"generally
>takes regulatory action when a chemical poses a lifetime cancer risk
higher
>than one in a million."
>
> So why do atrazine and other very dangerous chemicals remain in
widespread
>use, and why does the public hear so little about them? Those are the
kinds
>of questions that are answered in "Toxic Deception." The book explains
how
>the regulatory system is rigged to benefit the chemical manufacturers
while
>keeping the general public in a dangerous state of ignorance.
>
> Very few Americans, for example, realize that the Federal Government
does
>not screen chemicals for safety before they go on the market. It is up
to
>the chemical manufacturers themselves to determine whether a product
poses a
>substantial risk to health or the environment.
>
> Thus, according to Mr. Fagin and Ms. Lavelle, only a fraction of the
tens
>of thousands of chemical compounds on the market today have been
examined
>for safety. Those examinations, for the most part, were conducted only
after
>specific questions were raised about a specific product.
>
> Once a chemical is on the market, it is incredibly difficult to get it
off.
>The chemical companies have nearly perfected the art of shielding their
>products from the interference of government regulators, public interest
>groups and even private citizens who have been grievously harmed.
Ciba-Geigy
>has spent more than $25 million in its battle with the E.P.A. over
atrazine
>and another herbicide, simazine.
>
> "Toxic Deception" shows how the industry uses campaign contributions,
>junkets, job offers, "scorched-earth" courtroom strategies, misleading
>advertising and multimillion-dollar public relations campaigns to keep
their
>products on the market no matter how great the potential dangers.
>
> It's the story of the triumph of a special interest over the public
>interest.
> BB BB
>
___________________________________________________________________________
_____
New York Times
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