Eric Schlosser Op-Ed in NY Times Describes Human Toll of Unsafe Food and the Need for Legislation

Written by Bruce Goldstein Sunday, 25 July 2010 09:03

In a NY Times op-ed, "Unsafe at Any Meal," author Eric Schlosser describes the human toll of unsafe food production practices and explains the need for the Senate to pass the House-passed food safety legislation.  

EPA settles lawsuit challenging rules allowing pesticide tests on people

Written by barb howe Thursday, 17 June 2010 14:30

Pesticide experiments using people as test subjects will have stricter federal rules to follow under a new agreement reached today between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and public health groups, farm worker advocates and environmental organizations.

“People should never have been used as lab rats for testing pesticides,” said NRDC senior attorney Michael Wall. “Under today’s settlement, EPA will propose far stronger safeguards to prevent unethical and unscientific pesticide research on humans.”

Farmworker Justice was a member of a coalition of health and environmental advocates and farmworker protection groups led by the Natural Resources Defense Council that filed a lawsuit against EPA in 2006, claiming EPA’s recent rule violated a law Congress passed in 2005 requiring strict ethical and scientific protections for pesticide testing on humans.

Read the full release on the NRDC website.

The end of endosulfan

Written by barb howe Thursday, 10 June 2010 11:23

Today Farmworker Justice joins with Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA), the Farmworker Association of Florida and other organizations in celebrating the EPA's decision to phase out the insecticide endosulfan, known to cause birth defects.  

Like other organochlorine pesticides, endosulfan is persistent in the environment and poisons humans and wildlife both in agricultural areas and in regions far from where it was applied.

In July 2008, Farmworker Justice and Earthjustice sued EPA demanding that the Agency ban the use of endosulfan.  This lawsuit was recently dismissed due to jurisdictional reasons.  We are pleased with the EPA's decision, however, to end the use of this highly toxic pesticide.

To find out more check out the story on PANNA's website.  Read more in the Naples Daily News.

Tell EPA to finish the ban on neurotoxin chloryrifos

Written by barb howe Thursday, 25 March 2010 14:13

Banned elsewhere 10 years ago, the neuro-toxin chloryrifos is still widely used in agriculture, affecting the health of living beings from the workers in the fields and their families back home to honey bees and salmon.

"Chlorpyrifos is a member of the organophosphate (OP) class of pesticides. OPs are among the most toxic pesticides still in use. Acute poisoning with these neurotoxins can cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing and more. Exposure to even very small amounts, especially at critical periods of fetal development, can disrupt hormonal systems leading to permanent developmental harms."

You can take action today.  Join Farmworker Justice and the Pesticide Action Network in signing a petition to tell the EPA ban ALL uses of chloryrifos in the United States.