EPA Bans Pesticide Found on Cucumbers, Zucchini, Green Beans and Other Vegetables

Photo: Elke Dennis / Istock

related articles

Declaring that endosulfan is unsafe for humans and wildlife, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it is about to ban one of the last organochlorine pesticides still used in the United States. The human health effects of exposure aren't entirely clear, but tests on lab animals have shown that endosulfan is toxic to the nervous system and can damage the kidney, liver and male reproductive organs.

Endosulfan – used largely on tomatoes, cucurbits (which include melons, cucumbers and squashes), potatoes, apples and cotton – "poses unacceptable risks" to farm workers and wildlife, the EPA now says. Though EPA officials say the risks are low, traces of endosulfan are found on food crops. (Cucumbers, summer squash and green beans have the highest pesticide residue of endosulfan, according to government testing.)

"Finally," said Kristen Boyles, who handled a lawsuit for farm workers and environmental groups that prompted the decision. "Endosulfan should have been banned years ago. As this growing season enters full swing, we sincerely hope it’s the last one where this dangerous poison is let loose in our communities and our environment."

Some key facts about endosulfan:

• Used since the 1950s, Endosulfan, is a chlorinated insecticide that is chemically similar to DDT, which was banned along with most other organochlorine pesticides nearly 40 years ago. Makhteshim Agan of North America, a North Carolina subsidiary of an Israeli company is the only U.S. manufacturer.
• Like other organochlorine pesticides, endosulfan builds up in the environment and in the bodies of people and wildlife, and it is transported around the world via winds and ocean currents.
• Concentrations of endosulfan in the Arctic have been increasing, while banned pesticide concentrations have decreased.
• Because organochlorines accumulate in fatty tissue, those who eat high on food chains –such as the Arctic's Inuit who eat marine mammals–are the most highly exposed.
• In California, where most U.S. vegetables are grown, 60,000 pounds were applied to crops in 2008, down from 151,000 in 2002, when the Bush Administration ok'd continued use of the pesticide, but with new restrictions.
• The United Nations will decide next year whether to include endosulfan in the Stockholm Convention, an international treaty which bans or restricts persistant organic pollutants–chemicals that can build up in the environment.
• The EPA's new decision was based, it said, on new research showing health risks even to farm workers who use protective apparatus, to bystanders who breathe polluted air and to wildlife, particularly birds and fish.

The ban on endosulfan will leave dicofol as the last major chlorinated pesticide allowed today in the United States, where it is used to kill mites, mostly on cotton and citrus. Pentachlorophenol is also used as a pesticide,although its use is restricted to treatment of railroad ties and utility poles, not food crops. Lindane is banned from crops but continues to be used in prescription shampoos for treating lice.

Originally published by Environmental Health News.

COMMENTS ()