- FRESNO, Calif (ENS) - Independent
scientific monitoring by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has found
high concentrations of a partially banned pesticide in the air some California
residents breathe.
-
- One-third of ambient air monitoring samples from the
San Joaquin Valley detected the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which the federal
government has banned for home use as unsafe for children. Chlorpyrifos
remains the most widely used agricultural insecticide in California.
-
- Pesticide use in Fresno, Kern and Tulare counties puts
more than 15 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air each year.
In those counties, more than 22,000 children attend school near sites of
heavy use of toxic pesticides.
-
- At a news conference in Fresno today, EWG, Pesticide
Watch, the Fresno Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides and the Comite
Para el Bienestar de Earlimart released the results of the air monitoring
project. Their report also includes a list of all toxic pesticides used
near Valley schools.
-
- "Every parent, and everyone else who cares about
our children's health, has a right to know what toxic chemicals kids may
be exposed to at school," said Bill Walker, EWG's California director.
"When we send our kids off to school, we want to know they'll spend
the day in a safe environment." (Not exposed to neurotoxins (nerve
gas)!)
-
- Children's developing bodies and brains are known to
be more susceptible to the effects of toxic pesticides. Thousands of California
children attend schools adjacent to or surrounded by fields where pesticide
use totals tens of thousands of pounds (of just the active ingredient)
a year.
-
- A new rDrifting pesticides can pose health risks for
people miles away from the fields. eport from the California Department
of Pesticide Regulation says cases of people being poisoned by drifting
pesticides increased by 20 percent last year.
-
- A National Cancer Institute researcher who matched pesticide
data and medical records in 10 California agricultural counties reported
last week that pregnant women living within nine miles of farms where pesticides
are sprayed on fields may have an increased risk of losing an unborn baby
to birth defects.
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|