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INERT ALERT: GUESS WHAT HAS BEEN COMING TO DINNER?

-------------< COMMENTS BY Violet >--------------

Passing on this information...it may be a useful warning to some of us
who grow our own food to avoid this kind of "food additive."

----------< END OF COMMENTS BY Violet >----------

GUESS WHAT HAS BEEN COMING TO DINNER?  INERT ALERT!

             EPA to End Pesticide Secrecy

c The Associated Press NOV-18-96 1637EDT

By ROBERT GREENE AP Farm Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency may NOT
routinely conceal the identity of certain pesticide ingredients,
a federal court has ruled, clearing the way for further
challenges to the safety of those chemicals.

The ruling last Friday by U.S. District Judge James Robertson
in Washington covered disclosure of INERT ingredients, which
don't actually kill insects, weeds or fungi. Instead they help
bind the ingredients together or affect other traits.

Although the active, or pest-killing, ingredients must be
disclosed, environmentalists say too little attention has
been given to dangers from the 2,300 inerts, even though
they often make up the bulk of pesticide ingredients.

The EPA has kept information on inerts secret at manufacturers'
request because of claims that disclosure would reveal business
secrets.  <snip> ...

***NOTE: Under The SARA Title III, Toxics Release Inventory
for the Citizens Right to Know Act hazardous waste that is
"recycled, reclassified or reused" is not required to be reported.

Therefore, pesticides manufactures (many of whom owned several
toxic waste disposal plants) were permitted to "reuse" hazardous
waste--including toxic metals, banned and known carcinogenic
chemicals, even low level radioactive waste, and other hazardous
wastes, such as "heavy aromatics bottoms" and "disinfectant
for Mortuary use," "distillate petroleum," catalytic reformer
fractionator residue, low-boiling,"--by "reclassifying" them,
giving them a "secret" identification code number (such as
Reg. no. 73-22-1), then "recyling" them in new pesticide products
as a "trade secret ingredient" protected as "Confidential Business
Information" (CBI).

Another loophole (Vol. 34, No. 224 of the Federal Register's
EPA regulatory announcement) states, "Impurities in registered
products are contaminates ... rather than intentionally added
ingredients."

Thus, the "reclassification" of banned chemicals, such as
DDT, chlordane, dioxin, benzene, formaldehyde and penta, as
an "impurity only, no longer cleared as an inert" allows
these chemical to be used as a "contaminant" of up to 51%
in other pesticides.***

``In the long term, this frees up EPA to be more aggressive in
requiring disclosure on labels,'' said Michael Axline, attorney
for the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, Ore., which
represented two private groups: the Northwest Coalition for
Alternatives to Pesticides and the National Coalition Against
the Misuse of Pesticides.

The groups had sought information on six common pesticides:
Roundup, Aatrex 80w, Weedone-LV4, Velpar, Garlon 3A and Tordon
101.

The EPA has identified about 40 inerts as HAZARDS and has
BANNED their further use. It is studying others.

The ruling was an embarrassment for the agency because some of
the information it had tried to withhold WAS AVAILABLE ELSEWHERE
although less handily. Sources included government-required
documents posted at fire stations for dealing with hazardous
material spills.  ...<large snip>

--c The Associated Press--
                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^xx
**For more about inerts, see: "SO MANY PESTICIDES, SO LITTLE KNOWLEDGE"
          http://www.envirolink.org/pubs/rachel/ehbr01.htm

~EXCERPTS FROM: "SO MANY PESTICIDES, SO LITTLE KNOWLEDGE"~

  *The most sensitive creatures are human fetuses and infants,
according to Dr. Sheila Zahm of the National Cancer Institute.
She recommends that pregnant women should avoid exposure to
ANY pesticides. The rapidly-growing fetus may be particularly
susceptible to mutagenesis genetic damage, chromosomal aberrations,
and carcinogenesis, Zahm says. She points out that infants crawling
on carpets may be exposed to lawn chemicals tracked indoors, and
that such chemicals may endure much longer indoors than they would
outdoors exposed to rain and sunlight.**

  *William Pease from Berkeley asks whether some pesticides are
worth the hazards: "Because of the difficulties in controlling how
the end-user uses the product, and knowing that at least some will
become ill, as we are currently seeing adverse effects, the question
in our mind, since there are alternative means of treating many pests,
is if we should even recommend some of these products when we know
there are alternatives."**

  *Gathering information about the health effects of these inerts
presently has low priority at EPA, receiving less than 1 percent of
the Office of Pesticide Programs budget. ... "Until these reviews
are completed, users are unaware of potentially toxic inert ingredients
contained in certain pesticide products. The use of these pesticide
products may be jeopardizing human health and the environment," the
EPA Office of Inspector General states.**... <snip>

Also, see:
               ~~~"TRUTH ABOUT INERTS"~~~
      http://www.earthisland.org/journal/f96-23.html

        ~~~"HAZARDOUS WASTE IS LEGALLY 'RECYCLED'
                 INTO PESTICIDES & LABELED 'INERT'"~~~
      http://www.envirolink.org/pubs/rachel/rhwn258.htm

**To learn about the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides
  and the RIGHT-TO-KNOW Petition (which must be signed by June 15):
                 http://www.efn.org/~ncap/

NCAP is now petitioning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
to amend its regulations and require that all ingredients of a pesticide
be disclosed on the label of the pesticide product. [Especially since we
are going to have to eat them.]
      Caroline Cox and Norma Grier
      Phone:  (541) 344-5044, Fax: (541) 344-6923
      E-mail:  ccox@pesticide.org
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Some action has already been taken...

PANUPS: CALIFORNIA BANS PESTICIDES (January 3, 1997)

After requesting that studies be submitted on the toxicity
of 200 chemicals commonly used in pesticides, officials at
the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR)
have decided that not enough is known about three of these
chemicals to allow their continued use in the state. On
October 1, 1996, the department SUSPENDED 21 pesticide
products that contain the fungicide chloreneb, the wood
preservative creosote, and AROMATIC PETROLEUM DISTILLATES,
which are commonly used in insecticides. ...

<large snip...>
 =========== P A N U P S =============
 Pesticide Action Network North America Updates Service
      http://www.panna.org/panna/
      E-mail: panna-info@igc.apc.org
 =====================================

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