Helping Our Peninsula's Environment

(c) Copyright 2002 David Dilworth

"As many as 67,000 cases of human pesticide poisoning occur worldwide each year, some of which are fatal." Environmental Science; Morgan, Moran & Weirsma; W.C. Brown Pub. 1993, p 178 "Somewhere between 400,000 and 2 million people suffer from acute pesticide poisoning every year: between 10,000 and 40,000 of them die." World Wildlife Fund, 1990

Pesticides have many toxic effects on humans and wildlife beyond simple toxicity, and cancer causing effects.

We know that pesticides do immediate harm to individuals and then some pesticides transform into other less harmful chemicals. However, some pesticides called Endocrine Disrupters, literally threaten us humans as a species. Endocrine Disrupters interfere with our central development system, our Hormone system, and pass on the damage to our children and our grandchildren. These are called intergenerational impacts. For more information on this topic see the award winning book "Our Stolen Future."

The Rising Tide of Toxins: Pesticide Use in California by James Liebman Global Pesticide Campaigner, Volume 7, Number 3, September 1997. Pesticide Action Network North America, San Francisco, CA states "The largest percentage increase in reported pesticide use (in California Counties) during this period took place in Monterey County, which saw an increase from 7 million to almost 13 million pounds, representing an 85% increase."

• Inert ingredients and impurities in pesticides - which can amount to 99 percent of the product. The total amount of pesticides applied is easily 20 million pounds and possibly much more. Impurities can constitute up to 15 percent of the pesticide product or more and be even deadlier and more persistent pesticides.
• Home pesticide use which can include deadly pesticides banned from industrial use
• School pesticide use.
• Cal-Trans pesticide use along roadsides.
• Forest Service pesticide use which includes spraying diesel fuel on forests!
• It should include Golf Course pesticide use, which is typically a thousand pounds per course per year in Monterey County, but there is zero accountability in the system (literally no one verifies the products and amounts used) and the use of these deadly chemicals can (and seems to) easily go unreported.

Moss Landing Harbor has the highest concentrations of DDT in its harbor bottom of anywhere in California. The Pajaro River bordering Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties also has high levels of DDT.

• Monterey County industry generated 572 tons of pesticide waste in 1986 and was projected to generate 540 tons in 2000. Monterey County Hazardous Waste management Plan 1989 p 5
• We need a County program recognizing the uses of hazardous materials, mapping their current and former (and still deadly) uses and prepare a plan to fully avoid, mitigate and genuinely clean up their harmful impacts on humans and wildlife.

ACTIVE vs. INACTIVE INGREDIENTS

There are about 630 different "active ingredients" in pesticides worldwide. In real-world use, these main ingredients are combined with other chemicals (some are called "inert ingredients") to make several thousand toxic formulations -- but the basic active ingredients number about 630. In 1992 4.5 Billion pounds of pesticides were used in the U.S. which is about 18 pounds per person.

Approximately 1,050 of the secret ingredients are considered "inerts of unknown toxicity." EPA does not require testing to determine their toxicity. "EPA has found approximately 40 "inert ingredients" to be of toxicological concern after testing them and has determined that approximately 65 others are potentially toxic." "More than two thousand inert ingredients are used in pesticides however, and most of them have not been tested by EPA or evaluated for toxicity." NCAMP v. EPA 941 F.Supp 197, 198 (1996)

Approximately 40 of the "inert" ingredients are known to cause cancer, nerve damage, other chronic effects, or adverse reproductive effects. These "inerts" include asbestos, carbon tetrachloride (banned as an active pesticide ingredient), and trichloroethylene. In 1987, EPA indicated these inerts must be listed on the pesticide label, but there is no evidence that EPA enforces this policy. All the other 1,400 or so inert ingredients do not have to be listed on pesticide labels.

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This Page Last Updated 7/1/02