AP News, February 6th, 2007
Farmworkers and environmental groups reopened a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency in an attempt to force the agency to more quickly phase out the use of a pesticide that the groups contend has been poisoning fieldworkers for decades.
The federal lawsuit challenges a decision by the EPA last November to set a 2012 timetable for phasing out the pesticide azinphos-methyl, commonly called guthion or AZM for short.
"These pesticides put thousands of workers at risk of serious illness every year," Erik Nicholson of the United Farm Workers of America said Monday in a news release. "It is inexcusable for EPA to allow AZM to continue poisoning workers for six more years."
The pesticide has been applied to apples, cherries, pears and other crops since the late 1950s.
The farmworkers and environmental groups, represented by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, sued the EPA in federal court in Seattle in 2004, arguing that the agency was wrong to continue allowing the use of a pesticide that could cause dizziness, vomiting, seizures, paralysis, loss of mental function and even death. That lawsuit was put on hold when the EPA agreed to reconsider the use of AZM and another pesticide, phosmet, which is used on orchard crops and blueberries.
Last November, the EPA decided to end the use of AZM on nursery stocks and Brussels sprouts by Sept. 30, 2007. The phase-out for nuts was extended until Oct. 30, 2009, and for apples, blueberries, cherries, pears and parsley until Sept. 30, 2012.
The EPA decided to lengthen the phase-out time but also progressively limit the amount of AZM that would be available during this phase-out period, Enesta Jones, an EPA spokeswoman, said Monday in an e-mail.
"This allows sufficient time to facilitate the transition to safer alternatives," she said. "Public health is still our top priority and the agency will implement several risk mitigation measures to reduce exposure and ways to minimize harm if the public is exposed as this phase-out occurs."
In January, the EPA decided to lengthen _ for some uses of phosmet _ the amount of time workers are restricted entry into areas treated with the pesticide and added other restrictions to nine uses of phosmet, such as lowering the maximum amount of phosmet that can be applied each season.
But that doesn't adequately protect workers, said Patti Goldman, managing attorney for Earthjustice.
Earthjustice also wants to end the use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, used on corn and orchard crops, and seeks to add it to the reopened lawsuit, Goldman said.
___
BALTIMORE (AP) _ A state buyout program and an industry change to raising tobacco on contract for the cigarette industry mean Maryland is facing its first spring since 1939 without a tobacco auction.
Farmers used to haul loads to warehouses where auctioneers dealt their crops to cigarette makers and other buyers. But with only about 150 growers left, an agricultural tradition has ended.
"There's a sadness associated with it by people who grew up in this industry, because it was a cultural gathering point," said S. Patrick McMillan, an assistant secretary in the Maryland Department of Agriculture.
In 2001, the state offered farmers a decade's worth of annual payments in exchange for ceasing tobacco production. Eighty-three percent of the eligible growers signed contracts, eliminating about 7.6 million pounds from Maryland's tobacco pool, according to the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland, which monitors the program.
Those farmers still in the market contract directly with the cigarette industry to sell their crop. Most of them are Amish and Mennonite farmers who do not participate in government programs, said David L. Conrad, a tobacco expert with the University of Maryland's extension service.
While contracting has contributed to the demise of tobacco auctions, it has helped the waning industry. Maryland's farmers harvested about 1 million pounds of tobacco last year, nearly 300,000 more pounds than in 2005.
Contracting has been a trend in agriculture for years, with large distribution companies paying farmers to produce their goods, such as livestock and produce, he said.
Earl "Buddy" Hance, president of the Maryland Farm Bureau, does not see the tobacco industry going the way of its auctions.
"It's certainly already a much smaller industry," he said. "But as long as those individual growers are around, and those cigarette companies are willing to buy it, tobacco will probably be around."
