EPA: Ban endosulfan!

The Issue

The Environmental Protection Agency has recently requested public comment on their review of endosulfan, a highly toxic and resilient insectide.

The European Union and twenty other countires have banned endosulfan, but the United States continues to use this insecticide on tomatoes, cotton, potatoes, apples, pears, and several other crops. Endosulfan is highly neurotoxic to both insects and mammals. Mild exposure in the womb leads to autism, male reproductive harm, and other birth defects. Acute exposure leads to rashes, nausea, headaches, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, convulsions, and death. Endosulfan can travel great distances and also poses an extreme threat to aquatic ecosystems.

The EPA has conducted their own analysis, concluding that endosulfan endangers workers who directly handle the insecticide, and those who work in endosulfan-treated fields.

We know that alternatives are available to this persistently toxic pollutant. The Pesticide Action Network has composed a petition to pressure the EPA into banning this substance. After signing the petition, you could go one step further by sending the EPA a personal comment directly. The EPA must live up to their organization's purpose and actively protect communities and the environment from harm.

avatar of the starter
D WPetition StarterThere is still very limited awareness of the nature of the threat. This is an era of specialists, each of whom sees his own problem and is unaware of or intolerant of the larger frame into which it fits. It is also an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged. When the public protests, confused with some obvious evidence...it is fed little tranquilizing pills of half-truths. We urgently need an end to these false assurances, to the sugar coating of unpalatable facts. It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks...The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts. In the words of Jean Rostand, "The obligation to endure gives us the right to know." - Rachel Carson
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This petition had 190 supporters

The Issue

The Environmental Protection Agency has recently requested public comment on their review of endosulfan, a highly toxic and resilient insectide.

The European Union and twenty other countires have banned endosulfan, but the United States continues to use this insecticide on tomatoes, cotton, potatoes, apples, pears, and several other crops. Endosulfan is highly neurotoxic to both insects and mammals. Mild exposure in the womb leads to autism, male reproductive harm, and other birth defects. Acute exposure leads to rashes, nausea, headaches, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, convulsions, and death. Endosulfan can travel great distances and also poses an extreme threat to aquatic ecosystems.

The EPA has conducted their own analysis, concluding that endosulfan endangers workers who directly handle the insecticide, and those who work in endosulfan-treated fields.

We know that alternatives are available to this persistently toxic pollutant. The Pesticide Action Network has composed a petition to pressure the EPA into banning this substance. After signing the petition, you could go one step further by sending the EPA a personal comment directly. The EPA must live up to their organization's purpose and actively protect communities and the environment from harm.

avatar of the starter
D WPetition StarterThere is still very limited awareness of the nature of the threat. This is an era of specialists, each of whom sees his own problem and is unaware of or intolerant of the larger frame into which it fits. It is also an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged. When the public protests, confused with some obvious evidence...it is fed little tranquilizing pills of half-truths. We urgently need an end to these false assurances, to the sugar coating of unpalatable facts. It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks...The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts. In the words of Jean Rostand, "The obligation to endure gives us the right to know." - Rachel Carson
Media inquiries

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Petition created on February 14, 2009