Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990 TAG: 9003290729
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The Environmental Protection Agency needs to step up its regulation of lawn-care chemicals, the General Accounting Office said in a report to a Senate committee on Wednesday.
Another Senate panel was told the United States should ban the export of agricultural pesticides that are not permitted for use in this country.
The import of produce sprayed with these chemicals is a "circle of poison," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
The GAO report released by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee followed a 1986 study that found the EPA had made little progress assessing the health risks of lawn-care pesticides. The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress.
The earlier report said the EPA had taken little enforcement action against advertising claims made by the pesticide industry.
Peter Guerrero, the GAO's associate director for environmental protection issues, said the new report shows the EPA still has more to do.
"We also found that prohibited pesticide claims that EPA classifies as false and misleading are still being made by the lawn-care pesticides industry," he said. "Yet, EPA has taken even fewer formal enforcement actions in recent years than it did during the 1984 and 1985 period we reviewed for our earlier report."
One of the most popular chemicals, diazinon, was disallowed for use on golf courses and sod farms because it killed waterfowl and other birds.
After several people were poisoned by diazinon, the EPA required special warnings on its label and said only certified applicators could use it commercially.
But Guerrero said the restriction does not apply to commercial lawn care companies and homeowners.
A spokesman for the EPA said migratory birds that fed on golf courses were dying, but the agency doesn't have similar evidence against diazinon for birds that light in people's yards.
"The law says you have to prove a substance has reasonable adverse effects before you can take it off the market," said Al Heier, the spokesman for EPA.
In the Senate Agriculture Committee, witnesses testified on a bill that would stop U.S. companies from exporting agricultural chemicals that are banned in the United States.
"One fourth of the produce we eat is imported," Leahy said. "That's 135 pounds of fruits and vegetables for every man, woman and child."
An agriculture official from Ecuador supported the bill, saying her country, "like many developing countries, is not in the condition to guarantee that highly toxic pesticides will be used in even a relatively safe manner."
Mercedes Bolanos de Moreno, chief of Ecuador's plant protection program, said her country has no national pesticide policy. The United States buys large amounts of bananas, coffee, cocoa and sugar from Ecuador.
In the last two years, federal inspectors have found U.S.-banned pesticides in beef from Honduras, pineapples from the Philippines and beans and carrots from Latin America.
Jay Vroom, president of the National Agricultural Chemicals Association, defended the industry in testimony at both hearings.
"Some pesticides produced in the United States and sold overseas are unregistered here because the specific pest controlled is not a U.S. problem, or crops concerned are generally not grown in America, like coffee, rubber, cocoa, bananas, tea," Vroom said.
He said attempts to control how other countries use agricultural chemicals would amount to U.S. imperialism.
"Lawn insecticides greatly contribute to the protection of human health by warding off potentially harmful bugs, such as ticks, mosquitos, fleas, ants and roaches," he said.
by CNB