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Spain
The Toxicity Identification Evaluation (TIE) procedures recommended by EPA
are incapable of identifying specific chemicals causing toxicity. The approved
methods can only identify toxicants to a given class of chemicals (e.g. metals,
non-polar organics, etc.). Therefore, it is possible to claim that organic
pesticides may be causing test failure, but it is not possible to isolate the
effects of diazinon from those caused by chlorpyrifos, lindane, malathion or
pyrethrins.
http://www.cp.us.novartis.com/products/cropprotection/brochures/diazinon/60dayEPAXII.shtml
FROM CRADLE TO WATERY GRAVE LINDANE SPELLS TROUBLE wherever it goes. Because
the pesticide lindane is a known carcinogen, which persists in the environment
and accumulates in the food chain, the Pesticide Action Network has placed it on
its "Dirty Dozen" list, and more than 70 countries have banned its
use. In early March, Greenpeace activists from five countries entered a lindane
waste site at the Inquinosa chemical factory in Sabinanigo, Spain, one of the
world's two remaining lindane producers (the other one is Rhone-Poulenc in
France). Wearing protective masks and suits, they chained themselves to dump
trucks and blocked truck passage to prevent illegal waste dumping at the site,
which has contaminated drinking water, soil, fruit and vegetables, and meat
products in neighboring farmlands and towns. Samples taken from the nearby
Gallego River showed lindane waste concentrations so high (21 times the legal
limit) that Greenpeace called on the Minister of Public Works to ban the use of
the river's water. A few weeks later, a routine shipment of lindane and other
pesticides, en route from the Rhone-Poulenc plant in France to Indonesia, was
lost at sea during a storm in the Channel. A tug boat, attempting to save the
ship's cargo, failed to recover one container, which was packed with five tons
of lindane. Dr. Paul Johnston, a scientific consultant for Greenpeace, said the
persistent pesticide poses a great threat: "If the lindane gets into the
sea, it could kill all marine life in a strip of sea 440 miles long and would
last 20 years." The production, transport and use of the pesticide is
dangerous. "The only way to prevent further contamination [all along this
chain] is immediately to stop the manufacture of lindane and the production of
its waste," said Xavier Pastor, director of Greenpeace Spain.--Blair Palese |