Fw: Action Alert: signature -- fumigations

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----- Original Message ----- From: Safe2Use

Cc: phillipcryan@...

Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 10:40 AM

Subject: Action Alert: signature -- fumigations

Dear Friends and Colleagues, As soon as next week, the U.S. Senate will begin to debate continued spraying of herbicides to eradicate drug crops in Colombia. Colleagues in Washington have told us there is an urgent need for health professionals and scientists to weigh in on this debate. Please join us in signing this open letter to Senator Leahy (it will be copied to other Senators), expressing our specific concerns about possible health and environmental effects of the U.S.-sponsored spray campaign in Colombia. We would like to collect as many signatures as possible this week, to maximize the impact of our letter on the Senate debate. Please help this effort by sending this message to as many others as you can. To sign on, please send your name and institutional affiliation as soon as possible to phillipcryan@.... Please put the words "signature -- fumigations" in the subject line. We would like to collect all signatures by Monday, September 24. However, if you receive this message later than that, please do not hesitate to sign on since we may still be able to use your signature. Thank you. Crumbley Open Letter to Senator Leahy, Chair, Foreign Operations Subcommittee August 24, 2001 Dear Senator Leahy We, the undersigned scientists and health professionals, are gravely concerned about the continued spraying of herbicides in drug-producing areas of Colombia. Reports from Colombia suggest that the spray campaigns have been associated with adverse health effects in both people and farm animals, and with extensive damage to food crops. The spraying has also caused significant ecological damage. Far from simply affecting the illegal drug trade, the spray campaigns threaten the nutrition and health of Colombian citizens. We strongly urge an immediate suspension of the spraying, the release of crucial and detailed information about the spraying protocol and methods, and a comprehensive evaluation of the health and environmental impacts of the crop-eradication program. We are concerned that the precise formulation of the herbicide mixture used has not been made public in the United States. According to the Colombian government, the product that has been used in Colombia is Roundup Ultra (1), an herbicide that includes not only the isopropylamine salt of glyphosate but also a surfactant that, for some health endpoints, is more toxic than glyphosate and thus contributes significantly to the toxicity ofthe mixture (2). This must be considered when evaluating claims about the safety of glyphosate herbicides, as these often refer only to the active ingredient, glyphosate. Further, the Roundup product is reformulated in Colombia to incorporate additional additives with unknown health and environmental effects. It is telling that ICI, the manufacturer of such additional ingredients, recently refused permission for its products to be used in the spraying program (3). Unless we know all the ingredients of the herbicide mixture, and unless these have been fully evaluated for health and environmental impacts, we have no basis for assuming that these products are safe when sprayed in the vicinity of rural populations, their food crops and water sources. We are also concerned that the spraying protocol may violate EPA requirements and restrictions on herbicide use. Though failure to follow pesticide label instructions is a violation of federal law under FIFRA, the US government may be promoting such unauthorized use in Colombia. Information provided to the Congress of Colombia (4) indicates that the Colombian crop-eradication program uses significantly more concentrated solutions of herbicide than approved for aerial application in the United States. From an environmental perspective, applying a concentrated broad-spectrum herbicide over delicate tropical ecosystems is almost certain to cause significant damage. Moreover, human health impacts from a concentrated mixture are obviously more likely. The aerial application in Colombia is also reportedly carried out from high altitude with limited visibility. Thus, aerial drift and accidental spraying are likely to contaminate surface waters, food crops, field workers, residents, and animals, despite specific label instructions warning against aerial spraying in ways and under weather conditions that favor drift. Finally, the rural population almost certainly lacks important information about precautionary measures to prevent exposure, and appropriate treatment for those who become contaminated. Under such conditions, the spraying program would not be approved in the United States. Because no detailed information identifying concentrations, the total application dose per area, or measures to ensure compliance with label restrictions has been officially released in the United States, it is impossible to determine the extent of potential harm in Colombia. The US Department of State justification for the decision to use aerial spraying is that “herbicide application by airplane is the most cost-effective way of coping with the magnitude of the problem and ensuring that eradication operations do not turn violent.” Human health or environmental protection considerations have not played any significant role to date. This is a situation that must be rectified. It is imperative that the United States suspend all financing and support of the fumigation program until comprehensive, independent, and peer reviewed scientific and health studies have determined whether the environmental and public health impacts of this program are acceptable. These studies must consider the specific conditions of herbicide use in Colombia and whether or not the spraying protocol meets EPA label requirements for use of the herbicide. While glyphosate and the additives it is used with have quite different toxicological properties from the herbicides that made up Agent Orange, the concerns are the same: we are exposing ecosystems and citizens of another country to a toxic chemical mixture, while failing to disclose the composition of the mixture and the conditions of exposure. Peer reviewed scientific studies support the plausibility of reports of significant illness related to human exposures and damage to farm crops and animals. Essentially, we are conducting an uncontrolled experiment in crop destruction, with impacts that are likely to extend beyond non-target vegetation. It is crucial to take action to avoid more extensive harm resulting from aerial application of a poorly characterized and unidentified mixture of toxic chemicals under conditions likely to result in widespread exposures. To prevent any further threats to Colombian citizens, we therefore request you and your colleagues to ·Suspend further herbicide spraying; ·Make public full and specific information about the spraying protocol; ·Verify whether the spraying protocol meets the US EPA label requirements for the herbicide used; and ·Ensure that a comprehensive evaluation of environmental and health impacts of the program is undertaken. We are aware of reports that the US EPA and CDC are working with the US embassy in Bogota to develop a study to evaluate the safety of the spraying program. Although we applaud this investigation, we must emphasize that we do not believe continued spraying during the long period of planning and executing the investigation is ethical or justified. Sincerely, Partial list of signatures (institutional affiliation is for identification purposes only) Dorothy L. , MD Midwest Regional Director Physicians for Social Responsibility President, Champaign-Urbana Chapter Badgley Museum of Paleontology & Residential College Director, Environmental Studies Program University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI G. Bieselin, M.D. Physicians for Social Responsibility Vallejo, CA Kent J. Bransford, M.D. Environment and Health Program Physicians for Social Responsibility Carmel, CA Bruce Burdick, M.D. Department of Pathology Kaiser Hospital Sacramento, CA Dr. Cederstav Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense Ignacio H.Chapela, PhD Assistant Professor (Microbial Ecology) Ecosystem Sciences Division Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Mangement University of California--Berkeley Berkeley, CA Hillel W. Cohen, DrPH Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Social Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, NY Gwen L. DuBois M.D., M.P.H. Occupational and Preventive Medicine Committee land Medical Society Baltimore, land Cathey E. Falvo, MD, MPH Program Director International & Public Health New York Medical College Graduate School of Health Sciences Valhalla, NY Flattery Research Scientist California Department of Health Services L. Fox, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Dept. of Geology and Geophyics University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN Lee Francis, MD, MPH Chicago, IL M. Gould, MD President SF-Bay Area Chapter Physicians for Social Responsibility Berkeley, CA Molly Tan Hayden, M.D. Physicians for Social Responsibility San Francisco Bay Area Heiger-Bernays, Ph.D Assistant Professor Department of Environmental Health Boston University School of Public Health Boston, MA Ron Hess, MD Neurologist Mountain View, CA McCally MD PhD Professor of Community and Preventive Medicine Mount Sinai School of Medicine New York Meryl Nass, MD Parkview Hospital Brunswick, ME Orris, MD, MPH Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences University of Illinois School of Public Health Ivette Perfecto Associate Professor School of Natural Resources and Environment University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI Margaret Reeves, Ph.D. Staff Scientist Pesticide Action Network North America San Francisco, CA Ted Schettler MD, MPH Boston Medical Center Boston, MA Patrice Sutton, MPH Research Scientist Public Health Institute Oakland, CA Wallinga, M.D., MPA Senior Scientist, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Minneapolis, MN L. Tvedten, Institute of Pest Management, Inc, 2530 Street, Marne, MI 49435-9751, Steve@... - http://www.getipm.com http://www.thebestcontrol.com - References (1) Though the US Department of State has not confirmed this information and avoids specifying which product is used, the Colombian government has informed the Colombian Congress that the glyphosate herbicide in the spray mixture is Roundup Ultra. (2) Safety Evaluation and Risk Assessment of the Herbicide Roundup and Its Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, for Humans, M. , Kroes, and Ian C. Munro, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 31, 117-165, 2000; Monsanto Company Material Safety Data Sheet, Roundup UltraHerbicide, available at http://www.cdms.net/ldat/mp178020.pdf (3) The Observer, July 1, 2001 (4) Members of the Colombian Congress have been informed by the Colombian Anti-narcotics police that the mixture sprayed contains: 55% Roundup Ultra, 44% water, and 1% COSMOFLUX. This represents a Roundup Ultra to water ratio of 2 to 3, as compared to the 1 to 12 ratio mandated by the US EPA approved label.