Environmental Health Resolutions to Start the New Year!

Inspired by my friend Brian's eco-resolutions blog post and Gina Johnson's excellent radio show "Its Hot in Here," I've decided to put together some environmental health resolutions for the new year. Add some more below if you've got them, and I encourage everyone to try to make some environmental health new years resolutions of your own.

1. Avoid products containing triclosan. Triclosan is an antibacterial chemical that is put in a lot of soaps and products, but is actually quite toxic. It is persistent and pervasive, contaminates waterways, and has been shown to be an endocrine disruptor in animals. For more information on triclosan, check out this factsheet.

2. Eat more organic food. Chemicals used in conventional agriculture are not only dangerous to our own health, but they pose major threats to farmworkers. Check out the website of one of my favorite organizations, Farmworker Justice, to learn more about some of the problems faced by farmworkers. A great alternative to organic food is buying from small local farms. 2009 = farmer's market time!

3. Eat less high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). (Thanks Brian!) HFCS is not only harmful to health (it has been linked to the rise in obesity), but anyone who has read or heard Michael Pollan knows how bad corn is for the environment. "The environmental footprint of HFCS is deep and wide. Look no farther than the dead zone in the Gulf [of Mexico], an area the size of New Jersey where virtually nothing will live because it has been starved of oxygen by the fertilizer runoff coming down the Mississippi from the Corn Belt. Then there is the atrazine in the water in farm country -- a nasty herbicide that, at concentrations as little as 0.1 part per billion, has been shown to turn male frogs into hermaphrodites." High fructose corn syrup is in almost all processed foods, so this isn't an easy thing to avoid, but I'm going to try to be much more cognizant of it this coming year. For more on the environmental effects of HFCS, check out this Washington Post article.

4. Submit public comments to EPA on issues related to environmental health. The easiest way to do this is through groups that are active on regulatory issues- groups like Food and Water Watch, Environmental Working Group, and Beyond Pesticides often have action alerts about important items on the federal register, with directions on how to post comments, as well as talking points.

5. Get back on the blog wagon. Sorry for the lack of postings, y'all! I promise to do better this time.

Bad News To Start the Work Week: Dude Looks Like a Lady

Researchers in Florida have found that in heavily farmed areas, 40% of male toads have abnormalities that make them more like female toads. These reproductive abnormalities are likely to reduce the reproductive success of the toads.

With amphibians on the decline worldwide--there are thousands of species that are threatened or endangered--these ladydude toads are kind of a big deal. Pretty soon, folk singers around the world will be forced to sing "Where have all the cane toads gone?"

Specifically, the researchers found that the number of abnormalities and frequency of male toads with female traits ("intersex" toads) increased with amount of agriculture. Testosterone concentrations were altered and secondary sexual traits were either feminized or demasculinized in the intersex toads.

The authors conclude that: "These reproductive abnormalities could certainly contribute to amphibian population declines occurring in areas exposed to agricultural contaminants."

Anyone who is familiar with the work of Tyrone Hayes of UC Berkeley shouldn't be surprised by this new study. For years, Dr. Hayes has been publishing research showing that the most commonly used herbicide in the US, atrazine, feminizes frogs and turns them into hermaphrodites. Just this past year, Dr. Hayes gave a talk at Michigan that scared the bejesus out of all of us in attendance. Be sure to check out his homepage at: http://www.atrazinelovers.com/

Source: "Agriculture Alters Gonadal Form and Function in the toad Bufo marinus" Environmental Health Perspectives, July 2008 In-Press.

Bad Ideas for $500: USDA drops data tracking for pesticide and fertilizer use

In what might be the only time that environmental groups and industry and trade groups agree on something, pretty much everyone is upset by USDA's recent announcement that they were ending their tracking program of pesticide and fertilizer use.

USDA has been tracking chemical use on agriculture since 1990, and the data is free and open to the public. I know I've used it plenty of times- in both my non-profit work and my academic work. This is the only data that is free, accessible, and nationwide tracking pesticide and fertilizer use. Because only California has a good state-wide tracking program, this data is irreplaceable. Even EPA, the agency in charge of pesticide regulation, depends on this data.

The USDA blames a lack of funding as the reason they are shutting down the program. I agree with Bill Freese, senior policy analyst with the Center for Food Safety, who said, "It's a really serious blow to efforts to improve the safety of our agriculture. The USDA claims it doesn't have funding, but that's no excuse. If you want to do it, you make it a priority and you get it done."

The bloggers at bushtheidiot.com said it well too: "I am just amazed that there are no funds for the U.S.D.A. to supply information to our farmers and agricultutral scientists, but we can send our tax dollars in the billions to any country and cause outside our own borders."

After a slew of groups, companies, and individuals wrote letters of protest, apparently the Senate Appropriations committee recommended that the funds be made available in the 2009 budget for USDA to reinstate the program. Hopefully, Congress will make this happen, and this valuable resource won't be lost. Already, its too late to collect the 2007 data. After all, if we don't even know whats being sprayed on our fields, how can we stop it?

Source: Environmental Science and Technology

EPA Proves Me Wrong, Protects Health and the Environment

Just when I lambasted EPA for being too lax on chemical regulation, they go and do something good. Last week, they announced that they were banning carbofuran, a particularly nasty pesticide that is toxic to birds--especially eagles and migratory songbirds--and causes a host of health effects in humans, from nausea and dizziness to respiratory paralysis and death.

While carbofuran isn't used a whole lot in the United States, it is commonly used abroad on crops such as coffee, bananas, corn, rice, and sugarcane. By banning carbofuran residues in food, the rule will have a big effect worldwide on the way that crops are grown.

Grist says it best:

Using language we didn't even think was in the EPA's vocabulary, the agency's James Gulliford said, "While there is little exposure today [to the pesticide], we don't think there's a need, a reason for any exposure."

Good work, EPA! I still have my eye on you though...