Many U.S. Residents Carry Toxic Pesticides Above "Safe" Levels
Report Shows Children, Women and Mexican Americans Shoulder Heaviest "Pesticide Body Burden"

NEW YORK, N.Y.///May 11, 2004// New York, NY -- May 11, 2004, -- Many U.S. residents carry toxic pesticides in their bodies above government assessed "acceptable" levels, according to a report released today by Pesticide Action Network North America (PAN) and The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). Chemical Trespass: Pesticides in Our Bodies and Corporate Accountability, makes public for the first time an analysis of pesticide-related data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a study of levels of chemicals in 9,282 people nationwide. The report reveals that government and industry have failed to safeguard public health from pesticide exposures.

"Our analysis finds that, without consent, most if not all U.S. residents carry toxic pesticides in their bodies, in many cases at levels above what the government considers 'acceptable' - with children, women and Mexican Americans at greatest risk," said Skip Spitzer , PAN Program Coordinator and one of the authors of the report. "CDC found pesticides in 100% of the people who had both blood and urine tested. The average person in this group carried a toxic cocktail of 13 of the 23 pesticides we analyzed."

Many of the pesticides found in the test subjects have been linked to serious short- and long-term health effects including infertility, birth defects and childhood and adult cancers.

Chlorpyrifos, produced principally by Dow Chemical Corporation and found in numerous products such as Dursban™, is designed to kill insects by disrupting the nervous system. Although US EPA restricted chlorpyrifos for most residential uses in 2000, it continues to be used widely in agriculture and other settings. In humans, chlorpyrifos is also a nerve poison, and has been shown to disrupt hormones and interfere with normal development of the nervous system in laboratory animals.

Chemical Trespass argues that pesticide manufacturers are primarily responsible for the problem of pesticide body burden. The report introduces the Pesticide Trespass Index (PTI), a new tool for quantifying responsibility of individual pesticide manufacturers for their "pesticide trespass." Using the PTI, the report estimates that Dow Chemical is responsible for at least 80% of the chlorpyrifos breakdown products found in the bodies of those in the U.S.

"We must stop this toxic trespass by shifting the burden from our bodies back to the corporate boardroom where it belongs," said Sister Valerie Heinonen of the Mercy Investment Program, Inc., an ICCR member. "Investors need to closely examine the long-term profitability of agrochemical companies like Dow. Clearly, a business based on the manufacture and sale of tons of toxic chemicals every year is not sustainable given what we know about their adverse health effects."

Children-the population most vulnerable to pesticides-are exposed to the highest levels of nerve-damaging organophosphorous (OP) pesticides. The CDC data show that the average 6 to11 year-old sampled is exposed to the OP pesticide chlorpyrifos at four times the level U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers "acceptable" for a long-term exposure.

"It is no great surprise that children carry the highest body burden of pesticides," said Dr. Cathey E. Falvo, President of Physicians for Social Responsibility, New York City. "They eat more food and drink more water per body weight, they are low to the ground, and they engage in hand into mouth behavior. We must not tolerate continued exposure of our children, for this burden puts them at added risk of life time ill health effects including cancers, small body and brain size and other neurologic deficits. "

"The pesticides we carry in our bodies are made and aggressively promoted by agrochemical companies,"said Suzanne Mattei, New York City Executive of the Sierra Club. "These companies also spend millions on political influence to block or undermine regulatory measures designed to protect public health and the environment. The fact that our children carry dangerous pesticides in their bodies represents a dramatic failure in the way our government protects us from toxic pesticides."

"While the government develops safety levels for each chemical separately, this study shows that in the real world we are exposed to multiple chemicals simultaneously," explained Margaret Reeves, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at PAN. "The synergistic effects of multiple exposures are unknown, but a growing body of research suggests that even at very low levels, the combination of these chemicals can be harmful to our health."

The report also found that women have significantly higher levels of three of the six organochlorine (OC) pesticides evaluated. This class of pesticides is known to have multiple harmful effects when they cross the placenta during pregnancy, including reduced infant birth weight and disruption of brain development, which can lead to learning disabilities and other neurobehavioral problems. This ability of organochlorine pesticides to pass from mother to child puts future generations at serious risk.

Mitchel Cohen of the No Spray Coaliton, noted that the heaviest pesticide use in this state occurs in Brooklyn. "We're concerned about the fact that the Mosquito Surveillance Protocol recently released by New York City's Department of Health indicates that malathion, one of the pesticides studied in Chemical Trespass, may be used this summer," he said.

PAN's analysis found that Mexican Americans carry dramatically higher body burdens of five of the 17 evaluated pesticides in urine samples, including a breakdown product of methyl parathion, a neurotoxic, endocrine-disrupting, insecticide. Mexican Americans also had significantly higher body burdens of the breakdown products of the insecticides lindane and DDT than those found in other ethnic groups.

Chemical Trespass provides recommendations for government, industry and the public including:

· US Congress should conduct a thorough and independent investigation into corporate responsibility and liability for pesticide body burdens, and establish financial mechanisms to shift health and environmental costs of pesticides to the corporations that produce them.
· US EPA should ban use of pesticides known to be hazardous and pervasive in the environment and our bodies, and should immediately phase out all uses of chlorpyrifos and lindane.
· US EPA should require that manufacturers bear the burden of proof for demonstrating that a pesticide does not harm human health before it can be registered, and should work with USDA to actively promote least-toxic pest control methods.
· Individuals should pressure government officials and corporations to implement these changes, seek alternatives to pesticide use and buy organic products whenever possible.

Read Sr. Valerie Heinonen's speech on Chemical Trespass here.

New York organizations participating in the release of Chemical Trespass:

Citizens Environmental Coalition (Albany release)
Environmental Advocates of New York (Albany release)
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
New York City Sierra Club
New York Public Interest Research Group (Albany release)
No Spray Coalition
Pesticide Action Network of North America
Physicians for Social Responsibility, New York City

To obtain a copy of Chemical Trespass, call 415-981-1771 or download from www.panna.org

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