Report lists agents and exposures that may lead to cancer

Welding can expose workers to
toxic fumes and particulate matter.

IARC listing prioritizes substances for evaluating carcinogenic risks

An advisory group to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has published a report recommending and prioritizing chemicals, complex mixtures, occupational exposures, physical agents, biological agents, and lifestyle factors for IARC Monographs during 2015-2019.

IARC is the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization, and government agencies across the globe use its monographs as scientific support for their actions to prevent exposure to potential carcinogens.

These monographs identify and evaluate environmental factors that can increase carcinogenic risks to humans.

The report lists more than 50 recommended agents and exposures, and among those listed as high priority for the upcoming years are bisphenol A, 1-bromopropane, shiftwork, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, welding and welding fumes, and occupational exposure to pesticides.

Source: OH&S online

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Farm workers' pesticide exposure targeted by new safety measures

EPA proposes new safety measures

Living or working near fields may
lead to chemical exposure.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced proposed revisions to the Worker Protection Standard in order to protect the nation’s two million farm workers and their families from pesticide exposure.

“Today marks an important milestone for the farm workers who plant, tend, and harvest the food that we put on our tables each day,” said Gina McCarthy, EPA Administrator.

“EPA’s revised Worker Protection Standard will afford farm workers similar health protections to those already enjoyed by workers in other jobs. Protecting our nation’s farm workers from pesticide exposure is at the core of EPA’s work to ensure environmental justice.”

EPA is proposing significant improvements to worker training regarding the safe usage of pesticides, including how to prevent and effectively treat pesticide exposure.

Increased training and signage will inform farm workers about the protections they are afforded under the law and will help them protect themselves and their families from pesticide exposure.

Workers and others near treated fields will now be protected from pesticide overspray and fumes.

In addition, EPA has proposed that children under 16 be legally barred from handling all pesticides, with an exemption for family farms.

These revisions protect workers while ensuring agricultural productivity and preserving the traditions of family farms.

This proposal represents more than a decade of extensive stakeholder input by federal and state partners and from across the agricultural community including farm workers, farmers, and industry on the current EPA Worker Protection Standard (WPS) for Agricultural Pesticides first established in 1992.

Source: EPA 

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Scientist speaks out against herbicide manufacturer

Biologist Tyrone Hayes said he was prevented from
sharing his research results on a certain pesticide.

Tyrone Hayes found some evidence that a widely used herbicide may have harmful effects on the endocrine system.

But when he tried to publish the results, the chemical’s manufacturer launched a campaign to discredit his work.

Tyrone Hayes was first hired in 1997 by a company, which later became agribusiness giant Syngenta, to study their product, atrazine, a pesticide that is applied to more than half the corn crops in the United States, and widely used on golf courses and Christmas tree farms.

When Hayes found results Syngenta did not expect — that atrazine causes sexual abnormalities in frogs, and could cause the same problems for humans — it refused to allow him to publish his findings.

A new article in The New Yorker magazine uses court documents from a class action lawsuit against Syngenta to show how it sought to smear Hayes’ reputation and prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from banning the profitable chemical, which is already banned by the European Union.

Watch the interview here.

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Health Canada to review 23 pesticides

Ottawa agrees to review after pressure from environmental group

Environmentalists are declaring victory over an announcement by Ottawa that it will conduct a health review of 23 pesticides, including a weed killer found everywhere from wheat fields to suburban lawns.

But they point out the decision comes only after several lawsuits were filed last summer and suggest it shouldn’t take legal action to get the federal government to follow the law.

Many of the chemicals have already
been banned in Europe.

“It is a victory in that sense, that we’re getting them to do something they’ve never done before,” said Elaine MacDonald of the environmental law group Ecojustice. “But we shouldn’t have to sue them to get them to do it.”

Last August, four lawsuits were filed over 29 chemicals, all of which Ecojustice said were banned in Europe.

The federal government is obliged by law to review chemicals that are banned in any country belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Health Canada had originally declined to do any studies. It said some of the chemicals had been recently examined and found to present acceptable risks.

The agency added that it wanted to consider reasons for the European bans before conducting studies on the others.

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency quietly reversed that decision in a website posting dated Dec. 30.

“The (agency) . . . has determined that this subsection’s criteria have been met, namely that a member country of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development prohibits all uses of this active ingredient for health or environmental reasons.”

Four of the six chemicals Canada won’t review were found to be still in limited European use — restricted to functions such as anti-flea dog collars. The final two are not used in Canada.

The pesticides that will be studied are found in 360 different products widely available for consumer and industrial use in Canada. They include 2,4-D — an active ingredient in 140 different products.

“2,4-D is one of the most common herbicides out there,” said MacDonald. “It’s in many household products. 2,4-D is what I would characterize as ubiquitous.”

Norway banned the chemical in 2000 over concerns about its links to cancer and its ability to migrate into groundwater.

Other common chemicals to be reviewed include:
Bromoxynil, found in 48 products and registered for use on cereal crops and vegetables.
Carbaryl, used in 39 pest-control products such as flea collars and ant powder.
Chlorthal-dimethyl, a possible carcinogen and herbicide most commonly used on weeds in vegetable operations.
Trifluralin, a popular herbicide on the Prairies that’s highly toxic to fish.
Trichlorfon, an insecticide approved for woodlots, Christmas tree plantations and cattle, which has been linked to human nerve damage.

In a Jan. 9 letter to Ecojustice, a federal lawyer points to the government’s review plans and asks the group to drop its lawsuit.

“In our view, the usefulness of that exercise is seriously undermined by the consultation document,” wrote Elizabeth Kikuchi.

Ecojustice lawyer Laura Tessoro said the court action has only been placed on hold and remains on the books.

“The agency doesn’t have a great track record of committing to doing special reviews under the act,” she said. “This is basically the first time it’s ever agreed to do them.

“In light of that, we need to keep the pressure on.”

Source: Toronto Star

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Registry to help U.S. veterans who may have been exposed to toxic chemicals at Canadian base

Photo: Bill Longshaw

Source: BDNMaine

For decades members of the Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island National Guard and reserves trained at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick, about 100 miles east of the Maine border.

In 2007 the Canadian government admitted to working with the United States military in testing the herbicides Agent Orange, Agent Purple, Agent White and other unregistered pesticides at locations around the base in the late 1960s and began paying one-time settlements to its own veterans who served on the base.

Last week Rep. Mike Michaud, ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, reintroduced a bill to help Maine veterans who trained at Gagetown after the testing period and may be concerned they were exposed to toxic levels of the herbicides.

To date, according to Michaud’s office, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does not have comprehensive data on veterans looking for compensation based on chemical exposure at Gagetown.

Michaud’s bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Chellie Pingree, would “establish a voluntary CFB Gagetown registry containing the names of veterans who apply for care or services from the VA based on a condition linked to their time at CFB Gagetown. The legislation would also provide a health exam to these veterans at their request. A registry would allow these veterans to officially list their possibly service-connected illnesses and increase opportunities for outreach and research,” according to a release from his office.

“No veteran should be denied the care they have earned. It’s extremely frustrating that the VA doesn’t track these concerns,” said Michaud. “This is not a new issue, and the VA must improve its ability to reach out to veterans who may face special challenges in establishing service-connection. A registry will provide us more information to get a better handle on the full scope of the problem, and I believe it’s a critical first step toward helping these veterans get the care they need.”

Establishing the registry is a good first step on the way to gaining full compensation for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals, according to Richard Pelletier, a former United States Marine and National Guardsman who advocates for veterans as a service officer with the American Legion in Maine.

Use of toxic herbicides at Gagetown, Pelletier said, was not limited to two years in the 1960s and instead included spraying of toxic herbicides Agents Orange, White and Purple from 1956 to 1984 by the Canadians.

U.S. troops taking part in training exercises at Gagetown since 1971 were never made aware of the continued use of the chemicals on base or the possibility of exposure, he said.

“We know the United States government sprayed 83 acres [with Agent Orange] in 1966 and 1967,” Pelletier said. “But the Canadians continued spraying until 1984 and our guys were exposed to that.”

In 2005 a health registry was established and opened up to U.S. veterans who were at Gagetown in 1966 and 1967 and suspect they were exposed to the chemicals, but Pelletier said the registry needs to be opened to all veterans who served up to the present.

Michaud’s bill, he said, will do that.

“This is an issue we have been hearing about for far too many years without any action,” Ed Gilman, spokesman with Michaud’s office, said last week. “It’s a good first step.”

Robert Owen, Maine American Legion department service officer, agrees.

“We fully support it,” he said last week. “Too many of our vets out there who trained at Gagetown are getting things like cancer and diabetes [and] those are all presumptive illnesses that showed up in vets who served in Vietnam and were exposed to Agent Orange.”

While not providing immediate relief or compensation to those Gagetown veterans, a health registry, Owen said, will establish a firm database of those veterans and let the U.S. government see the scope of the need for follow-up care and compensation.

“This is a major start,” he said. “Very little has been done over the years [and] a registry will open things up and make people aware.”

Sen. Susan Collins met recently with U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and requested his agency undertake a study of possible effects of toxic chemical exposure to veterans who had trained at Gagetown.

“I request that you commission an independent study to examine potential health risks to veterans, including Maine National Guardsmen, who may have been exposed to harmful toxins while training at CFB Gagetown,” Collins said in a March 29 letter to Shinseki. “Such a study should be carried out by an independent organization with expertise in the conduct of similar studies. I further request that the Department consult with Maine veterans who served at CFB Gagetown in carrying out this request.”

Collins also urged Shinseki to establish a registry within his department for those veterans.

“This is our chance to start this process here in Maine,” Peter Ogden, director of the bureau for veterans services in Maine, said. “Our goal is to start gathering this information now so whenever the VA does decide [to compensate veterans] it will have the necessary information.”

That information, he said, will allow the Veterans’ Administration to better track exposed servicemen and woman establish health trends.

“We had started a registry and list like that awhile back,” Ogden said. “But we did not ask enough questions so now we want to know where they served [at Gagetown], what unit they were with and what medical issues they have now.”

At the same time, Ogden said, his office will work with veterans to assure they have the most up-to-date information on the Gagetown chemical exposure situation.

Owen and Pelletier are hoping that information will prompt the U.S. government to begin compensating veterans much like the Canadian government has already done for its troops stationed at Gagetown.

Starting in 2007 and up through 2011, Veterans Affairs Canada awarded one-time payments to 5,000 of those veterans totalling $100 million, according to Janice Summerby, veterans affairs spokesperson.

“We would like to see the VA accept that the people who were in Gagetown do have health issues and should be compensated,” Owen said. “That is really the bottom line.”