For Immediate Release For More Information:
January 25, 2001, 10:00 a.m. Audrey Thier: EA 518-462-5526 x236
cell: (413) 441-9392
Laura Haight: NYPIRG 518-436-0876 x258
pager: 518-484-9401
Todd Stebbins: NYPIRG 631-673-5536
(Mineola) – Environmental Advocates and the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) today released a report on pesticide use patterns on Long Island, which reveals that an enormous amount of toxic pesticides are routinely used in the region – 895,000 gallons and 5.3 million pounds were reported in 1998 alone.
The regional report is a companion to The Toxic Treadmill: Pesticide Use and Sales in New York State 1997-1998, a statewide study released by Environmental Advocates and NYPIRG this past October. Analysis of the pesticide reporting data collected by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) found that, across the state, 4.5 million gallons and 29.4 million pounds of pesticides were reported used by commercial applicators or sold to farmers in 1998.
The report shows that Long Island is one of the areas of highest pesticide use in the state. In 1998, Suffolk and Nassau counties were second and third among all of New York State’s counties for amount of pesticides reported by gallons and third and fourth for pesticides reported by pounds. Suffolk was the top county in the state for the amount of pesticides sold to farmers. Overall, Long Island accounted for nearly one-fifth of the state’s total reported pesticides in 1998.
"Today’s findings clearly point out the inordinate risk of pesticide use on Long Island," said Audrey Thier, Environmental Advocates' pesticide project director and author of the report. "And with so many safe and effective alternatives to hazardous pesticides, much of this risk is entirely gratuitous."
In addition to high overall amounts, the pesticides reported on Long Island in 1998 pose significant risks:
· Thirty-six percent of the total gallons and 44% of the total pounds of pesticides reported contain pesticides classified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as suspected carcinogens.
· Thirty-two percent of the gallons and 16% of the total pounds contain pesticides suspected of disrupting normal hormonal balance, affecting everything from daily physical functioning to the fundamentals of reproduction and fertility.
· The third highest pesticide reported was the insecticide chlorpyrifos (the active ingredient in Dursban®). Also among the top pesticides reported on Long Island was the related insecticide diazinon. In recent months, both chlorpyrifos and diazinon have been banned by EPA for virtually all non-agricultural uses because of their high hazard, particularly to developing fetuses, infants, and children.
· The top pesticide sold to farmers by gallons (and the fourth highest overall) was the exceptionally toxic fumigant metam sodium. Metam sodium is classified by EPA as a probable human carcinogen and as Toxicity Category I (which designates those pesticides of the highest acute toxicity). It degrades upon contact with water to methyl isocyanate gas, the chemical responsible for the 1987 Union Carbide disaster that killed several thousand people in Bhopal, India.
· Among the top pesticides used on Long Island are related herbicides (one a component of Agent Orange) that have been strongly linked to several cancers, most notably non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a particularly deadly disease whose incidence rate on Long Island has skyrocketed in the past few decades.
· Eleven of the top pesticides used on Long Island in 1998 have been identified by EPA as capable of contaminating groundwater as the result of “normal agricultural use.”
“Long Island's fragile environment makes it especially vulnerable to toxic contamination,” said Laura Haight, NYPIRG’s senior environmental associate. “These findings demand the attention of the region’s policy-makers and public health community.”
Among the actions Environmental Advocates and NYPIRG are calling for to address these documented risks are the following:
· Nassau County and other communities on Long Island can reduce their own use of pesticides by enacting policies that phase-out most pesticide use on municipal property. Eight municipalities in New York State, including Suffolk County, have already done so.
· The Nassau and Suffolk County Health Departments should each make it a priority to examine the pesticide reporting data for their jurisdictions to see where particularly risky pesticides, such as metam sodium, are being used, in order to take proactive steps to eliminate the most hazardous uses and identify safer alternative strategies.
· Nassau and Suffolk counties should use the opportunity now afforded them by the newly-enacted Pesticide Neighbor Notification Law to develop aggressive public education campaigns about lawn care pesticide hazards and non-toxic pest management alternatives.
·
Long Islanders should
turn to the wealth of local environmental and health advocacy organizations in
order to find safer, effective alternatives to the pest management situations
for which they now resort to chemicals.
The full report, The Toxic Treadmill, is posted on the web at www.envadvocates.org and www.nypirg.org. Regional companion reports are also available for Western New York, the Rochester area, Westchester County, and New York City.
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