Immigration and Pesticides; POPs; Herbicides and Toxic PollutionMay 4, 2006 PAN Article: Farmworkers, Immigration, and Pesticides: PAN North America reflects on the massive upwelling of support for comprehensive U.S. immigration reform http://ga4.org/ct/sdaJI591bXIw/  this week and how these efforts are linked to the drive to eliminate dangerous pesticides that have caused farmer and farmworker poisonings and long-term health tragedies around the world. PAN's Leticia Tirrez comments, "It really angers me that farmworkers are paid such little money, that workers routinely suffer from exposure to pesticides and often live in horrifying conditions. I would like farmworkers to have legal permission to work here, to have wages that are adequate, health care and better living conditions. My father was a farmworker in Mexico, on land owned by Anglos; I lived that life. I know that it's very hard and I empathize with farmworkers today." Oaxaca, Mexico: Although the vast majority of agricultural workers in the U.S. and Mexico are of Mexican and Central American ancestry, Spanish is not necessarily their common language. Many are from indigenous communities that speak dialects and languages thousands of years old. Patricia Díaz Romo, coordinator of the project Huicholes y Plaguicidas, announces the availability of pesticide education materials in Spanish and major indigenous languages on the project's website. Viewers may download and freely share a video and its script, nine radio spots, and a primer on human rights available in Spanish and twelve indigenous languages including wixárika (huichol), diidxazá (zapoteco del istmo), and batz'i k'op (tzotzil). See http://www.huicholesyplaguicidas.org http://ga4.org/ct/27aJI591bXIS/.  Geneva, Switzerland: Chocolate, soda, butter, milk and eggs - in studies from around the world, these common foods have been found to contain dangerous chemicals known as "persistent organic pollutants" or POPs. On May 4, 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland, public interest groups including PAN North America served soda and chocolate to hundreds of government officials to highlight the urgency of immediate action under the Stockholm Convention, the international POPs treaty. Read about the event http://ga4.org/ct/s1aJI591bXI2/ and the call for action http://ga4.org/ct/wpaJI591bXIN/ to the conference delegates. Philippines: The use of pesticides and other deadly chemicals could be the second worst cause of mass destruction next to nuclear explosions, according to one of the country's prominent toxicologists. Dr. Romeo Quijano, president of the Pesticide Action Network-Philippines, issued this warning as the global community of environmentalists celebrated Earth Day. Read what Dr. Quijano said in the Sun Star http://ga4.org/ct/spaJI591bXIx/. Canada: Pesticide regulation is examined in the context of Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency's assessment of the chlorophenoxy herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) for turf. The balance of epidemiological research suggests that 2,4-D - the most common herbicide used to kill weeds in grass - can be persuasively linked to cancers, neurological impairment and reproductive problems. Read an article and this report from Paediatrics & Child Health http://ga4.org/ct/s7aJI591bXIs/, the official journal of the Canadian Paediatric Society. Midwest United States: The European Union has banned the herbicide atrazine, effective next year, after finding it contaminated a number of drinking water supplies. The weed killer first came under scrutiny for its effects on frogs, and more recently has been linked to adverse affects on human health. Dr. Tyrone Hayes discusses his research in the U.S. Midwest on the effects of atrazine as an endocrine disruptor. Read his interview from the "Living On Earth http://ga4.org/ct/w1aJI591bXI_/" radio program. Washington, D.C.: Thousands of livestock at giant farms that feed much of the U.S. invariably produce tons of waste - the manure that can pollute the air with ammonia and foul drinking water with phosphorus runoff. If a factory or refinery did this, regulators might enforce some of the toughest anti-pollution laws. Yet agribusinesses are trying to prevent that from happening, contending that environmental laws designed to remedy industrial pollution were never intended for animal waste, no matter how foul. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports http://ga4.org/ct/2paJI591bXIL/ on the efforts in Congress to make agribusiness exempt from environmental accountability. Several U.S. states: Toxic Chemical Injury is often characterized by heightened sensitivity to very small amounts of toxins found in our everyday products and environment. It is a chronic debilitating condition for which there is no known cure. The website http://www.mcsbeaconofhope.com  http://ga4.org/ct/wdaJI591bXIA/ reports that to increase awareness, Governors of Alaska, Alabama, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New York and Oregon have declared March 2006 as Toxic Injury Awareness and Education Month http://ga4.org/ct/w7aJI591bXIM/. .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

 

 

 

 

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