NYS Bur. of Pesticides approves fumigant without testing-contact legislators

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NYS Approves Pesticide Despite Unresolved Health Risks

New York - January 9, 2006 - Fluoride Action Network (FAN) urges the NYS

Bureau of Pesticides to rescind their recent approval of a new food fumigant

pesticide, sulfuryl fluoride, because serious health risks, raised by

environmental groups, remain unanswered by the US Environmental Protection

Agency

(EPA).

In a November 28, 2005 letter to Dow AgroSciences, Maureen Serafini,

Director, NYS Bureau of Pesticides, approved sulfuryl fluoride (ProFume®)

fumigant

on all processed foods and a large number of raw food commodities in New

York. These are the foods most Americans eat.

In response, FAN’s Pesticide Project Director, Ellen Connett, requested

Director Serafini to revoke this approval.

On January 4, 2006, Connett sent a letter to Director Serafini to inform

her that three advocacy groups have raised serious concerns about the inherent

dangers of sulfuryl fluoride’s use as a food fumigant. These issues have

been presented to the EPA on three separate occasions, beginning in 2002, and

remain unresolved.

The three groups — Fluoride Action Network, the Environmental Working Group

and Beyond Pesticides — are seeking a resolution of these issues with EPA in

a process known as an evidentiary hearing.

According to Connett, “An evidentiary hearing is the only legal recourse

available to the public to challenge EPA’s wrongful approval of a pesticide.

We

fully expect that EPA will grant this hearing.â€

At EPA’s request, the three groups clarified their issues in a December 2005

submission in preparation for the hearing. Forty eight (48) issues were

identified in this submission, which was also sent to Director Serafini on

1/04/06.

“We expect Director Serafini to understand the serious nature of the issues

raised and the procedural process the three advocacy groups are involved in.

If she does, she will revoke her approval of sulfuryl fluoride as a food

fumigant until these issues are resolved,†said Connett.

Because sulfuryl fluoride breaks down to fluoride in the human body,

fluoride is the endpoint of toxicological concern. In their approval, EPA

approved

the highest levels of fluoride residues in food in US history. Fluoride is

persistent and bio-accumulates in the human body.

Inhalation tests with all animal species exposed to sulfuryl fluoride

revealed severe harm to the brain. Of particular concern was the finding of

holes

(vacuolation) in the white matter of the brain, and an abnormal softening

(malacia) and cell death (necrosis) of brain tissue.

EPA’s first-time approval of sulfuryl fluoride as a food fumigant was in

January 2004. A condition attached to EPA’s approval was that Dow had to

perform an inhalation development neurotoxicity (DNT) study with rats “to

more

clearly and fully characterize the potential for neurotoxic effects in young

animals.†In fact, EPA also stated that a DNT study was necessary in 2001,

2002 and 2005.

However, in the November 28 letter that Director Serafini wrote to Dow, she

noted that Dow told her Bureau that EPA waived this study. It was Director

Serafini’s letter that informed the public of this development, not the US

EPA.

Now EPA DENIES having granted a waiver and the matter is in litigation

according to Dan Kenny EPA Team leader. He cannot comment further because of

the

litigation.

The approval should be rescinded due to this contradiction and failure to

conduct toxicity tests as requested.

“US EPA is obligated to publish Dow’s request for a waiver of conditions,

and the Agency’s response to it, in the Federal Register. If Director

Serafini is correct, then EPA has not yet met its obligations to inform the

public

on this critical issue,†said Connett.

“We are concerned to find that Director Serafini was willing to accept the

waiver of such a critical study. The three advocacy groups are requesting

more relevant DNT studies to characterize the risks to cognitive function and

the central nervous system, and we hope that Director Serafini will join

with us in making sure these tests are performed,†said Connett. “The

pesticide community is well aware of a study published in 1998 that reported

subclinical effects on the central nervous system of workers using sulfuryl

fluoride

in non-food fumigation scenarios,†said Connett.

Among the many issues that the three groups raised to EPA:

• Too many Americans, especially children, are currently receiving too much

fluoride – even by EPA’s own standards. There is, therefore, no safe room

for additional exposures.

• EPA set an allowable dosage of fluoride for infants that is five times

higher than for adults. This is unprecedented in EPA’s history and disregards

EPA

’s mandate, under the Food Quality Protection Act, to be more protective of

a child’s exposure to pesticides, not less.

• In approving Dow’s request, EPA ignored all research published after

1985, choosing to rely instead on an antiquated 20-year-old standard which

considers it safe for 40% of children to develop moderate to severe dental

fluorosis (a brown and black staining of teeth, with pitting and erosion of

enamel).

• New research indicating that low levels of fluoride can damage the brain,

the bones, the kidneys, and other tissues, is currently being reviewed by

the National Research Council (NRC). The NRC is expected to release its

report (The Toxicologic Risk of Fluoride in Drinking Water) in 2006. EPA

rushed

approval to give Dow what it wanted, without waiting for the NRC report.

See

• January 4, 2006, letter from FAN’s Pesticide Project to the NY Bureau of

Pesticides requesting revocation of its approval of sulfuryl fluoride

(ProFume®) as a food fumigant.

_http://www.fluorideaction.org/pesticides/sf.jan.4.2006.letter.to.nys.serafin_

()

i.pdf

• November 28, 2005, letter from Director of NY Bureau of Pesticides to

Dow approving use of sulfuryl fluoride (ProFume®).

_http://www.fluorideaction.org/pesticides/profume.nys.registration.05.pdf_ ()

• December 16, 2005, submission to US EPA: Issues for an Evidentiary

Hearing Concerning Sulfuryl Fluoride Tolerances

_http://www.fluorideaction.org/pesticides/sf.submission.12-16-05.pdf_ ()

• Calvert GM et al (1998). Health effects associated with sulfuryl

fluoride and methyl bromide exposure among structural fumigation workers.

American Journal of Public Health 88(12): 1774-80. December.

• Fluoride Action Network Pesticide Project

_http://www.fluoridealert.org/f-pesticides.htm_

(http://www.fluoridealert.org/f-pesticides.htm)

Contact:

Ellen Connett, Pesticide Project Director

Fluoride Action Network Pesticide Project

315-379-9200 or _pesticides@..._

(mailto:pesticides@...)

FOLLOW UP ACTION:Contact your Assmblymember and State Senator and ask them

to contact the Chairman of the Environment Committee Assemblyman

DiNapoli and Senator Carl Marcelino to urge Director Serafini to reconsider her

decision based on i\a waiver that EPA now denies having given, and request Dow

to conduct the Inhalation Developmental Neurotoxicity studies originally

requested by the Environmental Protection Agency, but thought to be waived by

that

Federal Agency.

To find your assemblymember go to _www.assembly.state.ny.us_

(http://www.assembly.state.ny.us) on right side put in your zip code for your

assemblymember.

To find your State Senator go to _www.senate.state.ny.us_

(http://www.senate.state.ny.us) O left side Click on Senators then put in

zipcode.

SOURCE: Fluoride Action Network _http://www.FluorideAction.Net_

(http://www.fluorideaction.net/)

This news release online:

_http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/sf.press.release.1-9-06.html_

(http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/sf.press.release.1-9-06.html)