Nathan Donley Profile picture
Jan 7, 2020 6 tweets 3 min read Read on X
I still just cannot believe this. The only thing @EPA is proposing to do to prevent runoff from #atrazine is a "stewardship program" run by the pesticide companies

regulations.gov/document?D=EPA…
In 2016 the EPA found "substantial" harm to all aquatic organisms from atrazine runoff, including MONITORED levels of atrazine that were high enough to outright kill frogs and fish

This was documented to occur by the atrazine monitoring program set up in 2004
Yet, in its proposed re-approval of atrazine the EPA is only proposing to require ChemChina (Syngenta) to create a new brochure containing text and graphics that will "educate farmers on several different facets of proper use and handling of #atrazine"
That's it. That's all. And get this:

"The brochures will be printed in two formats. One will be a branded Syngenta brochure and the other will be an unbranded brochure that can be used by the other registrants for their stewardship efforts."

regulations.gov/document?D=EPA…
EPA is literally requiring the companies to advertise their brands on a handout to be given to anyone who buys these products

And at the same time those products are figuratively (and maybe literally?) making frogs croak
And can we stop pretending like pesticide companies can even fathom what a legitimate stewardship effort is?

Using pesticides is like the "Steward of Gondor" of stewardship. Sure, you can call yourself a worthy steward if it makes you feel better....but are you really? Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Nathan Donley

Nathan Donley Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Nathan_Donley

Jun 21, 2022
The House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy just released an investigation into seresto that found the flea collar should be taken off the market

A lot of new info in the report that had not been reported on previously

I'll sum it up 🧵

investigatemidwest.org/2022/06/15/con…
Here’s the report. It takes you through the approval of the collar in 2012 to the present. It provides examples of EPA failing to stand up to an industry that feels so entitled, that even the mention of commonsense restrictions was met with derision

oversight.house.gov/sites/democrat…
We have a lot more detail of what EPA was seeing and saying – stuff that was redacted in our FOIA documents

Seresto had 163% more incidents labeled either “Death” or “Major” than the 2nd most dangerous product, and 428% more than the 3rd
Read 17 tweets
Jul 20, 2021
As someone who is not opposed to genetic engineering but often at odds with how it is currently used in agriculture, I think we need more nuanced looks at GMOs in the media.

Instead we get this

nytimes.com/2021/07/20/mag…
In academia I genetically engineered non-pathogenic bacterial cells and human cells to better understand the genetic basis of chronic diseases like cancer. I understand how genetic engineering works and the promises it can hold, particularly in the biomedical field
It’s easy to find some small company that genuinely wants to better people’s nutrition through genetic engineering and use that as a poster child

But it's a disservice to not adequately explain “what is” instead of “what could be” in some fairytale world that does not exist
Read 10 tweets
Sep 24, 2020
We’re in the middle of a public health crisis and the pesticide industry and USDA are working to weaken international guidance aimed at making sure lifesaving medicines still work in the future

How and why is the pesticide industry doing this? 👇

nytimes.com/2020/09/24/hea…
For starters, medically important antibiotics are used as pesticides to kill bacteria on crops. Fungicides, similar to antifungals used in humans, are also widely used as pesticides

The more you use them, the more likely it is that fungi or bacteria will become resistant
Increasingly, there is worry that the overuse of these medicines as pesticides can lead to antibiotic and antifungal resistance in human pathogens and cause these medicines to not work when our lives depend on it
Read 18 tweets
Sep 23, 2020
There's a small bright spot in EPA’s atrazine re-approval

Thanks to a legal settlement by conservation groups, atrazine will be prohibited in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the North Mariana Islands

biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-r…
This is an incredible conservation win as these places are biodiversity hotspots. Use of atrazine will also be prohibited along roadsides, in forests and on X-mas trees in the continental U.S.

The harm from atrazine’s re-approval is immeasurable, but these areas will be spared
This is being billed by the EPA and industry as “voluntary” measures they are taking, but there is nothing voluntary about this.

They had to do this as the absolute minimum step of beginning to come into compliance with the Endangered Species Act.
Read 5 tweets
Sep 22, 2020
The ecological risk assessment for #chlorpyrifos was released today. The career scientists at EPA found that invertebrates could be exposed to more than 8,600-fold more than the level known to harm them

content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USAEP…
For mammals it's 1,900-fold more than the level known to cause harm. For birds it's 380-fold. For fish it's 160-fold.
The Fish and Wildlife Service found that #chlorpyrifos would put 1,400 endangered species at risk of extinction?

No wonder

nytimes.com/2019/03/26/us/…
Read 5 tweets
Sep 21, 2020
I need to do something to stop stewing over the supreme court, so I'm just going to tell the story of how the endocrine disrupting pesticide #atrazine went from being on its last leg in the U.S. to being rubberstamped for the foreseeable future

biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-r…
No one is going to tell this story because there are a thousand other scandals happening right now and because it's super wonky.

Unlike a lot of the big environmental rollbacks that will hopefully be reversed after the election, this will likely fall under the radar
In 2016, under the Obama admin., EPA put out a devastating eco risk assessment of atrazine basically saying that its use has to be scaled back dramatically or there will be serious environmental consequences

In 50 years, this was the most hard-lined position EPA had taken
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(