Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 2018)
A3 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2018 A toxic pesticide escapes ban under Trump administration Records show it sickens people By TONY SCHICK Oregon Public Broadcasting Julie Madison-Jamil didn’t expect she’d need a cooler just for hauling dead birds to necropsies. In 2016, she and her hus- band, Danish, moved into a fi xer-upper lot outside Ore- gon City with dreams of a small organic egg and veg- etable farm. They fi lled the property with bantam chick- ens, silkies, sweetgrass tur- keys and guinea fowl. Since then, they have unexpectedly lost dozens of birds to ailments includ- ing liver damage and can- cer. The necropsies have not solved the mystery, but Mad- ison-Jamil thinks she has. Their property is sur- rounded by Christmas tree farms. Those farms rou- tinely spray pesticides to kill weeds and insects that dam- age trees. “You can taste it. You can smell it,” she said, when spraying happens nearby. It burns her throat and gives her headaches. Early on, Madison-Jamil had little hard proof con- necting those chemicals to her own symptoms or the death of her birds. But her hunch led to quarrels with the Christmas tree growers nearby. She complained fre- quently to them and about them. She posted scath- ing reviews on their social media pages urging people to buy artifi cial trees instead. Then last year, one of the formal complaints she sub- mitted to the Oregon Depart- ment of Agriculture turned up something she found interesting: chlorpyrifos. Chlorpyrifos is a chem- ical the U.S. Environmen- tal Protection Agency was close to banning because of its potential harm to chil- dren and farmworkers. That was before President Don- ald Trump took offi ce. Two months before the chem- ical showed up on Madi- son-Jamil’s farm, his admin- istration reversed course on a ban, rejecting the recom- mendations of the agency’s scientists. The chemical has been crucial to Northwest crops, despite studies showing its potential for bodily harm. Environmental groups have wanted it banned for more than 10 years. Dow Chem- ical, which introduced it in 1965, and others in the industry say its approved uses are safe and question the science showing nega- tive health effects. Chlorpyrifos remains in use, its fate now dragging out in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and poten- tially in the Supreme Court after that. 18 reports Twenty months have passed since the EPA reversed course on chlorpy- rifos. In that time, the pes- ticide has generated at least 18 reports of pollution, unsafe exposure of human and animals and contamina- tion of nearby crops in Ore- gon and Washington state, records show. Here is a sampling: Inves- tigators determined the pes- ticide drifted from a Christ- mas tree farm onto Madison Jamil’s property. Chlorpyr- ifos also poisoned crayfi sh after running into a creek in Hermiston. A laborer in Wenatchee, Washington, was sickened by drift while performing farm work. Two county workers in Dallas were exposed to a cloud of it while trying to clean out a culvert. A father in Quincy, Washington, was so con- cerned about chlorpyrifos being applied to a neigh- bor’s fruit trees that he pur- chased the orchard to make sure the spraying stopped. To be sure, chemical drift and exposure incidents are not unique to any one pesticide. Chlorpyrifos, in particu- lar, catches the attention of health offi cials because of its widespread use, its acute toxicity and the fact that it’s been linked to diminished Tony Schick/Oregon Public Broadcasting Chal Landgren is a Christmas tree expert with Oregon State University. memory and verbal com- prehension, lower IQs and higher rates of attention defi - cit and hyperactivity disor- der and impulsive behavior in children who have been exposed. “It’s not just about one chemical, albeit if you had to choose a chemical, one sin- gle chemical that’s out there in use, chlorpyrifos would be at the top of my list,” said Joanne Bonnar Prado, epide- miologist for the Washing- ton Department of Health. Prado cautioned that ban- ning one harmful chemical does not necessarily mean it will be replaced by a safer alternative. On orchards, chlorpyrifos was preceded by the now out-of-use azin- phos-methyl, which was preceded by DDT. Before DDT, farmers sprayed lead arsenate. “I’ve been in the fi eld for 30 years and I’ve seen what had been thought of as rela- tively innocuous turn out to be not so not so safe,” Bon- nar Prado said. In the absence of federal regulation, at least two states — California and Hawaii — announced their own restric- tions on chlorpyrifos. Ore- gon and Washington state have not. Washington Attor- ney General Bob Ferguson has joined several states in a lawsuit asking the EPA to ban chlorpyrifos. The go-to chemical Chlorpyrifos use has been on the decline nationwide, but its use has not dropped as rapidly in the Northwest. It is particularly import- ant in Pacifi c Northwest agriculture because of the region’s crop diversity, said Scott Dahlman, a pesticide industry lobbyist in Oregon. It is one of few insecticides that is effective and govern- ment-approved for use on almost all of them: Christ- mas trees, grass seed, hazel- nuts, asparagus, pears, can- nabis, wheat and more. “Something like Christ- mas trees, very key this time of year, one of the only insec- ticides they have to use is chlorpyrifos,” said Dahlman, who works for a pro-chemi- cal organization that goes by the name, Oregonians For Food and Shelter. Dahlman’s group fi led a brief in the court case over chlorpyrifos, arguing against a swift ban he fears would leave farmers without time to fi nd alternatives. The Pacifi c Northwest produces about 8 million Christmas trees every year, shipping them across the country and internationally. Without the ability to con- trol aphids or other pests, WANTED Divorce need not be expensive. We help you get the paperwork right and provide mediation to help you divide your assets. Christy Shoop Brian G. Kulhanjian Paperwork Mediation RESOLUTION SERVICES Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 stands of grand, noble or Douglas fi r could become grayed, blackened, twisted or otherwise blemished enough that some could be unsellable. Chlorpyrifos is used com- monly enough that when investigators found it on Madison-Jamil’s property, they contacted three nearby tree farms before determining which had sprayed that day. “It’s not particularly pleasant to be around. But it works on aphids,” said Chal Landgren, a Christ- mas tree expert with Ore- gon State University. “Nobody wants to wear res- pirators and Tyvek suits out spraying. That’s a concern for growers, applicators, everybody.” Landgren said he’s been exploring alternatives. Some of those include using non- toxic solutions to prevent pests from reproducing. Right now, alternatives to chlorpyrifos are roughly four to fi ve times as expen- sive, he said. Growing without insecti- cide can be done. In 2012, Landgren helped start a program to certify farms that produce more socially and environmen- tally responsible Christmas trees. On a crisp Decem- ber morning at Green Val- ley Farm, in Molalla, Ore- gon, farmhand Grant Robinson was cutting and baling Christmas trees for a last-minute shipment. The farm shipped 9,000 trees this year. None of them were sprayed with chlorpyr- ifos or any other insecticide. “We just let the trees grow the way God intended them to. I’d rather have that in my house than a tree that’s full of chemicals any day,” Rob- inson said. 552 Commercial Street Astoria (503) 325-9115 A division of Stahancyk, Kent & Hook I’m so glad I found you – and that the folks at Providence knew how to get you gone. These days, the view from here is lovely. Darn lucky and blessed, Penny prov idenceoregon . org / de a rn orthcoa s t