Americans Are Pressuring EPA to Ban Round-Up While City of San Diego Still Uses It on Beaches, Playgrounds and Parks

Pressure is building on the Environmental Protection Agency to ban Monsanto and Bayer’s RoundUp, which is linked to cancer, with its glyphosate. For the last couple of months groups and companies have been petitioning the EPA to get rid of the dangerous herbicide.

Up until July 5, the EPA was collecting public comments for glyphosate’s proposed interim registration review, which could allow glyphosate to be used in the U.S. for another 15 years.

In late June environmental and consumer groups delivered more than 149,000 public comments to the EPA advocating for a ban on RoundUp.

In early June, more than 100,000 Americans and 20 companies called on the EPA to significantly restrict the use of Monsanto’s weedkiller glyphosate on oats as a pre-harvest drying agent.

Meanwhile, pressure locally in Ocean Beach and Point Loma is growing as demands to the City of San Diego increase to halt its use of Roundup on parks, playgrounds and beaches. There is a group Non Toxic San Diego that is currently petitioning the Mayor to ban the herbicide. Locals have noticed that even the crews who spray Round-Up are exposing themselves by not using protective gear. In addition, often crews spray the cancer-causing herbicide without warning to residents or park users. Sign the Petition to Mayor Faulconer for a Non Toxic San Diego.

Lobbying the EPA, Jason Davidson with Friends of the Earth stated:

“The science is clear about glyphosate. This dangerous herbicide causes serious health risks, including cancer, and threatens our environment. EPA must do its job and ban this toxic pesticide instead of prioritizing corporate profits.”

Common Dreams reports:

Monsanto (now owned by Bayer (BAYRY), made $4.8 billion in revenue from glyphosate sales in 2015. The EPA claims that glyphosate does not cause cancer, ignoring the United Nations and California’s Office of Health Hazard Assessment, both of which have classified the herbicide as linked to cancer.

However, EPA’s Office of Research and Development determined that the Office of Pesticide Programs did not follow proper protocol in its evaluation of glyphosate. EPA included Monsanto-funded studies in its evaluation of the chemical and  has a history of collusion with industry.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Bayer-Monsanto’s Roundup, is the most widely used pesticide in the world. It is largely used as a weedkiller on genetically modified corn and soybeans. But it is increasingly being used for crop management and applied pre-harvest to a number of non-genetically engineered crops, including oats.

A coalition of companies and public interest group gathered 104,952 signatures on online petitions to the EPA, urging the agency to lower the tolerance limit of glyphosate in oats and prohibit its pre-harvest use.

The EPA’s legal limit for glyphosate residues on oats is 30 parts per million, or ppm. The petition, first filed last September, asks the agency to set a more protective standard of 0.1 ppm, which was the legal limit in 1993. EWG Legislative Director Colin O’Neil said:

“Administrator Andrew Wheeler and the EPA could quickly remove one of the more concerning routes of dietary exposure to glyphosate for children by restricting the unnecessary use of glyphosate on oats.Americans are demanding the agency act to protect the public and the food supply from being contaminated with this toxic weedkiller linked to cancer.”

Locally, it’s used as a weedkiller on playgrounds, beaches, parks and trails – and even in sensitive coastal habitat areas like the one next to OB’s Dog Beach.

Hear these experts:

Drew Toher, community resource and policy director at Beyond Pesticides, stated:

“EPA is getting the science wrong on glyphosate, and needs to listen to international agencies and peer-reviewed literature on the dangers posed by widespread use of this herbicide. While continuing to pressure EPA, we encourage advocates to get active in their community, and work with their local elected officials towards organic policies that stop glyphosate and other toxic pesticides like it.”

Brandy Doyle with CREDO Action:

“No company’s profits are more important than children’s health and the health of our fragile ecosystems. The EPA must uphold its mission and ban glyphosate.”

Zen Honeycutt, executive director, Moms Across America:

“It’s time for the EPA to acknowledge that glyphosate, which is never used alone, if reapproved, will continue in the form of glyphosate herbicides, to contaminate our tap water, breast milk, baby food, formulas, cereals, thousands of food types, and cotton products. It will continue to destroy soil quality, which contributes to climate change, the decline of marine and wildlife and the environment. In short, the only way the EPA can do its job, is to revoke it’s license.”

Here is the Moms Across America petition.

Said Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director of the Organic Consumers Association:

“Getting cancers like non-Hodgkin lymphoma shouldn’t be a condition of employment in agriculture or landscaping—or a risk of using a weedkiller at home. It’s time for the EPA to stand up to Monsanto-Bayer and protect farmers, farm workers, lawn care workers and consumers. If Trump’s EPA chooses to ignore the science, Congress should step in.”

Todd Larsen, executive co-director, Green America:

“It is not enough for companies to offer some products that are organic to consumers who are willing to pay for them.  We need the EPA to protect all consumers from toxins in foods. And we need to protect our pollinators, farm workers, and the environment, so we can ensure that future generations have safe and healthy foods.”

News sources:

Common Dreams

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