Robert Barnhart

Friday

European Union Approves Restrictions on Three Pesticides to Protect Dwindling Bee Populations

May 24, 2013 |

Despite chemical industry opposition, officials impose two-year pesticide ban. Today’s action by the European Union marks the official approval of a tentative deal reached last month to restrict three neonicotinoid pesticides on crops that attract bees. Beekeepers have reported an unusual decline over the past decade, particularly in Western Europe as well as in the U.S. They say bees are critically important, providing pollination for a wide range of crops and wild plants, including most of Europe’s food crops. The main makers of the pesticides, chemical giants Bayer AG and Syngenta, campaigned against the ban, arguing that evidence the pesticides have contributed to plunging bee colony populations is weak. The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, Agence France-Presse

World Health Organization leader warns that pursuit of profit is hindering efforts to combat deadly virus. WHO Director General Margaret Chan, speaking to health ministers meeting in Geneva, noted a new pneumonia-like virus, known as MERS, that has killed 22 people. Saudi Arabia, where the first case emerged, says development of diagnostic tests for the disease has been delayed by a Dutch lab’s patent rights on the virus. The virus was identified last September, three months after a scientist took a sample from Saudi Arabia to the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. Erasmus then patented the process for synthesising the virus, forcing anyone else who wanted to use its method to study the virus to pay the lab. The Associated Press, Reuters

Website that drillers use to disclose fracking chemicals will be revamped. The changes in FracFocus will put its information into a database of chemicals that regulators can readily analyze. Until now, one of the complaints by environmentalists about the site has been that it put extra burdens on regulators who wanted to evaluate its data. “This helps them target resources and enforcement,” said an official of the Environmental Defense Fund. However, environmental groups still complain that drillers can keep confidential too many chemicals, and that neither the data nor FracFocus come under U.S. or state disclosure rules.  Of 18 states that mandate disclosure of fracking chemicals, 11 require or allow the reporting to be on FracFocus. Bloomberg

As more states permit marijuana use, concern grows about pesticides. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia allow the medical use of cannabis, and Colorado and Washington recently approved pot for recreational use. Many of these states, including Washington, have begun drafting regulations that would require independent labs to test products before they are sold. “There’s a pretty considerable amount of contaminated cannabis,” said a chemist who founded a lab that tests products for California dispensaries. Because the product generally is inhaled, the toxins have a more direct route into the lungs and bloodstream. What’s more, one epidemiologist said, people smoking pot for medical reasons “might be much more vulnerable.” The Huffington Post

Upstate New York wood shavings plant accused of 28 violations. The charges by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration against RWS Manufacturing in Queensbury, N.Y., include two willful violations, OSHA’s most serious offense. Agency inspectors found, among numerous other problems, hazardous piles of combustible wood dust and exposed electrical parts. OSHA said RWS exposed workers “to the dangers of fires and explosions,” along with other risks such as hearing loss and amputation. OSHA proposed fines of $233,870. An RWS official said his company would seek a meeting with OSHA to review the case. The plant was forced to shut temporarily this spring due to an unrelated dispute with local officials over renovation requirements. OSHA, Albany Times Union, (Glens Falls, N.Y.) Post-Star

Compiled by Stuart Silverstein

Thursday

Senators Craft Agreement to Revamp the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act

May 23, 2013 |

Bipartisan proposal would give regulators more power to force harmful chemicals off the market. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said they reached a groundbreaking agreement to overhaul the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. The bill, supported by some health advocates and the chemical industry's chief trade group, would rework a law that by all accounts has failed to protect Americans ...

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