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Texas Environmental Almanac, Environmental Focus: Pesticides, Page 3

RECENT ADVANCES IN PESTICIDE SAFETY LEGISLATION IN TEXAS:

• "Right-to-Know" legislation was extended to farmworkers in the 1980s because of litigation brought on their behalf by the Texas United Farm Workers. Under the farmworker "Right-to-Know" legislation, agricultural producers are required to provide farmworkers with training and adequate health and safety information on the pesticides to which they might be exposed. The Texas Department of Agriculture enforces this law. The EPA has recently implemented a national program for farmworker protection.

• Re-Entry Periods. In 1984, the Texas Department of Agriculture issued rules establishing waiting periods before workers could re-enter fields recently treated with pesticides.

• Notification Policy. Agricultural producers are required, if asked, to notify anyone who adjoins a field or resides in a building, school, hospital, or day care center within one-quarter mile of a field that is to be sprayed. Anyone who is chemically sensitive and also resides within one-quarter mile of field that is to be sprayed may also ask for notification.

THE NUMBER OF LICENSED AND CERTIFIED PESTICIDE APPLICATORS IN TEXAS

In 1994, the Structural Pest Control Board licensed 3,000 commercial pesticide businesses and 7,000 professional certified applicators. The Texas Department of Agriculture licensed 6,000 commercial and noncommercial applicators and 178,000 private applicators (primarily for agriculture production).(33)

STATE PESTICIDE ENFORCEMENT

Both the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Structural Pest Control Board license applicators to use the pesticides restricted by the EPA or the Texas Department of Agriculture. With money provided by the EPA, most states take the lead in enforcement of pesticide sales and use restrictions. With the goal of protecting pesticide users' economic interests, the Texas Department of Agriculture inspects manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and retail stores to verify proper labeling and formulations. With the goal of protecting public health and the environment, the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Structural Pest Control Board inspect the sites where pesticides are applied. Licenses to sell or use pesticides can be canceled and monetary penalties can be assessed for violations.

MONITORING OF PESTICIDES IN THE TEXAS ENVIRONMENT

• In 1987, the first study to determine if pesticides and herbicides were present in Texas groundwater was carried out in three counties by the Texas Department of Agriculture. Similar studies continued through 1990. During this period, the Texas Department of Agriculture surveyed water wells for pesticide residues in 11 counties and discovered a total of 75 cases of groundwater contamination. The pesticides found most often were arsenic, atrazine, dicamba and prometon. An additional 35 cases of groundwater contamination were listed by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission's Interagency Pesticide Database, which compiles the results of sporadic groundwater monitoring of pesticides. (See Water Quality for further discussion.)

• Monitoring for pesticides in lakes, rivers and bays has been carried out since the 1970s by the Texas Department of Health. Due to unacceptable levels of pesticides, the Texas Department of Health has issued either bans on the consumption, or consumption advisories, of fish and shellfish in several rivers or reservoirs. A listing of those rivers and reservoirs is found in the Water Quality chapter.(34)

• In 1992-93 the United States and Mexico conducted a collaborative study of toxic chemical contamination of the 2,000 miles of Rio Grande river flowing between the U.S. and Mexico, as well as 13 tributaries which feed into the river. Among other findings, banned pesticides such as chlordane were found at one tributary near Laredo at 40 times safe levels for aquatic life. Total concentrations of DDT, a pesticide banned in the U.S. 20 years ago, exceeded the EPA screening levels in 11 percent of the edible fish tissue.(35)

• In 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency conducted a pilot study to test methodology for a future comprehensive evaluation of pollution problems in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. This investigation was prompted by mounting concern over the number of anencephalic babies (babies whose brains are not fully formed) born in the Hidalgo and Cameron Counties. The study included nine families. Pesticide residues in the urine and blood of several study participants were found, although the EPA considered the levels low.(36) EPA recommended, however, that community exposure to pesticides be evaluated further.

There has been no systematic health monitoring of the 2 million farmworkers who work around pesticides, though industrial workers who produce these same pesticides do receive health monitoring.

Source: National Research Council, Alternative Agriculture (Washington DC: National Academy Press, 1989), 122.

Despite their generally good health, farmers are at higher risk than the general population for certain cancers: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, skin melanomas, multiple myeloma, leukemia and cancers of the lip, stomach, prostate and brain. Exposure to 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T, mecoprop, acilfluorfen and other pesticides is linked to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Exposure to insecticides has been associated with leukemia, multiple myeloma and brain cancer.

Source: Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides used in Vietnam (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1993). Also see, National Research Council, Alternative Agriculture (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1989), 121.

Texas Environmental Almanac, Environmental Focus: Pesticides, Page 3

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