Other plaintiffs joining the lawsuit include the Center for Environmental Health, Pesticide Action Network of North America, Organizacion en California de Lideres Campesinas, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas and the Rural Coalition.
The lawsuit said EPA has “failed to even initiate endocrine testing for approximately 96% of registered pesticides.”
The groups said DDT, chlorpyrifos, atrazine, 2,4-D and glyphosate are among the pesticides recognized as endocrine disruptors.
EPA was sued by the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1999 for failing to meet an August statutory deadline to implement a testing program. The lawsuit ended in a settlement in 2001 when EPA agreed to act.
“EPA committed to publishing a list of initial chemicals to evaluate by 2002,” the lawsuit said. “Instead, EPA released a draft list of chemicals for evaluation in 2007 and a final list of 67 chemicals in 2009, seven years after their original promise.”
In addition to the list of 67 possible endocrine-disrupting pesticides, EPA created a second list of 109 additional chemicals in need of testing.
“At the same time as EPA only managed to complete Tier 1 testing for 52 pesticides, EPA completed registration for 425 new pesticides without consideration of their potential endocrine effects,” the lawsuit said, “flouting the whole point of Congress’s FQPA mandates — bringing the total number of registered pesticides from 890 in 1990 to 1,315 in 2020.”
The groups allege EPA’s lack of testing of those pesticides already has caused health issues for farmworkers and others.
“There is little doubt that EPA’s failure to complete screening of all pesticide chemicals for possible endocrine effects has caused damage to plaintiffs’ members’ health,” the lawsuit said.
“A wealth of scientific studies conclude that many chemicals in use today are endocrine disruptors capable of devasting adverse health impacts. Plaintiffs’ members are routinely exposed to a myriad of pesticides, including the five EPA has flagged as possible endocrine disruptors, via their livelihoods and food consumption. EPA’s continued failure to implement the EDSP and complete testing of all pesticides for possible endocrine effects compounds Plaintiffs’ members’ exposure.”
Read the lawsuit here: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/….
Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com
Follow him on Twitter @DTNeeley
(c) Copyright 2022 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.
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