EPA Lifts Ban on Carcinogenic Farm Pesticides
The Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday ended a 30-year ban on cancer-causing pesticides that increase in concentration when treated fruits and vegetables are processed into soups, baby foods, sauces, juices and condiments.
Under a new policy, the EPA will license such pesticides for use on raw produce and in processed foods if they pose no more than a “negligible risk” of cancer, that is, increase chances of the disease by no more than one in a million.
The ban was intended to protect the food supply from carcinogenic chemicals, but Jack Moore, the EPA’s acting deputy administrator, said shelving it will clear the way for use of new, less hazardous pesticides that could not be used under the EPA’s current policies.
The “negligible risk” standard will also be applied for the first time to hundreds of older pesticides that have never been fully tested, and these could be banned if found to exceed the limit.
Moore said the new policy, recommended by the National Academy of Sciences last year, is a “common-sense approach” to reducing the risk to humans from dozens of chemicals that have been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals.
Environmentalists criticized the agency for offering no guarantee that the older pesticides will be replaced and, at the same time, making it easier to use newer carcinogens in processed products.
The decision was designed to resolve a conflict in federal laws governing pesticide residues in raw and processed foods.
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