US EPA bans common pesticides

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Monday that carbofuran, a common pesticide known as Furdan, is banned from use on food crops due to the high health risks it poses to humans and animals, in particular children.

Furdan has been investigated by the EPA for the last several decades and was banned in its granular pesticide form during the middle of the 1990’s because it was linked to the death of millions of birds.

However, it was not until 2006 that the EPA began to attempt to remove it from the market and until recently it was allowed to be used on food crops.

Although FMC Corp, the manufactures of Furdan refuse to acknowledge the threat of the pesticide claiming that it is useful and not a health risk to any organism, it did began to scale back its use of Furdan in the efforts to prevent a ban from being placed on the chemical.

The American Bird Conservancy group was pleased with the ban according to the president, George Fenwick.

He stated that the chemical has been responsible for the deaths of millions of birds since it was brought into the market in 1967, and that it is not only one of the most deadly pesticides to migratory birds, but it also causes damage neurologically in humans.

The EPA found that in the carbofuran chemical causes the nervous system to be over-stimulated which results in dizziness, confusion, nausea, and with repeated or large amounts of exposure eventually death from respiratory paralysis.

Initially carbofuran will be banned from all consumable food crops including those that may be imported into the United States.

In the next 90 days FMC Corp can attempt to appeal against the ban, but if they lose the case and the ban becomes a law, carbofuran will be removed from all crops, including those that are not related to food crops, due to the risk for workers.