Study Finds Disturbing Spike in Birth Defects in US Women Living Near Industrial Agriculture

An exhaustive new study is sounding the alarm over industrial pesticide use and its effect on human health. Pregnant women in California’s San Joaquin Valley have a significantly greater chance of premature birth or birth abnormalities if they live near agricultural fields with high pesticide use.

“[F]or individuals in the top 5 per cent of exposure, pesticide exposure led to 5 to 9 per cent increases in adverse outcomes.

The magnitude of effects was further enlarged for the top 1 per cent, where these extreme exposures (more than 11,000kg over gestation) led to an 11 per cent increased probability of preterm birth, 20 per cent increased probability of low birth weight, and about a 30g decrease in birth weight.”

The good news is that most do not experience birth problems, but the study tells us that pesticides do have an association with serious health problems. Focusing mitigation efforts on areas with high pesticide use could have a dramatic beneficial impact.

Hailed as a major advancement in scientific understanding, the study compared 500,000 birth records in the San Joaquin Valley between 1997 and 2011 with levels of pesticides used in the area. Researchers note that their study design “has far stronger statistical power to identify effects than previous studies,” and it allows us “to evaluate many details of the nature of pesticide exposure.”

The one “devil” is that they were unable to isolate the roles of specific pesticides, although their analysis can be applied for the type of crops sprayed—such as grapes, which receive about 50 kg per hectare per year of insecticides. Researchers “focused on aggregate chemicals grouped into high and low toxicity pesticides by their EPA Signal Word.”

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This study is critically important because there is a dearth of knowledge on the relationship between pesticides and human health. While we know much more about the effects of air pollution—mainly due to a robust network of monitors–we know less about the chemicals unleashed by the industrial agricultural industry and their companions such as Monsanto and Dow.

Even though chemicals are stamped “safe” by agencies such as the EPA—after relying on the company’s own, often questionable safety data—the lesser-known truth is that pesticide companies hide their toxic legacy behind “trade secrets.”

In a corporatocracy, we would expect nothing less than a regulatory agency to have a backdoor for corporations to rape human and environmental health for profit.

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), passed in 1976 and administered by the EPA, is the primary gateway for chemicals to be introduced on the market. The TSCA is supposed to protect Americans from “unreasonable risk to health or to the environment,” but thanks to the trade secrets provision we are denied information on 65 percent of chemicals that have been introduced over the past 27 years.

We cannot access “17,000 of the more than 83,000 chemicals on the master inventory compiled by the EPA” for independent researchers to perform testing. A “confidential business information” label has been applied to 13,596 chemicals produced since 1976, and the rate is increasing. The identity of these chemicals is kept secret from most EPA employees.

Considering that President Trump has appointed Scott Pruitt—with a long track record of using government power to serve the interests of corporate titans—to head the EPA, we can expect the trade secrets provision to be thoroughly abused.

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Make no mistake though, EPA has a long history of serving the corporatocracy. As we reported in August, bombshell documents reveal decades of collusion with chemical companies, including a secret meeting where EPA assured companies such as Dow that their products would continue being sold despite fraudulent safety data.

A large portion of the toxicology studies exposed in the 1970s as invalid or fraudulent were never redone, and they still underlie the U.S. chemical regulatory system.

The chemical and industrial agriculture industry spends millions to get politicians in their pockets and convince the public that pesticides are necessary to feed the world. But that is is a myth driven by a centralized agricultural system that promotes constant chemical inputs, monoculture crops and government patents to exclude competition.

It is possible to move beyond pesticides. To protect the health of those living near agricultural areas, and everyone in general, we must break the crushing grip of centralized industrial, chemically-dependent agriculture.

Smoking Gun Docs Released Proving EPA/Chemical Companies Conspiracy—MSM Silent

Secrecy, collusion, deception, cover-up, concealment. These are some of the words used in a bombshell report to describe how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal regulators sacrificed human and environmental health on the altar of corporate profit.

Through the determined work of watchdogs at the Bioscience Resource Project and the Center for Media and Democracy, over 20,000 hidden documents have come to light proving that U.S. regulatory agencies betrayed the public trust to unleash highly toxic chemicals – many of which are still in use today.

“The “Poison Papers” represent a vast trove of rediscovered chemical industry and regulatory agency documents and correspondence stretching back to the 1920s. Taken as a whole, the papers show that both industry and regulators understood the extraordinary toxicity of many chemical products and worked together to conceal this information from the public and the press. These papers will transform our understanding of the hazards posed by certain chemicals on the market and the fraudulence of some of the regulatory processes relied upon to protect human health and the environment…

Corporate concealment is not a new story. What is novel in the Poison Papers is abundant evidence that EPA and other regulators were, often, knowing participants or even primary instigators of these cover-ups. These regulators failed to inform the public of the hazards of dioxins and other chemicals; of evidence of fraudulent independent testing; even of one instance of widespread human exposure. The papers thus reveal, in the often-incriminating words of the participants themselves, an elaborate universe of deception and deceit surrounding many pesticides and synthetic chemicals.”

Many Americans believe the EPA and agencies like the FDA work in the best interest of the public, giving peace of mind as we breathe the air, drink the water and buy food and consumer products.

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However, while obvious environmental calamities like acid rain and burning rivers were being addressed in the 1970s – only after massive public outcry – a less noticeable assault was taking place. Highly toxic chemical compounds made by Dow, Monsanto, DuPont and other companies were being developed and marketed in ever greater quantities, and federal agencies were rubber-stamping their approval based on fraudulent safety testing.

These included herbicides, pesticides, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), some of the most toxic and persistent chemicals ever manufactured. A large portion of toxicology tests for these regulated products and chemicals was based on “nonexistent, fraudulent, or invalid” data.

Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories (IBT), which conducted up to 40 percent of all toxicology tests on regulated products and chemicals in the U.S., had “serious, invalidating problems” with 90 percent of their studies submitted to regulators. The fraud was exposed in the 1970s, and three IBT officials went to jail.

But EPA still had the problem of countless chemical products being on the market based off the fraudulent data. Recalling them would have had profound impacts on the chemical industry and would have been highly embarrassing for the newly formed EPA.

The Poison Papers reveal that, instead of acting to protect the public and reassess the chemicals, EPA held a secret meeting with chemical companies to assure them that their products would continue being sold.

At the meeting, regulators determined they would bend over backward to validate the faulty studies, including accepting unsigned studies from IBT. David Clegg of Canada’s Health Protection Branch was also at the meeting, and summed up the sentiment.

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“I can’t say that I am very happy about this on scientific grounds, but we are trying to run this as a salvage operation and, if we can come up with something which gives us a reasonable base line for controls which may be applicable to a number of studies, then, when controls are not available, we’ll compare them against those controls.”

A majority of the IBT studies were never redone, and they still underlie the U.S. chemical regulatory system.

The secret meeting between EPA and chemical companies is the most poignant example of a long history of collusion at the expense of human and environmental health. The Poison Papers reveal several other disturbing realities, as outlined in the introductory briefing.

“Secrecy — They disclose EPA meeting minutes of a secret high level dioxins working group that admitted dioxins are extraordinarily poisonous chemicals. The internal minutes contradict the Agency’s longstanding refusal to regulate dioxins or set legal limits.

Collusion — They demonstrate EPA collusion with the pulp and paper industry to “suppress, modify, or delay” the results of the congressionally-mandated National Dioxin Study, which found high levels of dioxins in everyday products, such as baby diapers and coffee filters, as well as pulp and paper mill effluents.

Deception — They provide important new data on the infamous Industrial Bio-Test (IBT) scandal. By the late 1970s, it was known that more than 800 safety studies performed by IBT on 140 chemicals produced by 38 chemical manufacturers were nonexistent, fraudulent, or invalid. The Poison Papers, however, show that EPA and its Canadian counterpart, the Health Protection Branch (HPB), colluded with pesticide manufacturers, to keep invalidly registered products on the market and covered up problems with many IBT tests.

Cover-up — The papers also show that EPA staff had evidence that this IBT scandal involved more independent testing companies and more products than ever officially acknowledged.

Concealment — The papers show that EPA concealed and falsely discredited its own studies finding high levels of dioxin — 2,3,7,8-TCDD — in environmental samples and human breast milk following routine use of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T (Agent Orange) by the federal Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

Intent — They show Monsanto chief medical officer George Roush admitted under oath to knowing that Monsanto studies into the health effects of dioxins on workers were written up untruthfully for the scientific literature such as to obscure health effects. These fraudulent studies were heavily relied upon by EPA to avoid regulating dioxin. They also were relied upon to defend manufacturers in lawsuits brought by veterans claiming damages from exposure to Agent Orange.”

The significance of the Poison Papers cannot be understated, as EPA remains one of the primary agencies supposedly keeping us safe from chemical threats. We continue to see evidence that the agency puts corporate interests above the public interest, as evidenced by its report on hydraulic fracturing which downplayed the risks to the U.S. water supply.

Entire US Town ‘Trapped,’ Homes Unsellable Because Military Poisoned Their Water Supply

Toxic chemicals have permeated the water supply of Washington’s Whidbey Island, contaminating schools, homes, businesses, and a hospital, for years, but — even at levels considered 400 percent over what the EPA considers acceptable — the U.S. Navy hasn’t taken full responsibility for the disastrous mess, much less done anything to ameliorate the problem.

Already coping with inadequate supplies of potable water, Whidbey Islanders have had their fill of the Navy’s horrendous treatment of the environment with noxious chemicals and harrowingly loud noise. Indeed, Truthout reports — much like Flint, Michigan — many residents have no option but to use bottled water for all their needs.

“Residents are being provided bottled water by the Navy, but warned not to drink, cook or water their vegetable gardens,” Citizens for Ebeys Reserve (COER) member, Cate Andrews, told Truthout. “The Navy says, ‘Don’t worry about showering,’ but research has shown that these chemicals are transmitted through dermal absorption. Homes valued at over $1 million are unsalable, and people are trapped.”

She added, “The Navy has known of private contaminated wells for years, and is only now taking action after a threat of public exposure.”

COER is committed to protecting the land, water, and overall environment of Whidbey Island from what sounds like an all-out careless assault by the Navy — particularly given the nature of the chemical contaminants. Truthout notes,

“The chemicals, Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) and Perfluoroheptanoic acid (PFHpA), are perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), also called PFCs, and come from the AFFF firefighting foam used in training exercises at the Navy’s Outlying Landing Field (OLF) in Coupeville and Ault Field in Oak Harbor, the latter of which is at Naval Air Station Whidbey.”

But the contaminants haven’t simply inundated a couple wells or remained confined to a limited area, as Rick Abraham — who has focused on toxic pollution as an advocate in the public interest for three decades — ominously explained,

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“They were found in the aquifer beneath the OLF airstrip in October of 2016 and are known to have migrated off-site to contaminate public and private drinking water.”

One contaminated well in Coupeville next to the OLF — incidentally left open and unprotected — still services hundreds of homes, businesses, schools, and even Whidbey General Hospital.

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Abraham, who has investigated PFAS contamination in multiple states, says many families near OLF were forced into using bottled water for all their needs beginning late last year — for cooking, drinking, teeth-brushing, and even watering food gardens — rebuffing the Navy’s egregiously lax attitude regarding the pernicious chemicals in favor of sensibility and concern for their loved ones.

Indeed, while it mawkishly claims to care about the public and, vaguely, that steps are being taken, the Navy hasn’t done much to alleviate searing criticism of its consciously negligent decimation of the environment nor the untenable level of contamination of the island’s already-limited potable water supply.

“It’s deeply concerning,” Mike Welding, with Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, told a local news outlet on December 15, 2016. “The Navy wants to do the right thing and make sure we take actions to ensure the health of people in the local community, especially when it comes from operations the Navy undertakes.”

Some seven months later, the situation remains grim — and is likely to worsen.

According to Truthout, the Navy substantially bolstered its fleet of “Growler” jets — the loudest aircraft on the planet — with an increased number of test flights and exercises certain to make the noise pollution issue maddeningly untenable.

Worse, the Navy has received nearly unconscionable assistance from an unlikely source.

“Along with ongoing Navy obfuscation around the crisis,” notes Truthout, “the Whidbey Island Health Department — which has described the Navy as a ‘partner’ — has actively worked with the Navy in shaping the health department’s message about the contamination to the community. The health department also kept secret from the public a plan to test the wells in the community — at the Navy’s request — and who also did not allow citizens to provide input for what was tested and at what levels.”

Astonishingly, contamination with firefighting chemicals represents just one facet of the region’s ambivalence toward its pompously dismissive military neighbor, as the report continues,

“Naval plans to conduct electromagnetic warfare training on the Olympic Peninsula, as well as the fact that they had already been doing so on state highways unbeknownst to residents, and news of the Navy being permitted to kill or harass nearly 12 million whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea lions and seals across the North Pacific Ocean over a five-year period are things people in this region have grown accustomed to hearing about their naval neighbors.

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“Pleas from residents about these issues (and many others they are concerned about) have for the most part been ignored, or sometimes residents have even been chided, by the Navy.”

For years, people along the coastal Northwest, including Canadians, have reluctantly tolerated the Navy’s endless procession of noisy aircraft and environmental irresponsibility; but the discovery the drinking water supply contained wholly unacceptable and damaging quantities of toxins — and its refusal to clean up the mess — has won new enemies.

Events, like community Open Houses, the Navy arranges to improve relations with the public make no mention of the chemicals lurking in the island’s water supply — as if residents’ legitimate concerns are somehow unfounded.

But one glance at the entry for PFASs in the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry clearly evinces what has Whidbey Islanders livid with the Navy, as the substances can “affect the developing fetus and child, including possible changes in growth, learning, and behavior. In addition, they may decrease fertility and interfere with the body’s natural hormones, increase cholesterol, affect the immune system, and even increase cancer risk.”

And that’s not necessarily the worst of it, either, as unnamed ‘studies’ cited by Truthout show PFASs wreak havoc on children’s response to immunizations, increasing risk of infection from standard inoculations, while raised blood levels of PFHxS may increase the chances for developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and can “affect the function of sex hormone receptors.”

Even the questionably-named Environmental Protection Agency has a hand in the toxic contamination habits of the Navy across the country — listing acceptable levels for PFOA and PFOS at 70 parts per trillion (ppt) — a quantity many scientists and some states have taken to task as insufficient to protect anyone. Minnesota now puts the acceptable level of PFOS at 27 ppt and PFOA at 35 ppt — while Vermont issues a health advisory for PFOA at just 20 ppt, and suggests no level of PFOA acceptable for livestock drinking water.

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Nevertheless, “On March 4, the Navy tested 27 monitoring wells it had previously installed at OLF Coupeville, where it found even higher levels of contamination in the aquifer in some of the wells. PFOA was found up to 1,190 ppt, PFOS up to 54.7, and PFBS up to 473 ppt. The Navy’s ‘plan’ for testing these monitoring wells did not include testing for PFHxS or PFHpA, even though both were known to be in the water as well.”

In a press release, Maryon Attwood of COER lamented, “The testing of our water should not be a one-time event, and the analysis should identify the lowest detectable concentrations of those chemicals.”

It took the Navy some time to even reluctantly admit polluting the potable supply — a problem it wants to solve just by forcing people to use countless bottles of water it now doles out — but that ignores the needs of the island’s and region’s diverse businesses with startling obstinance. It seems the government wants the affected citizenry to be content using individual, plastic bottles of water for literally all their needs — forever.

“Their offer of bottled water is patronizing when you consider the numbers of organic farms located on hundreds of acres on this island who sell their fruits and vegetables to some of the most well-known restaurants in Seattle,” Andrews continued.

“Early on, we were told by several Navy staff that ‘we’ were collateral damage to the ‘war on terror.’ And while unbelievable at first glance, I now believe this to be true.”

Similar to the lead contamination crisis in Flint for the government’s sole culpability in poisoning residential and business water supplies, Whidbey Islanders just want safe water, straight answers, and a plan to prevent toxic contamination from growing even worse.

But it doesn’t appear the Navy wishes to cooperate — much less, take full responsibility for wrongs already committed. But, as Attwood stated simply, adding to a furious chorus growing in intensity around the U.S.,

“We have a right to know what’s in the water we drink.”