Chlorfenapyr toxic to birds
The American Bird
Conservancy (ABC) leads the opposition to registration of this pesticide which
has high reproductive toxicity to birds and other wildlife and a half-life of
one or more years in soil.
Chlorfenapyr has been characterised by EPA as "one of the most reproductively
toxic pesticides to avian species that the Environmental Fate and Effects
Division has evaluated."
Although
full registration of chlorfenapyr has not been approved, EPA is considering the
possibility of granting state-by-state emergency exemptions but under "very
severe use restrictions." The agency has approved such exemptions over the
past four years in several states. American Cyanamid however, objects to the
limited conditions of emergency exemptions and is pressing EPA to reverse its
position. Some members of Congress primarily from cotton growing states support
Cyanamid's bid for full registration.
Chlorfenapyr use on cotton or other products grown in the Western Hemisphere
could have implications for bird species that breed in the US and Canada but
winter in Central or South America-as well as for other birds and wildlife in
countries where it might be used. EPA must send a strong message to the industry
that the risks of chlorfenapyr to the environment and to avian species worldwide
are unacceptable.
21 May 1999, Kelley R. Tucker, Pesticides
and Birds Campaign, ABC, ktucker@abcbirds.org; and Pesticide Action Network
North America (PANNA) PANUPS (see page 2 for address).
Bird deaths in Florida
Nearly 800 birds, primarily white
pelicans, have died since pesticide-contaminated land was flooded in July 1998
to create a marsh near Lake Apopka in Florida in the US.
Preliminary tests by US Fish and Wildlife Service pointed to organochlorine
chemicals as the source of the problem. The soils in the area are know to have
high levels of dieldrin, DDT and toxaphene. The birds are preying on
contaminated fish in ditches and small ponds northeast of the lake.
The Fish
and Wildlife Service expressed concern that mammals, including humans, who have
had direct contact with soils from the area may also be adversely affected.
PAN North America, PANUPS, 30 April 1999.
Death of maribou in Uganda
The highly
toxic carbamate insecticide carbofuran is extensively used by residents,
including the Kampala City Council Vector Department, to kill stray cats and
dogs in their rabies control programme.
Baited
pieces of meat thrown on rubbish pits for the control programme end up killing
birds, such as the maribou, and other animals that feed on these sites.
Timothy Byakola, April 1999 , CDI, Kampala,
Uganda.
Poisoning of the Nile
In March 1999, the inhabitants of Juba in
southern Sudan were prohibited from eating fish from the Nile after it was
clogged with the carcasses of fish, hippos and crocodiles which had died
mysteriously.
Although
there is no direct proof, chemical experts in the region think the cause may be
spillage from obsolete chemical dumps.
Pers. comm, May 1999, Mark Davis, Pesticides Trust [now PAN UK].
[This
article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 44,
June 1999, page 19]