Super Eco

Photo credit: Patti, stock.xchng

If bug spray weren't poisonous, would it still kill bugs? Growing up, I always wondered why it was safe to spray toxic ant killer in our kitchen cabinets. How could it poison the bugs without poisoning us? As it turns out, pesticides do poison people—but we're not really sure how, due to a dearth of data. Stepping up to the plate: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is finally moving forward with a program to screen 67 pesticide active ingredients and HPV/pesticide inert chemicals for their human health risks.

Now, we realize that this post is already filling up with questions ... But how could these chemicals have not already been scrutinized? In fact, things have been in the works for years now. The EPA's Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, launched in 1998, has been working for a decade to identify chemicals that could disrupt hormones and manage the problem via current legislation already on the books. The chemical lobby, however, has had other ideas, questioning and petitioning and harrying the program in an attempt to keep the screening program from rolling out.

Now, the EPA has denied bids to stall the screening and is preparing to gather sorely needed data on endocrine disruptors. "While EPA has some data on endocrine-disrupting pesticides, currently insufficient scientific data are available on most of the estimated 87,000 chemicals produced today to allow for an evaluation of endocrine associated risks," the EPA said on its web site. This is one homework assignment we can't wait to see turned in.