University Study "... children of farm workers who live in Douglas and Chelan counties in Washington state were exposed during the spraying season to pesticide levels that exceeded federal safety levels"

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Subject:   Your "Registered" POISONS are Invading Children-----
Date:      Wed, 26 Apr 2000 18:51:26 -0400
From:        Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
          Senior Research Scientist
          State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation - Integrated Pest Management

Dear Lyndon, I thought you might like to check out an url located at :   http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2000/2000L-04-24-09.html entitled: "REGISTERED" PESTICIDES INVADE BODIES OF WASHINGTON FARM CHILDREN.  

SEATTLE, Washington, April 24, 2000 (ENS) - A University of Washington study suggests that pesticides are finding their way into the bodies of pre-school children in agricultural communities at a higher level than previously thought. More than half of the tested children of farm workers who live in Douglas and Chelan counties in Washington state were exposed during the spraying season to pesticide levels that exceeded federal safety levels, according to University of Washington (UW) researchers, even though the children themselves do not work in the fields.  

These levels were estimated from concentrations of pesticide breakdown products in urine, and compared to reference values established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the World Health Organization. Doses were evaluated by assuming that breakdown products were attributable to either azinphos-methyl or phosmet, the two organophosphate pesticides used most frequently in the region. The study concludes that regulators need to look at exposure standards and determine if they are appropriate, says one of the study authors, Richard Fenske, a professor of  environmental health in UW's School of Public Health and Community Medicine. He is also director of UW's Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center. The EPA is in the midst of setting safety standards, specifically for children, for thousands of uses of chemicals. The pesticides involved in the UW study are organophosphates, a common class of pesticides that the EPA has targeted in its first efforts to implement tighter safety levels under a 1996 law.  

Well Lyndon, How can you continue to ignore real sound science and continue to promote your "registered" POISONS  -  when you know they are harming the children?  

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