Submitted by Sue Phelan, GreenCape.org
As of today, the electric utility NSTAR/Eversource has yet to publish a 2016 Yearly Operational Plan for all parts of the State but it’s still a little too early to cheer….
Here’s the State regulator’s list of herbicides the utility is allowed to use on public and private property all over Massachusetts regardless of whether you as the owner/occupier agree or not. (Rights of Way also include subway lines and railroad beds and these are sprayed with herbicides, too.) Note part of the MDAR’s Disclaimer: “Only environmental fate and toxicological data, including eco-toxicological data, are reviewed when evaluating an active ingredients suitability for inclusion on the list. Inclusion on the list does not represent any endorsement by MDAR as to the efficacy of the active ingredient for rights-of-way vegetation management.” Huh? What did they say????? Only active ingredients are evaluated and MDAR can’t guarantee that they will work? Oh, good—that’s the Promise of Pesticides. The active ingredient of a pesticide formulation is commonly just a very small percentage of the total ingredients. The unlisted, undisclosed so-called inert ingredients which make up the majority of the formulation can be even more toxic than the active ingredients – but they don’t test those or even tell what they are. Despite their name, these ingredients are neither chemically, biologically or toxicologically inert. In general, inert ingredients are minimally tested, however, many are known to state, federal and international agencies to be hazardous to human health. For example, the U.S. government lists creosols as a “Hazardous Waste” under Superfund regulations, yet allows these chemicals to be listed as inert ingredients in pesticide products. Creosols are known to produce skin and eye irritations, burns, inflammation, blindness, pneumonia, pancreatitis, central nervous system depression and kidney failure.
Another example and one of the most hazardous ingredients in the commonly used herbicide RoundUp is a surfactant, which is classified as an inert, and therefore NOT listed on the label. The pesticide naphthalene is an inert ingredient in some pesticide products and listed as an active ingredient in others. According to a report produced by the New York State Attorney General, 72 percent of pesticide products available to consumers contain over 95 percent inert ingredients; fewer than 10 percent of pesticide products list any inert ingredients on their labels; more than 200 chemicals used as inert ingredients are hazardous pollutants in federal environmental statutes governing air and water quality; and, of a 1995 list of inert ingredients, 394 chemicals were listed as active ingredients in other pesticide products. But you’re not allowed to know the full ingredient list of the potion polluting your property and your person. Trade secret.
The product that you buy (but you’re not going to buy pesticides anymore, right?) or are exposed to is in fact a pesticide formulation that contains a number of different materials, including active and inert ingredients, as well as contaminants and impurities, and metabolites. Dioxin and DDT have been identified as contaminants in pesticides, which have not been purposefully added but are a function of the production process. In addition, pesticides, when subject to various environmental conditions, break down to other materials known as metabolites, which are sometimes more toxic than the parent material. There is no research of any kind done on the environmental or health effects of the full pesticide formulations individually or in combination. Neither Federal nor State governments test this combined stew of chemicals as they are actually used in the field –the way we are exposed to them in the real world.
I can’t be sure which herbicides on the State’s right-of-way herbicide list were used last year or in what quantity since the state regulator MDAR (Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources) has not seen fit to respond in a timely way to my Public Records Request for that information. However, I know that Krenite (aka Fosamine Ammonium) was used in highest volume by far in the previous years. That herbicide was discussed in the Jan/Feb MBCC newsletter. More background on the pesticide spraying issue can be found in the MBCC newsletter archive.
Legislatively speaking-Bill H.717 – An Act relative to the use of Glyphosate by utility companies and/or government entities on land located within, on, or above a federally-designated sole source aquifer, filed by Mr. Mannal of Barnstable was reported favorably by the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee and referred to the committee on House Steering, Policy and Scheduling for a second reading. To be continued.