“Responding to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, a federal judge has ruled Friday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to justify withholding more than 140 documents on the harm to protected wildlife, including Whooping Cranes, from the highly toxic pesticide Enlist Duo.
“The case involved the EPA’s controversial decision to approve use of Enlist Duo in 16 states even though the agency found the herbicide likely puts dozens of endangered and threatened species at risk.
“Thursday’s ruling indicated the EPA must be much more forthcoming in revealing the science that underpins its decisions on pesticides’ harms to endangered plants and animals.
“Calling the EPA’s reasons for withholding the documents on Enlist Duo “jumbled and disorganized,” the judge wrote that the agency inspired “little confidence” that it has “adequately kept track of each withheld document or fully considered, let alone explained, the basis for withholdings.”
“Enlist Duo’s maker, Dow Chemical, pushed the EPA to approve the pesticide to combat the superweed epidemic fueled by overuse of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
“During research on Enlist Duo, a Center scientist discovered that Dow’s patent applications regarding the pesticide’s two components — 2,4-D and glyphosate — showed synergy, or heightened toxicity, between the two ingredients in 99 out of 99 experimental conditions. Yet after reviewing four Enlist Duo studies provided by Dow to the EPA the agency concluded there is no synergy between glyphosate and 2,4-D.”
In 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer determined that both 2,4_D and glyphosate are probable carcinogens.
This article was released by Sustainable Pulse on 30th September. You can read the full article here.
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