Coalition Challenges Expansion of Hazardous Herbicide Containing Agent Orange Ingredient EPA Allows Nine Additional States to Use Toxic 2,4-D on GE Corn, Soy Crops

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2015/enlist-duo-04-20-2015.html
SAN FRANCISCO— A coalition of conservation, food-safety and public-health groups filed a motion today challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to expand the use of “Enlist Duo” on genetically engineered corn and soy crops to nine additional states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma and North Dakota.
Earthjustice and Center for Food Safety filed the coalition motion — building on the coalition’s earlier challenge of Enlist Duo, which already includes six midwestern states where EPA previously approved the herbicide’s use on GE corn and soy crops — in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The groups are challenging the EPA’s decision to allow the use of Enlist Duo in 15 Midwest states because of the serious impacts the powerful new herbicide cocktail, which combines glyphosate and 2,4-D, will have on farmworkers, neighboring farms, and ground and surface water, as well as endangered species. For instance, 2,4-D, a component of the infamous Agent Orange, has been linked to serious illnesses like Parkinson’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and reproductive problems. The EPA’s analyses also demonstrate plainly that the herbicide may affect endangered species like the whooping crane, Louisiana black bear and Indiana bat through consumption of prey contaminated with the toxic chemical. 
“Big chemical is profiting over dumping more and more toxins in our air, water and bodies and killing our endangered wildlife,” said Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff.  “Instead of being an environmental watchdog, the EPA is playing lapdog and allowing this deadly herbicide to be sprayed on millions of acres without adequate impact assessment. We filed our motion so we can finally stop the cycle of more and more pesticides with less and less oversight.”
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