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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