WAPPAPELLO, Mo. -- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is
backpedaling its approval of a herbicide containing the same chemicals
that allegedly sickened three people in the spring of 2015 near
Wappapello, Mo.
According to the Associated Press, the EPA announced in a court filing
Nov. 25 that it had received new information from manufacturer Dow
AgroSciences that a weed killer called Enlist Duo is probably more toxic
to other plants than previously thought.
In a filing with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the EPA said it
"might not have issued the existing registration had it been aware" of
the new information when it originally approved the product a year ago
to be used with new strains of genetically modified corn and soybeans,
the AP reported.
Enlist Duo is a combination of the glyphosate, the main active
ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, and 2, 4-D another herbicide that
was one of the chemicals, although not the main and most toxic chemical,
used in Agent Orange.
Agent Orange was a defoliant used during the Vietnam war and linked to a number of illnesses.
Coincidentally, the EPA decision comes just weeks after the Missouri
Department of Agriculture (MDA) handed down civil actions for pesticide
drift against two Southeast Missouri agricultural chemical applicators.
While the EPA decision is not related to the incidents near Wappapello,
Enlist Duo is composed of the same chemicals three people believe made
them ill following aerial applications that were later found to have
violated Missouri pesticide regulations.
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