Bulletin #643
August 4, 2006
Dear All,
First the good news. We are very close to our impossible dream of 5000 online letters being sent to the EPA. As of 7:00 am (EST) we had reached a total of 4416. This is fabulous - and surpasses are wildest expectations when we launched this appeal for letters just two weeks ago.
Now the bad news. Today, the letters are coming in very slowly. Unless someone somewhere works some magic we are going to fall short of our goal of 5000 by midnight tonight - the EPA’s deadline for receiving comments on the FAN (plus EWG, Beyond Pesticides) call for a “stay” on the use of sulfuryl fluoride as a fumigant on food in warehouses and processing plants. The use of this pesticide will leave residues of fluoride both on and in (i.e. very difficult to wash off!) our food. The tolerances the EPA has “given” Dow AgroSciences on these are horrendous - including 130 ppm on wheat flour (which goes into hundreds of different processed foods) and 900 ppm on powdered eggs (compare that to 1000 ppm on toothpaste - which one is not meant to swallow!).
Can any one squeeze any more blood from your email stones? Perhaps there are still a few people who are returning from holiday and have yet to hear about this effort. Perhaps there are other lists you haven’t yet used.
Sending the ONLINE letter (copy below - and shorter substitute for copying and pasting) is simple, quick, important and helping to make history. Please go to http://actionstudio.org/?go=2367 .
Thanks for everyone for getting us this close to our goal. Now we wait and hope for some magic.
Paul Connett
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1) The FAN organized ONLINE letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.
As of 7:00 am (EST) August 4, 2006, 4416 of these - or modified - letters have been sent.
(go to http://actionstudio.org/?go=2367 to add your name to this letter)
Dear EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson:
I am deeply concerned about a new fluoride-based pesticide (sulfuryl fluoride) that EPA is allowing to be sprayed on all processed foods and a broad assortment of raw food. While EPA’s decision may benefit the bottom line of Dow AgroSciences, it does not protect the public health, or the public interest.
The public expects EPA to employ the best science available in its approval of pesticides. However, it is apparent that this did not happen with sulfuryl fluoride. Indeed, the National Academy of Sciences recently concluded that the safety standard used by EPA to approve sulfuryl fluoride is, in fact, not safe at all.
Moreover, as the NAS report makes clear, and as is evident by the growing number of children with dental fluorosis, many Americans are being OVER-exposed to fluoride. There is no safety margin for additional fluoride exposures that will result from sulfuryl fluoride. I am particularly concerned for susceptible subsets of consumers, including children, people with kidney disease, people with excess thirst (e.g. diabetics, athletes, and laborers) and people with nutrient deficiencies.
Finally, I would like you, as Director of EPA, to investigate why EPA increased the allowable dosage for infants and children not once, but twice, during its approval process for sulfuryl fluoride. In direct violation of the Food Quality Protection Act, these manipulations have left our children ten times less protected than adults.
For these, and the many other reasons detailed in the petition to EPA, I urge you to revoke all food-based uses of sulfuryl fluoride.
Please add my comments to the docket #: EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0174 and EPA-HQ-OPP-2003-0373.
(Go to http://actionstudio.org/?go=2367 to add your name (and personalized comments) to this letter)
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2) A shorter letter which can be copied and pasted in:
Dear EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson:
“We are getting far too much fluoride already and we don’t need any more in our food, thank you very much! And we certainly don’t want any more of this poison to help Dow AgroSciences make more money!
There must be better way of fumigating our food without putting holes in the ozone hole (methyl bromide) or putting holes in our kids’ brains (sulfuryl fluoride). Dow get creative - EPA get honest!”
I urge you to revoke all food-based uses of sulfuryl fluoride.
Please add my comments to the docket #: EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0174 and EPA-HQ-OPP-2003-0373.
Whatever version you send, please get some message in to EPA Administrater Stepen Johnson before 12 midnight (EST) today. Go to http://actionstudio.org/?go=2367
in FAN
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