Environmental groups filed suit Aug. 3 to force the agency to comply with the Food Quality Protection Act, which requires the agency to consider the risk pesticides pose to children. Under the act, Aug. 3 was the deadline for the agency to implement a program to screen and test 3,200 pesticides to determine their risk to children under the act. The lawsuit alleges the agency has only issued a timeline for implementation. The agency also is on schedule to meet all deadlines for ensuring safer pesticides use under the new Food Quality Protection Act. Pesticide use has increased 33-fold since 1942.
Green groups beg to differ.
EPA actions up to now have reduced the risk from only two out of the 125 riskiest pesticide uses on food, and have actually allowed more risk in seven cases. According to Hatherill, pesticide use has increased 33-fold since 1942 and since children eat, drink and breathe more pesticides pound per pound than adults, they are at high risk to health impairments. Recent studies show that trace levels of multiple pesticides cause increased aggression. Hatherill believes that the increased use of pesticides in combination with a diet of low-fiber, processed foods has led to high levels of pesticides in children and may be the root cause of the trend of youth violence in the United States.