Consumer groups, scientists, and doctors are urging congress to pressure the Obama administration to reject an application for “Enlist Duo ™ which is a new toxic herbicide made of 2,4-D and glyphosate. The EPA is reviewing an application for this compound from Dow AgroSciences. This herbicide would be used on millions of acres of farm fields in combination with genetically engineered crops that would tolerate the compound.
The Center for Food Safety states that this herbicide would put human and environmental health at risk. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, has been linked to cancer development in people, and 2,4-D was used in Agent Orange, the herbicide that has sickened many Vietnam vets.
Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine said, “exposures to herbicides in early life can lead to disease in childhood or disease later on in adult life or even old age. Herbicide chemicals can also cross from mother to child during pregnancy and prenatal exposures that occur during the nine months of pregnant are especially dangerous.”
The combination of these two chemicals concerns health experts because they could pose lifelong and irreversible effects on children, pregnant women, and farm workers. Americans are exposed to 2,4-D when lawn grasses are treated. Exposure to this chemical is linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease, immune system illnesses, and reproductive problems.
Dr. John P. Wargo of Yale University said, “2,4-D already is permitted by EPA to remain as residues on over 300 different forms of food. Spraying millions of additional acres with these chemicals will increase their contamination of soils, surface and groundwater and foods bearing their residues.”
