Producers, users protest ban of 2,4,5-T
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After several months of relative quiet in the controversy over whether pesticides contaminated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo- ρ -dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) can be used safely in the environment, the issue has ex ploded into activity again. This time the Environmental Pro tection Agency, which has tried for years to find a middle ground for it self between the environmentalists who want the pesticides banned and the manufacturers and users who want unrestricted use, has come down solidly on the side of the environ mentalists. EPA issued an emergency suspen sion, effective March 1, of the herbi cides 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) and 2-(2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy)propionic acid (Silvex) (C&EN, March 5, page 13). The ac tion was taken just weeks before the spring spraying of forests with 2,4,5-T was to begin. About 9.3 million lb of 2,4,5-T are used yearly. New data, EPA says, show an "alarming correlation" between a high miscarriage rate among women in the Alsea region of Oregon and the spraying of nearby forests with 2,4,5-T. Silvex, primarily used for weed control in lawns, was included in the suspension because it can be used as a substitute for 2,4,5-T in forest spraying. EPA's suspension covers three uses of the herbicides—in forestry, rightof-way clearance, and pastures. The other two uses of 2,4,5-T, in rangelands and in rice fields, were not af fected because an imminent hazard to human health apparently was not posed from these uses. EPA has been in the process of canceling registra tion of the herbicides for all uses since last April when it issued a "rebuttable presumption against registration" against the compounds. The emer gency suspension means that EPA finds that imminent hazard from continued use of the herbicides is too great for use to continue through the presumption proceedings. Manufacturers and users of 2,4,5-T and Silvex, headed by Dow Chemical, have joined battle over the suspension in three ways. A group of 12 producers and users has called for hearings within EPA to review the suspension. These hearings, scheduled to begin in about a week, will be conducted as a judicial proceeding before a panel of three EPA employees. Their purpose is to determine whether EPA has enough evidence of an imminent hazard and an emergency to call for emergency suspension.
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CIRCLE 13 ON READER SERVICE CARD March 19, 1979 C&EN
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C&EN March 19, 1979
In a second effort, another group of producers and users of the herbicides, including some who called for the EPA hearings, has asked for a similar review by the federal district court in Michigan of the need for an immediate suspension (C&EN, March 12, page 17). The court refused to stay EPA's suspension of the herbicides immediately. It has called for briefs from both sides by March 29. And third, Dow Chemical is publicly attacking EPA for its decision. Dow says EPA "flagrantly misused statistics" in its analysis of the miscarriage data, and the suspension is "an arbitrary and capricious example of government at its worst." At the center of the controversy is an investigation conducted by EPA into claims made by 10 women from Alsea, Ore., that an increased number of miscarriages occurred in the months immediately following spraying of the forests near their homes with 2,4,5-T. EPA has made two studies into these claims. The first consisted of a health questionnaire sent to the women along with collection of data on spraying in the area in 1973 through 1978. Ten independent scientists in fields of reproductive medicine, analyzing these data, concluded that there was insufficient information to determine whether the
miscarriages and spraying were related. The second study compared miscarriage frequency in the Alsea area from 1972 to 1977 with two other areas—one a rural region in Oregon where the herbicides are not used, and the other an urban area also in Oregon. This study found the rate of spontaneous abortions in the Alsea area significantly higher than in either of the other two areas and also found a significant increase in these abortions in Alsea in June and July, approximately two months after 2.4,5-T was sprayed in the area. Dow disputes nearly all of the second study's findings and calls the first study—which failed to show a correlation—the "more scientifically valid" of the two. There is no significant difference, according to Dow, between the rate of spontaneous abortions in Alsea and in the rural control area reported in the study. Dow says abortion rates are always higher in June and July, even in hospitals in Florida and Michigan, where the increase could bear no relation to 2,4,5-T use in Oregon. Dow also says the data show no increase in the frequency of spontaneous abortions in 1976 and 1977, years when higher use of 2,4,5-T should have led to higher abortion rates if it were the causative factor. D
Levich starts new life in U.S. and Israel "I have some dizziness in my head because of the change of my situation in the new world. No, it is not a new world, it is a new planet. "And you see, it is now my third life. The first life was before my application for emigration. The second life was in the state of a refusenik (those refused permission to emigrate by the Soviet government]. And now I am beginning the third life." In these words, Dr. Benjamin G. Levich describes to C&EN his feelings upon reaching the West after struggling for almost seven years to emigrate from the Soviet Union. An internationally noted physical chemist, corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and former vice president of the International Society of Electrochemistry, Levich is the highest-ranking Soviet Jewish scientist allowed to emigrate. His plight—prevented for years from emigrating but dismissed from his posts, ostracized by his colleagues, and subjected repeatedly to harassment and threats—aroused wide protests and support from scientists and political figures in the U.S. and Europe. He was finally permitted to
leave for Israel last year (C&EN, Dec. 4,1978, page 17). Interviewed earlier this month in Washington, D.C., on his first visit to the U.S. since his emigration, the short-statured, 61-year-old scientist was jovial and in high spirits, or as he put it, "alive and full of energy." Amidst a crowded schedule of meetings to discuss the situation of Soviet scientists—including with Presidential Science Adviser Frank Press, National Academy of Sciences president Philip Handler, high State Department officials, members of Congress, and officials of the American Association for the Advancement of Science—Levich stressed that "my main theme is now to return to active scientific work." Indeed, during his recent two-week visit to the U.S., Levich was appointed by the New York State Board of Regents to the prestigious, statefinanced Albert Einstein Chair in Science at City College of the City University of New York (CCNY). (Einstein chairs were established in 1964 to attract leading scientists to New York universities.) Other schools in the U.S. and the U.K. also bid for his services.
