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...quite a remarkable achievement," says David Howekamp of the Environmental Protection Agency. Adds Richard Ayres, chairman of the National Clean Air Coalition: "It's a bold attempt to grapple with the real pollution problems." The EPA is expected to approve the Los Angeles plan and use it as a blueprint for a federal program that will include cities like Chicago and New York...
...Government insists that pesticides pose little hazard to health. The EPA sets limits for the amounts of residue left in foods that are well below what it considers to be danger levels. And regular checks by the Food and Drug Administration of both domestic and imported crops uncover few violations. In 1987, for example, the FDA tested 14,492 food samples, about one-third of them fruits and vegetables, and found that less than 1% of the items had residues that exceeded the legally allowable EPA level. No pesticides at all were detected...
...EPA permits American farmers to use some 320 pesticides on food. However, the scientific information on many of them is thin. In 1970 pesticide regulation was removed from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and turned over to the fledgling EPA. Most of the chemicals then in use were grandfathered into approval without extensive tests to document their safety; 66 of the 320 pesticides have since been classified as carcinogens by the Government...
Many agree with the NRDC's basic contention that pesticide-residue limits need to be tightened. Says Dr. Richard Jackson, a member of a panel of the National Academy of Sciences, which is examining this issue at the EPA's request: "The food tolerances are set on good agricultural practices. The Government does not adequately address the impact of pesticides on children." The baby-food companies have already got the message. Gerber and Beech-Nut, for example, do not use Alar-treated apples in their products, and pesticide residues on the crops they accept for processing into baby foods...
Under mounting pressure, the EPA has begun to take action. Last month the agency announced its intention to ban the use of daminozide by next winter and said that it was barring use of the fungicide captan on 42 crops. Some find the Government's response too slow. California's Democratic Representative Henry Waxman and Massachusetts' Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy plan to introduce federal legislation that would force the EPA to act quickly to remove dangerous pesticides from the food supply...