Word: heptachlor
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Government inspectors recently failed to pick up a major case of pesticide contamination in chickens in Arkansas. Heptachlor, a cancer-causing chemical, was banned for use in food more than a decade ago, but the EPA permits it to be sprayed on some grains. Earlier this year sorghum treated with the substance was sold as feed grain and given to the chickens. The problem was detected in routine lab tests performed by the Campbell Soup Co., which had purchased the poultry. As a result, 400,000 chickens have been destroyed in the past month...
...heptachlor case highlights another flaw in the system. USDA and FDA investigators have been unable to trace the source of the tainted seed because it changed hands -- from farmer to grain-elevator operator to feed broker to poultry producer -- so many times. Closer monitoring is necessary at every step along the food-supply chain. Federal agencies also need more flexible enforcement powers. The USDA, for example, cannot levy fines on processing plants. It can close a plant down, but that is a drastic action that is not readily employed...
...years the pesticide containing chlordane and heptachlor has been the nation's No. 1 termite killer. Last week the Environmental Protection Agency announced that Illinois-based Velsicol Chemical Corp., the sole manufacturer of the chemical cousins, had agreed to stop production. The company disputed that exposure to the pesticide, which has been linked to increased risk of cancer, is a health hazard. But Velsicol said it would stop making the compound, which under the brand name Termide is used in about 1 million U.S. homes each year, until the EPA is satisfied that it can safely be applied...
...more than a month, agriculture officials in six states have been monitoring cattle for contamination from feed tainted with the pesticide heptachlor, which has caused cancer in laboratory animals. Milk has been recalled in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, and heptachlor traces have also turned up in beef. Last week the disaster took on a new dimension: tests showed low-level concentrations of heptachlor in the breast milk of some 70 Arkansas mothers. The women were among several thousand who brought samples of their breast milk to laboratories around the state. As more than 1,000 additional women...