Word: ponte
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Farming is difficult enough given the caprices of Mother Nature, but it can become downright impossible when using a pesticide that kills rather than protects the crops. Just ask the 400 farmers and growers in 20 states who are suing E.I. du Pont de Nemours. Their suits charge that the chemical giant knowingly sold a contaminated fungicide that destroyed millions of dollars worth of crops of fruits and vegetables as well as nurseries of flowering bushes and ferns...
...first suit to reach trial, now under way in Columbus, Georgia, growers claim that Du Pont had determined through its own tests that the fungicide, Benlate, was improperly mixed with the herbicide sulfonylurea, yet failed to notify users or the Environmental Protection Agency as required by law. Farmers also accuse the company of furthering the cover-up by refusing to turn over crucial documents to the farmers' attorneys...
...crucial questions for policymakers was whether CFCs would remain in the atmosphere for a long time. Asked today when it was proved that CFCs could hang around for many decades, Du Pont scientists readily acknowledge that the issue was largely put to rest in the '70s. As late as 1982, however, a Du Pont scientist was still arguing in print that CFCs were short-lived...
...delay. For nearly a decade before the 1987 ozone treaty, nations were warned of the danger but did nothing. In the U.S. those who had the power to take action instead engaged in self-delusion: the Reagan Administration at first dismissed the ozone threat as a nonissue, while Du Pont and other manufacturers underestimated future sales of CFCs, making the hazard seem minimal...
...Pont, which poured $15 million into developing substitutes during the late 1970s, all but halted its research shortly after Reagan's election because no further regulation was on the horizon. Earlier, Du Pont had publicly committed itself to stop production of CFCs if "reputable evidence" showed they posed a hazard to the ozone layer. The company, however, set a tough standard for what constituted "reputable evidence." Du Pont challenged Rowland at every turn in the 1970s, and he believes the company's aggressiveness sent a chilling message to other scientists in the field...