Midwest Cities Sue Company Over Pesticide Contamination
Published 12 Mar 2010, 11:25 am -
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A group of sixteen cities from six Midwestern states filed a federal lawsuit against Swiss corporation Syngenta this Monday. Syngenta is the producer of Atrazine, a chemical used to kill weeds in cornfields, golf courses, and domestic lawns. Atrazine often runs off into rivers and streams, contaminating groundwater and municipal water supplies. The plaintiffs in the Midwest case maintain that, while Syngenta has snatched up billions of dollars from its sale of Atrazine, it is local taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill for cleanup. The sixteen cities in question have already spent more than 350 million dollars in their attempts to remove Atrazine from drinking water. They and many other municipalities cannot afford to pay for the installation and upkeep of the carbon filters necessary to keep citizens safe. Syngenta officials, such as Tim Pastoor, the company’s lead scientist, insist that there is no need to filter the water, pointing out that “hundreds” of EPA findings (some dating back forty years) do not support these health concerns. However, the EPA itself has shifted its approach to Atrazine, and hopes to conclude a new study this September. Shedding new light on the controversy is a study led by UC Berkeley Professor Tyrone Hayes, published last week. The study’s findings point to Atrazine’s alarming effects on the sex traits of frogs that have obvious implications for human beings.
GUESTS: Tyrone Hayes, Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley, Danielle Ivory, Staff Reporter with the Huffington Post Investigative Fund
Find out more at www.atrazinelovers.com, and www.huffpostfund.org.
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