Please see the link at the end of this article to take action, your help is needed.

-In 1987, the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty to ban ozone depleting chemicals, mandated the phase out of the fumigant methyl bromide, which is used widely in the U.S. on crops like strawberries. The full phase out was to take place over the course of 18 years.

-In 2004, the Bush Administration began pushing for exemptions to the treaty to allow the U.S. to continue using chemicals like methyl bromide for economic reasons.

-In 2005, the Administration began considering converting methyl bormide use to a new chemical marketed by Arysta Life Sciences known as methyl iodide, which does not deplete the ozone layer.

-But unlike many other pesticides, methyl iodide vaporizes quickly, causing it to drift far distances. Although the state of California has categorized it as cancer causing, and the EPA admits it causes thyroid tumors, the agency has been pushing to approve the chemical since 2006.

-In a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on September 25, 2007, the nation’s leading chemists asked EPA not to approve methyl iodide without further scientific review. The chemical has been used to induce cancer in laboratory experiments and causes neurological and thyroid problems, as well as miscarriages in studies with laboratory animals.

-On October 5, 2007, the EPA approved methyl iodide for widespread use in the U.S., putting farmworkers, families and rural communities at risk.

Please send a letter to the EPA requesting they heed the advice of the nation’s leading chemists, via this link http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/oca
/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=15898

Tanisha
http://www.tanishamarshall.com