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Nicotine; Notice of Receipt of Request to Voluntarily Cancel a Pesticide Registration  

SUMMARY: In accordance with section 6(f)(1) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), as amended. EPA is issuing a notice of receipt of a request by the registrant to voluntarily cancel its registration for a product containing the pesticide nicotine. The request would terminate nicotine use on greenhouse-grown ornamentals. The request would terminate the last nicotine product registered for use in the United States. EPA intends to grant this request at the close of the comment period for this announcement unless the Agency receives substantive comments within the comment period that would merit its further review of the request, or unless the registrant withdraws its request within this period. Upon acceptance of this request, any sale, distribution, or use of products listed in this notice will be permitted only if such sale, distribution, or use is consistent with the terms as described in the final order. . . .

Dated: October 21, 2008.

Steven Bradbury,

Director, Special Review and Reregistration Division, Office of Pesticide Programs.

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China Pesticide-Tainted Dumplings Poison 175 Japanese (Update4) 

Chinese-made dumplings containing pesticides sickened 175 Japanese in a scandal the government says may damage relations with its neighbor, which exported $56.7 billion of food to Japan last year.

``There might be a negative impact on Japan-China ties,'' Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said at a press conference in Tokyo today. ``If both governments cooperate and take measures, the negative impact can be minimized.'' China said it's ordered a police investigation.

The dumplings, known as ``gyoza'' in Japan, are being recalled by Japan Tobacco Inc. and Maruha Corp. in the latest quality scandal involving China.

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Japan Tobacco Recalls Pesticide-Contaminated Food (Update2) 

Japan Tobacco Inc., the nation's biggest cigarette company, recalled some pork products imported from China after saying they were contaminated with pesticides and people who ate them became nauseous.

Japan's Health Ministry earlier said eight people were poisoned after eating frozen dumplings from China. The ministry didn't identify any company associated with the poisoning.

The recalled items included ``gyoza'' dumplings, pork cutlets and other foods containing pork. The Tokyo- based maker of Camel and Mild Seven cigarettes has been expanding its food business as tobacco consumption falls in its home market.

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• Electronic cigarettes go up in deep smoke  

A sales suspension imposed on electronic cigarettes and its cartridges by the Health Ministry due to the high risk of addiction they pose and the possibility of them hampering with efforts to quit smoking has spurred huge debate.

Serious question marks are being raised about the popular anti-smoking device and why it has taken so long for the ministry to intervene.

Health Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Turan Buzgan, speaking at a press conference Tuesday, said the ministry had found that there were certain problems linked to the import of the electronic cigarettes. "They are imported as insecticide even though they need to enter the country as anti-smoking drugs, or if they are medical tools then under the supervision of the Health Ministry. There was a procedural discrepancy which we warned authorities about," Buzgan said. . . .

Toka� said the product didn't have any tar so may not be cancerous, but was just as harmful as regular cigarettes when it came to other diseases, the Anatolia news agency reported.

He said the advertisement that said electronic cigarettes were harmless is false, and added, "nicotine dosages in cartridges used in the cigarettes vary, but it is impossible to accurately adjust the dosage. There is nicotine in this product and it is seriously harmful to health." . . .

One producer, Hong-Kong based Ruyan's Turkey representative, Selahattin Ayg�ler, released a statement soon after the suspension saying his firm was the creator and sole licensed seller of electronic cigarettes, arguing that their success rate in getting customers to quit stood at 77 percent.

He said that the new suspension must have been aimed at stopping the sale of imitation products, which the firm itself had lodged complaints about.

"No such decision has been communicated to us. Electronic cigarettes are based on World Health Organization (WHO) approved nicotine treatment methods," he said.

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High Pesticide Exposure Found in N.C. 

It could be a father hugging his children after a day's work in the tobacco field, or pesticide residue on his clothing washed with family laundry. Maybe it was children playing in farming fields outside their homes.

A new study suggests all could be factors in high levels of pesticide exposure detected in children of migrant workers in eastern North Carolina, where an estimated 21,000 people in the heart of the state's agriculture industry work in vast fields of tomatoes, cucumbers and other produce.

Educating workers and pushing for more enforcement of safety laws are central to protecting workers and their children from chemicals, experts say.

"We know that exposure to these pesticides creates all kinds of problems, we just don't know exactly how much," said Thomas A. Arcury, lead researcher for a study conducted by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

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• The Tobacco Industry and Pesticide Regulations: Case Studies from Tobacco Industry Archives 

Although others have charged that agencies responsible for protecting human health and the environment are unduly influenced by the industries they regulate (Abraham 2002; Huff 2002), it is rare to be able to study this process from the perspective of the regulated industry. This study provides documentation of the behind-the-scenes activities of an industry as it attempts to influence the regulatory process on matters that have a direct bearing on public health. . . .

the case studies discussed here provide insight into tactics that the tobacco industry applies to a regulatory agency when trying to influence the outcome of a decision. These tactics go significantly beyond the usual approaches--such as participation in public comment periods and public meetings--to influence scientific and regulatory decision making. Tobacco industry tactics described in these cases include:

* Encouraging a chemical company (Zoecon) to advocate for high MRLs without any supporting data and directing that same company to gather information about international regulatory efforts on methoprene in a manner designed to hide the interest of the tobacco industry in this chemical;

* Attempting to forestall regulatory efforts on tobacco pesticides in the European Community by creating voluntary industry MRLs for a subset of chemicals;

* Hiring an ex-WHO scientist to participate (without disclosing his funding source) in the WHO regulatory effort on EBDCs;

* Hiring several ex-U.S. EPA scientists to influence the U.S. EPAÂ's regulatory decision making on phosphine;

* Hiring scientific consultants with instructions to marshal data to support the tobacco industryÂ's a priori arguments and funding consultants to publish a report supporting these arguments in a journal over which the consultants had influence;

* Staging fumigations for the U.S. EPA with the knowledge that the methodology was flawed and the results would show no emissions problem.

Yet, as the case of European MRLs showed, the tobacco industry does not always work together effectively to influence regulations. . . .

Finally, given the deadly epidemic of tobacco-caused disease, which kills an estimated 5 million people annually worldwide (WHO 2004), is it in the public interest for regulatory agencies today to continue facilitating standards that make it easier and less costly to grow, transport, store, and manufacture tobacco products?

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The Tobacco Industry and Pesticide Regulations: Case Studies from Tobacco Industry Archives 

The full version of this article is available for free in PDF format.

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• Tobacco industry weakened pesticide regulations, UCSF study shows 

The tobacco industry coordinated cross-industry campaigns to delay and weaken federal and international regulations on pesticide use, according to new findings by UCSF researchers.

The findings are reported in a study and commentary posted online at the pre-publication website of Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The information will be published in a future issue of the journal.

Based on an analysis of internal tobacco company documents, the article outlines evidence that the tobacco industry hired ex-agency scientists to intervene in federal Environmental Protection Agency decision-making, hired a consultant to influence World Health Organization pesticide regulatory deliberations without revealing his industry ties, and staged a useless test aimed at convincing regulators that no further restrictions were needed to control an especially deadly pesticide, among other actions.

The authors point to the need for broader reform of the regulatory process to prevent abuses such as these in the future.

"This shows that the tobacco industry's influence on our nation's health extends far beyond policies directly concerned with smoking or cigarettes," said Ruth Malone, RN, PhD, associate professor in the UCSF School of Nursing and senior author on the study.

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• Portuguese cigarettes to be withdrawn over pesticide discovery 

Portuguese public authorities said on Friday they were ordering the withdrawal from public sale of two Portuguese cigarette brands after discovering traces of a banned pesticide containing a cancer risk in some of them.

The inspectorate-general of economic activity, a regulatory body, said it would call for the withdrawal from the market of certain consignments of the SG Ventil and SG Filtro brands after a pesticide with a potential cancer hazard had been detected, Lusa news agency quoted a ministry source as saying.

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Prop 64 Will Stop Public from Protecting Against Pesticide Drift 

Lawsuits to force agricultural companies to follow public health and safety rules while spraying toxic chemicals in communities could not go forward if Prop 64 were law, said public health, consumer and community advocates in downtown Fresno today. The public also could not enforce a law passed this year requiring companies to pay for medical care when pesticide drift has caused emergency medical situations, if 64 were to pass, said the advocates. Fresno was the 4th stop on their 15-city "Public Health Tour."

A 15-foot-tall inflatable cigarette box with a "Public Health Warning: No On 64" is the backdrop as the grassroots Public Health Tour continues through 10 California cities in the weeks before the election. Among the largest donors to Proposition 64 are Phillip Morris, ExxonMobil and the auto industry. The tour will draw attention to the dangers of Prop 64 and an e-activist flash animation website -- http://www.NoOnProp64.com -- that animates the public interest cases Prop 64 would stop and that millions of people are expected to see before the election. The American Lung Association, California Nurses Association, California Public Health Association-North and Health Access are among the public health groups opposing Proposition 64.

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Malawi 'smokes out' dangerous tobacco pesticide 

Officials in Lilongwe are working flat out to promote safe alternatives to the agricultural pesticide methyl bromide, which they hope to phase out by the end of the year. If they succeed, says the Science and Development Network. Malawi will beat South Africa to be the first country in the region to phase out all non-essential use of the chemical...

Tobacco without soil

Officials will be trained in order to enforce the forthcoming ban. Malawi is the second largest user of methyl bromide in Africa after neighbouring Zimbabwe. Each year more than 130 tonnes of the chemical are used, with tobacco growers using 85% of this. One of the alternative approaches to pest control being promoted is the use of soil-less culture, since a principal tobacco pest a microscopic nematode pr worm lives in soil.

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Pesticide residues in tobacco 

IN TOBACCO, the problem of pesticide residues in cured leaf is a major cause for concern. To get a good price for export oriented flue-cured and burley tobacco, quality is of utmost importance. Among the various factors that determine the quality, the level of pesticide residues in cured leaf is of significance.

Countries import tobacco only with acceptable levels of pesticide residues.

These countries have established Guidance Residue Levels (GRL) and Maximum Residue Levels (MRL) for most of the pesticides used in tobacco.

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Birth Weights Up After EPA Pesticide Ban, Study Finds 

Researchers at Columbia University found that infant birth weights and birth lengths in upper Manhattan improved immediately after the pesticides chlorpyrifos and diazinon, used in a number of household products, were banned for indoor use by the Environmental Protection Agency beginning in 2000. . .

Whyatt said the babies of pregnant women exposed to the greatest amount of the banned insecticides were on average 6.6 ounces lighter than those of women with lower exposures. She said the difference in birth weight was highly significant, comparable to the gap between pregnant women who smoke and those who do not. . . .

The new study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, followed the birth of 314 babies. It is part of a broader, multi-year research project begun in 1998 that examines the health of pregnant women exposed to air pollutants, tobacco smoking and allergens, as well as pesticides. The project is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the EPA.

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Health board rejects cuts 

Toronto's board of health has rejected pressure not to add new costs and is instead urging full funding for emerging programs, from SARS prevention to enforcement of bans on smoking in bars and spraying pesticides on lawns.

The board, made up of city councillors and citizens, backed the public health department's budget request for $189.9 million in 2004, up 9.3 per cent from last year.

"The board felt that these are all high-priority items and we can't in good conscience not recommend going ahead with them," Councillor John Filion, who chairs the health board, said after yesterday's budget meeting at city hall.

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• How pesticide smoking gun escaped a tobacco giant and the Government 

An Australian cigarette company knew for more than 20 years that its tobacco contained high levels of DDT and other dangerous pesticides, industry documents reveal.

The Federal Government was also aware that pesticide levels far exceeded those in British and US samples, but disregarded a recommendation by its own agency to set limits for chemicals in tobacco.

Instead, it has abandoned its only test on cigarettes - for tar and nicotine levels - and left the industry to regulate itself. The Government has also rejected consumer calls for disclosure of all cigarette ingredients . . .

Tobacco samples tested for Philip Morris Australia in 1978 showed DDT levels 40 times higher than German limits, say its internal documents.

As late as the early 1990s, the company's testing found residue of DDT, dichloran and maleic hydrazide - all forms of pesticides - above German or US limits, according to Simon Chapman, of Sydney University's School of Public Health. But the company issued no health warnings or product recalls, he says.

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