SECTION: A; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 957 words

HEADLINE: 2 pesticides restricted by EPA to protect kids

SOURCE: Houston Chronicle News Services

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday restricted the use of two popular pesticides in an effort to protect children and other consumers from toxic chemicals used on crops.

The agency's action, the first major step in a 10-year review process, banned the use of methyl parathion on all fruits and many vegetables and limited the quantity of azinphos methyl that can be used on foods common in children's diets, like apples, peaches and pears.

The newly restricted compounds and three dozen other "organophosphates," which account for about half the pesticides used in the United States, kill plant-eating insects by interfering with their nervous systems. In humans, residue from the toxic pesticides has the potential to disrupt brain development in children, studies indicate. A key element of the science of assessing the safety of pesticides and other potentially toxic compounds is determining the levels at which they become dangerous. Monday's action marked the first time that the EPA has judged the relative safety of pesticides according to their impact on children.

"By setting standards based on our children, this administration is ensuring a healthier diet for everyone," EPA Administrator Carol Browner said. "When a family gathers around the kitchen table, it should know that the food it eats is as safe as it can be."

Browner also promised to meet a rigorous schedule over the next year and a half of reviewing allowable levels of pesticide left on crops by 39 other organophosphates.

Browner stressed that Americans' food supply already is safe, so parents should not worry about serving fresh produce to their children. She said the restrictions will provide an "extra measure of protection for children," as required by the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act.

Congress unanimously passed the law in response to heightened awareness and concern over the impact of pesticides on children.

A 1993 report by the National Academy of Sciences had concluded that fetuses, infants and children are more susceptible than adults to toxic pesticides because their internal organs are still developing, and their enzymatic, metabolic and immune systems may provide less natural protection than those of older people.

Despite universal concern for the health of children, the law itself was the product of a long battle pitting farmers and pesticide manufacturers against environmental and consumer groups. That battle continued to rage throughout the regulatory process, and on Monday it showed no signs of easing.

The new restrictions drew harsh criticism - and competing lawsuits - from several sides. Farmers and the pesticide industry grumbled that the EPA review does not meet scientific standards, and environmentalists and consumer groups complained that the EPA has moved too slowly, leaving too many potentially harmful pesticides on the market for too long.

In April, all seven environmental and consumer groups on the government's 52-member advisory panel on the issue resigned in protest. The groups, which included representatives of farm workers exposed to pesticides, said the Clinton administration had yielded to lobbying from the agriculture and chemical industries.

California farmers said the new rules will not cause them immediate hardship but that restrictions on additional pesticides, expected within the next 18 months, could threaten their livelihood, forcing them to rely on costlier pesticides that provide less protection for their crops.

Americans use more than 1 billion pounds of pesticides each year to combat pests on farm crops, in homes, schools, parks, hospitals and other public places.

Browner said Monday's announcement fulfilled the first deadline Congress set for the EPA in the 1996 act, which directed the agency to review 9,700 "tolerances" - the legal limits for each pesticide used on a single crop - within 10 years.

But environmental groups charged Monday that the EPA has failed miserably because many of the pesticides that it counted in the first wave were obsolete or used only minimally, so had no impact on food safety.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., one of the authors of the law, agrees that the EPA has accomplished little in three years. "The law requires more, but this is at least a small step in the right direction," he said Monday.

As the review process continues, however, and the EPA restricts the use of other pesticides, produce prices likely will increase, according to some California growers.

"If you go to the store and look at an organic peach and a conventionally grown peach, there's a tremendous difference in prices," said Jonathan Field, manager of the California Tree Fruit Agreement. "Anything that decreases yields has an impact on prices."

The Natural Resources Defense Council and a coalition of California groups plans to file a lawsuit in San Francisco today charging the EPA with failing to meet congressional deadlines for protecting children and others from high-risk pesticides.

But growers and the agriculture industry also blasted the EPA, saying it had relied on insufficient data to make the rulings.

"Decisions by deadline, not sound scientific data, damage farmers because they lose valuable tools unnecessarily," said Jay Vroom, president of the American Crop Protection Association, a trade group that represents manufacturers, formulators and distributors of pesticides. "Consumers lose too, because decisions like this may shake their confidence in the safety of our food supply."

The American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Crop Protection Association and other agriculture groups sued the government two months ago, charging that the EPA had failed to collect reliable data.



LOAD-DATE: August 4, 1999