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EPA is Lying About
Giuliani's Insecticide

by Robert Lederman
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
May 13, 2000

It's called the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) but perhaps it should be renamed the Chemical Industry Protection Agency.

That's the only conclusion one can come to after reading the agency's just released report on Malathion. In 1,000 pages available on the EPA website (Click Here ) there are hundreds of medical and scientific studies quoted which strongly support the idea that Malathion causes tumors, worsens asthma and allergies, kills beneficial insects and fish, causes a host of temporary and chronic illnesses and is particularly dangerous ffor young children and for the chronically ill.

Also available on tthe website are close to one hundred pages of docdocuments that show how Cheminova, the manufacturer of the Malathion Fyfanon ULV that was used in NYC, caused the agency to change not only numerous details but the entire conclusion of the report. As a result, within days of being publicly released the study abruptly changed its classification of Malathion from, "likely human carcinogen"to it being a "suggestive human carcinogen".

Among Cheminova's complaints about the study was that, "EPA inappropriately included a scenario applying sprays with a helicopter".

Wasn't that exactly how Malathion was repeatedly sprayed on NYC last year?

Another Cheminova complaint was that, "The baseline exposure scenario used by EPA violates the label requirements and represents an illegal use of Malathion". Violating the label requirements, as proved by three different taped phone interviews conducted with Mr. John Sondgeroth the owner of the helicopter company that conducted the spraying for the City, is the exact way the spraying was illegally done in NYC. In direct and unambiguous violation of the labeling instructions on Cheminova's Malathion Fyfanon ULV the chemical was:

• 1. Sprayed directly on people
• 2. Sprayed on bodies of water
• 3. Sprayed in high winds
• 4. Sprayed after being stored at temperatures above 77 degrees
• 5. Sprayed in areas where people would be allowed to return in less than 12 hours

links to the labels are included at the end of this article.
Also see: Transcript of a 10/16/99 phone conversation between Robert Lederman and John Sondgeroth. The entire tape is available to the media for review and a transcript is included in my 1999 article, "Why Is The Media Hiding the Truth About the NYC Epidemic?". Anti-spray activist Joyce Shepard has two additional taped interviews with Mr. Sondgeroth which confirm these facts.

The entire reason the EPA began the study that this report is the interim conclusion of was that it had received so many thousands of complaints from scientists, doctors, environmentalists, state governments and activists about the harmful effects of Malathion. According to the study there were 10,637 medical reports in their database of harmful responses to Malathion exposure alone including 5,757 adult non-occupational exposures and 3,371 exposures reported in children under six. Such reports are generated when people feel sick enough to seek out a doctor or are hospitalized. Most people, like myself, didn't go to a doctor after we were sprayed and felt ill.

This corporately-compromised report represents quite a change from the EPA's previous position on Malathion:

Tampa Tribune

Tampa, Florida
Monday February 2, 1998

"Malathion is part of a chemical class that has been identified by the agency as one of the riskiest classes of chemicals," said Steve Johnson, an EPA pesticide administrator.

It's not too hard to figure out how an insecticide company could influence this kind of study. Malathion is one of the most frequently used insecticides on earth and chemical companies are among the largest contributors to elected officials in the U.S. The influence of these corporations on the EPA itself is even more extraordinary. The following quote from a recent Daily News article illustrates the connection:

Daily News 2/8/2000

Feds Probe Pesticide Cancer Link

"Some people might ask why it has taken so long for the EPA to get around to reviewing its approval of malathion and other organophosphate pesticides. Well, part of the reason could be the cushy revolving door that has developed between the EPA and the pesticide industry. According to a recent study by the Environmental Working Group in Washington, four of the six assistant administrators for pesticides and toxic substances at the EPA since the office was founded in 1977 went to work or lobbied for the pesticide and agribusiness industry when they left the agency. Steven Jellinek, the first head of the office under President Jimmy Carter, is now chairman of Jellinek, Schwartz & Connolly Inc., a consulting firm that represents some of the biggest pesticide companies in the world, including Monsanto, Dow and Cheminova. Cheminova, by the way, is the firm that produces the malathion that was sprayed on New York City. Jellinek's firm boasts a slew of former EPA officials in its ranks, including Dan Barolo, who until 1997 was the Clinton administration's director of the Office of Pesticide Programs. So it should surprise no one that the EPA has taken its sweet time about reviewing studies that question the "safety"of pesticides..."

A perusal of the EPA study on their website confirms that Jellinek, Schwartz & Connolly Inc. also happens to be the exact law firm that influenced the EPA to make its last minute change in the study.

If you've read my previous articles on this issue you'll recall that I've been pretty hard on the media, at times accusing them of ommitting opposing viewpoints, distorting facts or outright lying. The coverage of this report could serve as a study in why Americans cannot trust the mainstream media. Of the four daily newspapers in NYC only Newsday, the one paper with virtually no ties to the Giuliani administration (all the other papers have received hundreds of millions of dollars in tax write-offs from the Mayor), made any mention of the fact that Cheminova had played an extraordinary role in influencing the study's conclusions. Yet, even a few minutes spent examining the study makes that obvious.

The Daily News' article on the study, "Daily News 5/12/2000 EPA Says No Tie Between Cancer, Malathion", rather dramatically misstates the conclusions while the ever-cautious NY Times somewhat more accurately depicted the study's conclusion with an article entitled, NY Times 5/12/2000 "Mosquito Spray Deemed Safe at Proper Levels". The POST Editorial 5/13/2000 "THE DEADLY PUBLICITY BUG" claimed it was totally safe as used and attacked two U.S. Congressmen who dared to hold hearings after being besieged with complaints of health effects from thousands of their constituents for being, "publicity-hungry".

For the majority of New Yorkers who get their news from television the coverage was even worse. Most news shows declared that the public's fears were unnecessary because the EPA had declared Malathion to be completely safe, about as far from the actual conclusion of the report as you could get.

What all this means is that the Mayor and his Commissioner's will now feel legally safe to douse the City with Malathion at the first sign of a real or imaginary infected mosquito. It's important for a layperson, as I am, to understand what an agency like the EPA means by the term "safe".

Most people think of safe as meaning harmless, but that is very far from what the EPA means by the term. To start, they have never to my knowledge done a single actual scientific study of Malathion's effects on humans. The studies they rely on are based on exposing rabbits, mice and rats to the chemical. While the results of such studies may indicate some of the effects on humans, there is no guarantee that they do.

The other night I was watching a documentary on the Discovery Channel about biological warfare. A U.S. government scientist who was working with Anthrax was explaining how difficult it was to determine just how much Anthrax it would take to kill a human being. Rabbits and mice died at very low doses he explained, but rats were a different story. No matter how much Anthrax they exposed rats to they did not die. Extrapolating that study to the Malathion rat studies that Cheminova uses, Malathion IS safe. In fact, we should all begin using it as a daily health supplement.

In regard to cancer, it's well known that this disease often takes decades to manifest itself in human beings. Cigarette smokers for example usually don't get diagnosed with cancer until they've used it for twenty or more years. Does that mean it's safe? Even a single exposure to airborne particles of asbestos can lead to cancer, but that disease will not become apparent for decades. In other words, no one really knows what the effects on humans will be from organophosphate chemicals.

As far as determining the neurological effects on humans of Malathion exposure by testing rats-it's an impossibility. We can't ask a rat if its thinking clearly today or feeling depressed or suicidal after exposure (suicide is considered one of the risk-effects of frequent pesticide exposure). That a rat or other animal can survive exposure hardly means it has experienced no harm. Most people would agree that there's more to life than simply being vegetatively alive and that a sharp mind and stable emotions are as desirable as air, food or water.

The incidence of cancer in this country is becoming astronomical and it is unquestionably related to pesticides in our food and water as well as other toxic environmental sources. Consider how the typical apartment dweller uses commercial brand insecticides like Raid, most of which are organophosphate nerve gases directly related to Malathion. The familiar black and red cans are usually kept on a shelf in the kitchen right next to the corn flakes. Children are exposed on a daily basis to these chemicals inside their homes from the moment of conception. If we don't buy these poisons in the store the landlord will be sure to send the friendly exterminator to our door each month to wave his magic wand.

Malathion is sprayed on over 100 different crops according to the EPA report and its residues are to be found in almost every food product we buy. Might this have anything to do with the unprecedented incidence of childhood cancer? Could the intellectual, emotional and mental problems so many children are having in this country be related to these exposures?

What the EPA means by safe is usually that 100 rats were exposed to a chemical and less than 50 died. Based on that thinking, guns are safe as well. Tens of thousands of people are shot each year, some multiple times, and survive. Of course, that's a ridiculous concept, but then so is the so-called safety of Malathion.

If someone pointed a gun at you or your children, would you just stand by and let them shoot? If Giuliani sends helicopters loaded with Malathion over your home again this year, will you let the media tell you not to worry?

The EPA is seeking your comments on this study. At their website you'll find instructions on how to contact them (Click here ). It will also be extremely helpful to call or write your congressional representative and let them know how you feel about this. Feel free to send them this article as well.

Senator Charles Schumer
757 3rd Ave Rm 17-02
NYC,NY 10017
Call his NYS Director- Rodney Capel 212-486-4430

Patricia Moe, Director EPA assessment on Malathion 703-308-8011

Also contact your newspapers, radio and television stations. Let them (and their advertisers) know you don't appreciate being disinformed about this issue.

• voicers@nydailynews.com
• edit.voicers@nydailynews.com
• letters@newsday.com
• letters@nypost.com
• editor@nypost.com
• letters@nytimes.com
• insidecityhall@ny1.com

For lots more NY media numbers check out:

• Click here
• Click here
• Click here
• Click here
• Click here

Click Here to contact the U.S. Congress
To contact NYC officials including the Mayor and his puppet commissioners by email Click Here

POST Editorial 5/13/2000

THE DEADLY PUBLICITY BUG

"Because a pair of publicity-hungry congressmen couldn't wait to get their faces all over the local news, New Yorkers this week were needlessly terrified and outrageously misinformed about a possible threat to their health. Reps. Gary Ackerman and Joseph Crowley, both Queens Democrats, jumped the gun on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, announcing to the press and the City Council that the EPA was about to declare malathion to be a low-level carcinogen. Massive spraying of the insecticide was City Hall's main defense against last summer's outbreak of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus. But, said Ackerman, "we have no way of knowing how many people got sick because of malathion."Added Crowley, "this is not safe."The real EPA report came out Thursday. How many people did in fact get sick because of malathion? None. Yes, Ackerman and Crowley were wrong. The EPA did not declare malathion to be carcinogenic. In fact, said the agency, when used as directed, malathion poses no health risk to humans: "We don't have any level of concern with regard to food or drinking water,"according to Deputy Assistant EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. Not any level of concern? "We don't believe there's any cancer risk problem associated with mosquito spraying - even if someone was inadvertently directly sprayed. That's really the most important message,"added Johnson. Which is precisely what City Hall has been saying all along. While there were suggestions malathion might cause tumors in lab animals when consumed in mammoth doses, human exposure is rarely more than a trace. Or, as Mayor Giuliani correctly put it last summer: "You virtually have to drink it in order to create the damage they are talking about."...If anyone has a right to be disturbed, it's those who were needlessly scared by two irresponsible congressmen who peddled mistaken information for blatantly partisan reasons - and now refuse to admit their error. Gary Ackerman and Joseph Crowley should stop making a bad situation worse by continuing to misrepresent the EPA's findings on malathion. They've done enough damage as it is. A couple of honest apologies are called for."

Newsday 5/12/2000

EPA Won't Prevent Malathion Use
Changes 'likely carcinogen' ruling BY: Dan Fagin.

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency yesterday said it would not prevent malathion's use to control mosquitoes but will further study the "suggestive evidence"that it can cause cancer in lab animals. The announcement was a reversal of a previously undisclosed plan to declare the insecticide a "likely human carcinogen."In releasing its long-awaited preliminary risk assessment for malathion, the EPA did little to quell the controversy over the chemical that was sprayed from helicopters last fall in New York City and parts of northwestern Suffolk County to kill mosquitoes carrying the virus that causes West Nile encephalitis....EPA officials yesterday emphasized that the agency does not consider malathion spraying to be a significant risk to the public- even to people who were directly exposed to the chemical mist last fall. "We don't believe there's any cancer risk problem associated with mosquito spraying, even if someone was inadvertently directly sprayed. That's really the most important message,"said Stephen Johnson, the agency's deputy assistant administrator for prevention, pesticides and toxic substances. Johnson acknowledged, however, that as recently as April 28 the EPA was preparing to classify malathion as a "likely human carcinogen"based on tests on laboratory animals. Internal EPA documents that were posted on the EPA's Web site after yesterday's announcement show that the agency changed its view after objections from malathion's manufacturer, Cheminova A/S. The Denmark-based company argued that a key study on lab rats had been assessed incorrectly by a pathologist at Cheminova, which had conducted the study to satisfy EPA requirements. The company pathologist had concluded that malathion caused liver tumors and a small number of nasal tumors in lab rats. After Cheminova objected, Johnson said, the EPA asked a panel of independent pathologists to review slides of rat tumors. That panel concluded that malathion caused far fewer cancerous tumors than had been thought, so the EPA decided to classify malathion as "suggestive evidence of carcinogenicity but not sufficient to assess human carcinogenic potential."Anti-pesticide activists yesterday said the EPA since 1984 has had relatively strong evidence of malathion's carcinogenicity in animals and of other health problems in humans. They also suggested that the agency backed down because it wanted to avoid the criticism it would receive by labeling as a "likely human carcinogen"a chemical that the agency eight months earlier had allowed to be sprayed over large areas of metropolitan New York. "It may be that he EPA is backing off because of the concerns of the manufacturer, and because it doesn't want to be in a situation with public health officials who could say, 'you told us it was safe before, and now you're saying it's not safe',"said Jeff Fullmer of Massapequa-based Citizen's Campaign for the Environment....A spokesman at Cheminova's U.S. headquarters in Wayne, N.J., did not return a telephone message seeking comment."

Daily News 2/8/2000

Feds Probe Pesticide Cancer Link

"The federal government is investigating whether malathion — the pesticide that was sprayed over the New York area to combat last summer's outbreak of West Nile fever — may cause cancer. The investigation was revealed in a letter last week from a U.S. Department of Agriculture official to a Washington, D.C.-area environmental scientist. "The EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] is considering changing the registration status of malathion because of studies that suggest it could be a low-level human carcinogen,"wrote Harold Smith, a senior project leader in policy and program development at the USDA. The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily News, was sent to Dr. Robert Simon, a toxicologist who has been a steadfast critic of New York's massive pesticide spraying....During the past few months, in testimony before the City Council and other government groups, Simon and other environmental activists have insisted that malathion is not as safe as federal officials have claimed. Simon has pointed to studies in scientific journals like The Lancet and the Canadian Medical Association Journal that have reported leukemia and bone-marrow disorders in children and significantly higher leukemia rates among farmers exposed to malathion. One 1996 study in the journal Cancer Research reported genetic damage in white blood cells exposed to malathion..."No pesticide is 100% safe," Cervantes said. "Those who are applying it and the public have to exercise caution and care and follow the strict labeling requirements." The same cannot be said of our own mayor, who amid the West Nile virus crisis, kept repeating over and over that aerial spraying of malathion was perfectly safe."

Daily News 5/12/2000

EPA Says No Tie Between Cancer, Malathion

"New Yorkers caught in last year's crossfire between mosquitoes and malathion can rest easy, federal officials said yesterday. There is no evidence to prove a link between malathion and cancer in humans when the pesticide is sprayed according to directions, a preliminary report by the Environmental Protection Agency said. The announcement was good news for city officials who ordered aerial spraying of malathion to control last year's outbreak of the West Nile virus. "We are reassured that federal scientists don't find any cause for concern,"said city Health Commissioner Neal Cohen....He noted that the city used the pesticide at the recommendation of federal and state officials....Cancerous tumors have been found in laboratory rats exposed to large doses of malathion. In the preliminary risk-assessment report released yesterday, EPA officials said those findings are not duplicated in people caught in a spray of malathion. The announcement came as a surprise to Reps. Joseph Crowley and Gary Ackerman, both Democrats from Queens. On Tuesday, they told reporters and City Council members they expected the EPA report would find malathion to be a low-level carcinogen. "A big part of me says I am happy," said Crowley, whose district includes the northern Queens neighborhoods hit hardest by the outbreak. "But I still have concerns about spraying the entire city with any chemical substance."Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota slammed Crowley and Ackerman for "attempting to terrify their constituents for political gain."

Daily News 5/11/2000

Rudy: City Told Malathion Not Cancer-Causing

"The city never would have used malathion to battle disease-carrying mosquitoes last summer if there was even a hint the pesticide might cause cancer, Mayor Giuliani said yesterday."...For years, critics have warned that malathion is a neurotoxic chemical that can attack the central nervous system and cause respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurological problems. While most authorities called the chemical safe, spraying in Tampa left 200 people hospitalized with dizziness, nausea and flu-like symptoms."

NY Times 5/12/2000

Mosquito Spray Deemed Safe at Proper Levels

"A new federal review of the health effects of malathion, the insecticide sprayed around New York City last year to kill disease-carrying mosquitoes, has found "suggestive evidence"that high doses of the chemical may cause cancer in laboratory animals, but no evidence that it poses a threat to people when used properly. The Environmental Protection Agency, in more than 1,000 pages of preliminary analysis of malathion issued yesterday and posted on its Web site, found no evidence that would indicate a need for tighter restrictions on the chemical, which is widely used in agriculture, consumer backyard products and mosquito control. In particular, the agency concluded that when malathion is sprayed in the very low concentrations that are used to kill mosquitoes, there is no health threat to people....Laura Haight, a pesticide expert at the New York Public Research Interest Group, a private consumer and environmental group in Albany, said it was important for the agency and the public to keep in mind that cancer is only one factor to watch for with chemicals such as malathion. "All this focus on the cancer causing potential of these pesticides is missing other harmful effects," she said. "Malathion is a nerve toxin and can cause acute reactions. There are non-cancer health hazards that are still very serious."...Dr. Neal L. Cohen, the city's health commissioner, said, "We're reassured by the findings of federal scientists that malathion used in mosquito control is of negligible health concern"....Deputy Mayor Joseph J. Lhota, reacting to the findings, said that the study rebuffed critics of the city's spraying operation last year. "This is a much lower risk assessment than you'll find on your common can of bug spray that you find under your kitchen sink," Mr. Lhota said yesterday. But Representative Gary L. Ackerman of Queens said that the indications of a cancer link -- though confined to laboratory tests -- showed that the chemical was not as benign as Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani portrayed it to be last year. "In so many press conferences, they said it was perfectly safe," Mr. Ackerman said."

Newsday 3/10/2000

Queens Find Spurs West Nile Fears

"Mayor Rudolph Giuliani refused to rule out the need for widespread insecticide spraying in the event there is another outbreak this year...Seeking to blunt criticism of last year's spraying, Giuliani brought Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington to the podium at City Hall and said, "This man here, right here, was sprayed with malathion five times. See? Does he look good? All right? And I was sprayed with him. Five times." An aide later said that Washington and the mayor were subjected to five passes by a malathion-spraying helicopter while playing golf in Forest Park, Queens, during the outbreak. Neither mentioned any ill effects, the aide said."

FYFANON ULV [This is the brand of Malathion OEM Director Jerry Hauer Testified is being used]
page 1 of label Click Here
page 2 Label Click Here
page 3 label Click Here
page 4 label Click Here CHEMINOVA'S Website Click Here

To a Directory of Mr.Lederman's Essays

Important Note:
Mr. Lederman has explained that his articles posted here are not to be taken as official statements by the No-Spray Coalition of which he is a member or of the "No-Spray" lawsuit in which he is a plaintiff.

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