The recent DOH pesticide study was expertly designed and executed to tell us simply if pesticides were present in measurable quantities across different land uses. That’s it.
The single sample snapshot does not tell us the maximum amount in the environment at any time, say right after spraying, or the average amount (typical conditions), it just says it was at that level on the instant of sampling. It does irrefutably say pesticides were present!
The most important finding of the study is that pesticides, including Restricted Use Pesticides, are present in the waters and soils near fields of the largest users of pesticides, monoculture agriculture. An earlier study showed pesticides in waters of Kalapaki and Hanamaulu bays at the mouth of the streams. Best management practices have not adequately protected the environment.
The study also tells us that urban use of General Use Pesticides is rampant and undoubtedly harmful to both human health and the environment. The general public has access to a wide variety of pesticides which is why so many types were found in urban Oahu samples, while commercial seed crop operations only use those very few pesticides produced by their parent chemical company, so of course fewer types will be discovered around those fields.
The presence of General Use Pesticides in urban areas does not excuse the much heavier volume of use of Restricted Use Pesticides by commercial agriculture. Instead, it says that extreme care must be taken by all users of pesticides.
The position of DOH that “none of these levels present a risk to human health or the environment,” is inaccurate, deceptive and misleading at best, and is not supported by the report itself which states: That very few drinking water or surface water standards (i.e. regulatory values) exist for currently registered pesticides. Five total, including two Restricted Use Pesticides, exceeded strictest aquatic life benchmarks at seven sites. Dieldrin exceeded regulatory limits at three separate locations.
Most importantly, nowhere in the USA are there regulatory values for the mixtures of the chemicals as observed in the study.
Based on our current inadequate knowledge of chronic toxicity levels in the environment, especially for complex mixtures of the toxic chemicals discovered, ALL of these levels observed in this study present a risk to human health and/or the environment. Scientists do not know what that level of risk is, or whether the community will accept that level of risk to human or ecosystem health.
More extensive monitoring of pesticide levels in soils and waters adjacent to users of experimental and Restricted Use Pesticides must be done immediately.
• Carl J. Berg, Ph.D. Blue Water Task Force of Kauai Chapter, The Surfrider Foundation
