Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals
Much of FoE’s current work on toxics concentrates on pesticides, particularly their impact on food and drinking water. As of March 2012 this work is unfunded. Donations are always gratefully accepted and go along way.
– Donate to Plantations/ pesticides/ water.
– April 2 2012 Press Release: Regulators Fail To Implement Toxic Timber Bans
Some of our recent work can be located below:
1): An Organic Food and Pesticides Booklet (Release Date February 21 2012).
2) An Australian Drinking Water Quality Overview. February 23 2012 (Updated April 13 2012): FoeAWaterQualityProject.pdf (1.08 MB)
3) Fighting to stop a $70m Golf Course Development, 1km upstream of the offtake to Melbourne’s drinking water Sugarloaf Reservoir. A subsequent VCAT hearing in December 2010, has paused this development, but new development plans are due to be lodged at Yarra Ranges Shire anytime soon. Eastern Golf Course Plan to use 36 pesticides on the course. See FoE’s Submission here: VCATDec10Final.pdf (2.04 MB)
4) Collating a national index of pesticide incidents in domestic water supplies across Australia. (Release Date 2012).
5) A 2010 Water Quality Report foewaterqualityissuesballaratbendigobenalla.pdf (published May 2010) for Communities of Ballarat, Bendigo and Benalla – with emphasis on pesticides. Ballarat Water Supply (above)
6. Updating a 2008 Friends of the Earth Report regarding water pesticide incidents in Victorian domestic water supplies.
Networking with communities impacted by pesticides used in agriculture and plantation forestry, particularly in Victoria.
Tracking agricultural pesticides use across Australia.
Some Other Examples Our Past Work
– http://foe.org.au/bisphenol
– http://foe.org.au/news-bisphenol
– http://foe.org.au/swimming-pool-chemicals
Why do we need safer chemicals?
Anything you buy – whether it’s soap or a computer, perfume or paints – will contain a mixture of substances produced in a chemical factory. Chemicals are used for all kinds of reasons such as for fragrance, to kill germs, to make things last longer, make things stronger etc. etc. But the uncomfortable truth is, more and more research is suggesting that many chemicals are threatening our health with a new kind of pollution that contaminates the bodies of us and our families, our environment, animals, plants, the planet. Chemicals have been linked to everything from many forms of cancer, to obesity and behaviour problems. The effects of hundreds of chemicals is not yet fully understood. Our bodies are now contaminated with more than 300 human-made chemicals.
We think that as a minimum first step, chemicals that build up in our bodies should be phased out. The precautionary principle should always be applied in the assessment and regulation of chemicals. Producers of chemicals must be able to proof that the chemical are safe, whether they are new or old chemicals. Producers must be held accountable.
A game of Double Jeopardy
The most worrying types of chemicals are those which are hormone disrupters and/or which can build up inside in the human body. Friends of the Earth thinks these chemicals should be phased out completely and replaced with safer alternatives.
Hormone disrupters: Hormone disrupters interfere with our body’s hormones. Our hormones regulate our day-to-day bodily functions and are vital for making sure we grow up healthy.
Bio-accumulation: Some chemicals that our bodies can’t fully break down will accumulate in our tissues. This is known as bio-accumulation.
The risk with these chemicals is that it’s not known what the long term effects of some of them might be and we would be unable to remove them from our bodies and environment if they were found to be harmful.
So what can you do now to reduce the risk?
Try to avoid coming into contact with risky chemicals – ultimately, though, we will only be protected by tighter laws.
OUR PAST REPORTS ON CHEMICALS:
– Bisphenol A (BPA)
– Check here for details on this project.
– News on BPA, October 2008 – Canada bans BPA in baby bottles
– Other work: swimming pool chemicals
File:
– foewaterqualityissuesballaratbendigobenalla.pdf
– TheDoseMakesThePoisonFeb2012.pdf
– FoeAWaterQualityProject.pdf
– VCATDec10Final.pdf