Title: Fungicide use surging, largely unmonitored

[Environmental Health News 22 Feb. 2013 by Brett Israel] -- With an estimated $8-billion global market in 2005, industry experts now predict $21 billionworth of fungicides will be sold annually by 2017. Spraying of soybean crops quadrupled between 2002 and 2006 in an effort to fight Asian Soybean Rust, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Fungicides were routinely applied on up to 30 percent of USA's 220 million acres of corn, soybean and wheat, according to a 2009 estimate. University of Kentucky plant pathologist Paul Vincelli estimates that 10 to 15 percent of all U.S. crops are treated with fungicide. "It's concerning," said Jason Belden, an environmental toxicologist at Oklahoma State University. "We have limited toxicological data for a lot of these compounds." Fungicides are contaminating the majority of water bodies tested in states where there is heavy use, such as in Maine, Idaho and Wisconsin. Some are known to be highly toxic to aquatic creatures, but little is known about whether they are actually harming frogs or other animals in the environment. The potential threats to people are unknown, with new research on lab mice linking them to obesity. Farmers have historically sprayed fungicides to stop disease. But over the past decade, in an effort to squeeze extra bushels from their crops, they have been spraying more kinds of fungicides on more acres. Farmers around USA are doing the same, causing an unprecedented surge in fungicide use. But as widespread contamination of waterways near these farms emerges, experts warn that there is inadequate environmental monitoring and information on the chemicals' safety. "It's concerning," said Jason Belden, an environmental toxicologist at Oklahoma State University. "We have limited toxicological data for a lot of these compounds." Comment

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Article: WeedsNews4338 (permalink)
Date: 19 March 2013; 11:01:56 am Australian Eastern Daylight Time

Author Name: David Low
Author ID: adminDavid