[GreenYes] A more realistic view of Clopyralid from the trusted people at NCAP

["Paul Goettlich" <gottlich@infi.net>]

A more realistic view of Clopyralid from the trusted people at NCAP.

Clopyralid
*******
The herbicide clopyralid is commonly sold under the brand names Transline,
Stinger, and Confront. It is used to kill unwanted plants in lawn and turf,
range, pasture, rights-of-way, sugarbeets, mint, and wheat. Clopyralid and
the products containing it are irritating to eyes, some severely. The eye
hazards of four clopyralid products include permanent impairment of vision
or irreversible damage. In laboratory tests, clopyralid caused what a U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviewer called "substantial"
reproductive problems. These include a reduction in the weight of fetuses
carried by rabbits who ingested clopyralid, an increase in skeletal
abnormalities in these fetuses at all doses tested, and an increase in the
number of fetuses with hydrocephaly, accumulation of excess fluid around the
brain. "Inert" ingredients in clopyralid products include cyclohexanone
(produces tearing and burning of the eyes, vomiting, diarrhea, and
dizziness), triethylamine (a severe eye irritant and cause of chemical
pneumonia), and polyethoxylated tallow amines (cause eye burns, nausea, and
are acutely toxic to fish). Clopyralid is "persistent" in soil, according to
an EPA review, and field studies have measured persistence as long as 14
months. It has the chemical characteristics that make it a likely water
contaminant; despite its relatively low level of use it has been found in 2
of the 20 river basins studied by the U.S. Geological Survey. Potatoes are
extremely sensitive to clopyralid with damage occurring when plants are
exposed to 0.07 percent of typical agricultural rates. When tubers from
these damaged plants were grown in unsprayed fields, the new generation of
plants also showed damage symptoms.

Clopyralid- Herbicide Fact Sheet
Caroline Cox / Journal of Pesticide Reform v.18, n.4, Winter98
http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Clopyralid.htm

Also available in PDF format from NCAP. They have lots of other great
factsheets.
http://www.pesticide.org/clopyralid.pdf

 PS
***
OK, now let's get political...
Dow, the primary manufacturer of Clopyralid, is in Indianapolis, Indiana. US
Senator Dick Lugar is too. He likes pesticides, genetic engineering and
nuclear waste. He's quite familiar with economic sustainability (his version
anyway), but I encourage you all to request that he become enlightened on
the definition of environmental sustainability. Remind him that nobody will
profit if everyone is dead and dying. Chemicals such as Clopyralid would not
be needed if farming was done sustainably. To say that this herbicide is
important to agriculture is like saying that acid rain is important to
forests. Here's Dick's email address mailto:senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov
Unlike our president, Dick's really a smart guy (Rhodes Scholar), so you can
write to him without downscaling your vocabulary or thought process. I don't
expect miracles, but I must keep trying to get through.

Paul Goettlich
PO Box 517
Berkeley  CA  94701
www.mindfully.org
gottlich@infi.net
Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur

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