EPA Approves Probable Carcinogenic Herbicide For Soybean Use Without Proper Public Review

Isoxaflutole is a herbicide that’s manufactured and sold by BASF, the second-largest chemical producer in the world, under the name brand name Alite 27. It’s currently used on corn plants in 33 states, and the EPA has recently registered the use of the chemical on soybeans in 25 different states. This registration is the Environmental Protection Agency’s assurance that Isoxaflutole does what the label says it does and should not pose an unreasonable hazard to your health. Isoxaflutole is classified by the EPA as a probable human carcinogen, and it is phytotoxic to non-target aquatic and terrestrial plants and moderately toxic to freshwater fish.

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The EPA requested public comment on the proposed registration decision and cited that feedback as a key factor in the organization’s decision to move forward with the registration. All fifty-four comments left during the public review period were positive, a show of overwhelmingly support for the use of Isoxaflutole on soybeans.

Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, says,

We’ve heard from farmers across the country about the importance of having new means available to combat economically-damaging weeds…We listened and believe this action balances the need to provide growers with the products necessary to continue to provide Americans with a safe and abundant food supply while ensuring our country’s endangered species are protected.”

EPA.gov

The comments reviewed by the EPA did not include feedback from environmental groups and journalists. The EPA circumvented a critical part of the usual chemical approval process, opening the herbicide registration for public comment without notifying the Federal Register. The Federal Register notifies the press and environmental groups of significant rule changes and without this notice, the opponents of Isoxaflutole were unable to register their comments.

Nathan Donley is a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, a national, nonprofit conservation organization. He stated,

The press release caught everyone off guard. We were just waiting for the EPA to open the comment period, and we never saw it.”

AP News

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Tiger Tests Positive for Coronavirus

A Malay tiger named Nadia at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes CoVID-19. Six other big cats at the zoo, three tigers and three lions, are also displaying similar symptoms. These symptoms include coughs and a loss of appetite. The test used by the zoo’s veterinary team is not the same one as used by healthcare providers, and the zoo was able to confirm Nadia’s diagnosis after sending samples to the New York State Diagnostic Laboratory at Cornell University and the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. The zoo has been closed since March 16th, so it likely the tiger contracted the virus from an asymptomatic zookeeper.

It’s the first time, to our knowledge, that a [wild] animal has gotten sick from COVID-19 from a person…It’s the only thing that makes sense…”

Paul Calle, chief veterinarian for the Bronx Zoo

Nadia is not the first animal that has tested positive for SARS-CoV2. Two dogs in Hong Kong and a domestic cat in Belgium have also been confirmed to have the virus. Cat’s are particularly susceptible to the coronavirus, and a recent study has found that cats are able to transmit the virus to other cats through respiratory droplets.

According to the World Organisation for Animal Health and the World Health Organization, there is no evidence that SARS-Cov can be transmitted from domestic pets like cats and dogs to humans.

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U.S. Registers Highest Number of Coronavirus Deaths in a Single Day

The number of Coronavirus cases in the United States passed 300,000 on Saturday, and the country recorded the highest number of fatalities so far in the pandemic. The death toll in the U.S. reached more 8,400, with 1,344 of those deaths reported over the weekend. That trend is likely to continue. According to Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, estimates that the next 6-7 days will see hundreds of deaths a day in CoVID-19 hotspots like New York, Detroit, and Louisiana.

Image credit: NY Times

They are predicting in those three hotspots, all of them hitting together in the next six to seven days…This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe…”

USA TODAY

Efforts to contain the spread of CoVID-19 in the U.S. have been severely hampered by the lack of available testing at the beginning of the pandemic. The lack of testing made it difficult to determine those that needed to be quarantined, and many people who were infected with the coronavirus continued their usual activities. This has led to the current shortage of medical supplies and personal protective equipment.

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US coronavirus fight enters crucial weeks after reaching a grim milestone – CNN

Dr. Birx predicts up to 200,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths ‘if we do things almost perfectly – ABC News

The COVID Tracking Project

Coronavirus Can Survive on Surfaces and Air for Hours, Says New Study

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that coronavirus can survive on surfaces and in the air. A joint effort from scientists at the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, University of California Los Angeles, and Princeton University, these findings have added another level of tension to an already fraught situation. According to the study, COVID-19 was detected on plastic and stainless steel surfaces for two to three days and cardboard for up to 24 hours. The study compared COVID-19 (the technical name for the virus is SARS-CoV-2) with the SARS virus from 2002-2003 and suggested that the coronavirus pandemic has been greater due to asymptomatic people transmitting the virus.

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to persons from surfaces contaminated with the virus has not been documented. Transmission of coronavirus occurs much more commonly through respiratory droplets than through fomites. Current evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 may remain viable for hours to days on surfaces made from a variety of materials. Cleaning of visibly dirty surfaces followed by disinfection is a best practice measure for prevention of COVID-19 and other viral respiratory illnesses in households and community settings. It is unknown how long the air inside a room occupied by someone with confirmed COVID-19 remains potentially infectious.”

CDC.gov

The study found that SARS-CoV-2 remains infectious in airborne droplets for at least three hours. The majority of safety efforts have concentrated on preventing the spread of the virus through airborne methods like coughing and sneezing. As more information on the pandemic emerges, it seems that people should err on the side of being safe, rather than sorry.

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EPA Suspends Environmental Law Enforcement For Coronavirus

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) might want to think about changing their name after telling companies on Thursday that the organization would not be enforcing penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting. The EPA has suspended these obligations in lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic.

EPA is committed to protecting human health and the environment, but recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements. This temporary policy is designed to provide enforcement discretion under the current, extraordinary conditions, while ensuring facility operations continue to protect human health and the environment.”

Andrew Wheeler, EPA Adminsitrator

While the EPA’s announcement made it clear that this policy is temporary, this announcement will likely do more harm than good.

Air Pollution Affects Lung Health

The reduction in traffic and industrial activity due to coronavirus has been greatly reduced air pollution. In addition to the obvious benefits of that, the improved air quality can only benefit coronavirus outcomes. Air pollution is a significant respiratory irritant.

When something like fine particulate matter injures or irritates the nerves in the respiratory tree, air passages that move air from outside into the lungs, they become inflamed and the fluid the body sends into the lungs. This fluid prevents the body from getting enough oxygen into the bloodstream, leading to severe pneumonia. This is one of the ways COVID-19 cases go from benign to serious illness.

The decision by the EPA to stop enforcing federal regulatory requirements due to this pandemic is ironic. The agency states that this is a temporary measure during the pandemic, but this move will increase air pollution during a pandemic that affects the lungs. The EPA has agreed to indirectly extend the pandemic.

Cynthia Giles, the former head of EPA office of enforcement during the Obama administration, condemned the news in a statement to The Hill.

This EPA statement is essentially a nationwide waiver of environmental rules for the indefinite future. It tells companies across the country that they will not face enforcement even if they emit unlawful air and water pollution in violation of environmental laws, so long as they claim that those failures are in some way ’caused’ by the virus pandemic. And it allows them an out on monitoring too, so we may never know how bad the violating pollution was…”

The Hill

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U.S. Is Now the Coronavirus Epicenter

As of Thursday, the United States has the most recorded cases of COVID-19. The number of total coronavirus cases in the U.S. rose to 85,749, surpassing China’s total of 81,430. It is likely that the number of cases is much higher than reported, as the U.S. healthcare system has been unable to provide easy and effective testing to most of the population.

Image credits Richard Codor (above) World Meters (below/right)

The testing timeline in the U.S. has been rocky. The first case of coronavirus in the U.S. was registered on January 20, but fewer than 4,000 tests had been administered in the U.S. by February 27. The number of tests given by March 12 was less than 4,000. The United States has been unable to provide large-scale testing for the virus until recently. In a March 12 hearing in the Hosue of Representatives, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key figure in the United States’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic addressed the issue.

The system is not really geared to what we need right now, what you are asking for. That is a failing. Let’s admit it. The fact is, the way the system was set up is that the public health component…was a system where you put it out there in the public and a physician asks for it and you get it. The idea of anybody getting it easily, the way people in other countries are doing it, we’re not set up for that.

NBC

Early testing is crucial in limiting the spread of COVID-19. South Korea saw its first case of the virus on the same day that the United States did, January 20th, and the government was quick to implement a testing program. By March 5, South Korea had administered more than 140,000 tests.

Eric Feigl-Ding is a senior fellow and epidemiologist at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C. He notes that South Korea is now testing 15,000 people a day, with a maximum capacity of 22,000.

In terms of per capita testing, Korea has run 3,600 tests per 1 million population. In contrast, U.S. has just run five tests per 1 million people.

NPR

That approach to this pandemic is paying off. On March 26, South Korea recorded a less than 1% (.98%) increase in cases of COVID-19. In contrast, cases in the U.S. increased by 26.5%. Those numbers are only going to increase as the United States struggles to combat a healthcare crisis with a system unprepared to handle it.

Why does Coronavirus Spreading So Easily?

Outside a host, viruses are dormant. They have none of the traditional trappings of life: metabolism, motion, the ability to reproduce. AD

And they can last this way for quite a long time. Recent laboratory research showed that, although SARS-CoV-2 typically degrades in minutes or a few hours outside a host, some particles can remain viable — potentially infectious — on cardboard for up to 24 hours and on plastic and stainless steel for up to three days. In 2014, a virus frozen in permafrost for 30,000 years that scientists retrieved was able to infect an amoeba after being revived in the lab.

Washington Post

This could have been stopped by implementing testing and surveillance much earlier — for example, when the first imported cases were identified.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York.

Now at least 160 million Americans have been ordered to stay home in states from California to New York. Schools are closed, often along with bars, restaurants and many other businesses. Hospitals are coping with soaring numbers of patients in New York City, even as supplies of essential protective gear and equipment dwindle.

NY Times

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Why Sea Turtles Eat Plastic

Microplastics have been found in every single species of sea turtle, and a new study published in Current Biology suggests that smell could be an explanation for that. Plastics in the water become host to multiple organisms, including plankton. Plankton emit large amounts of dimethyl sulfide, which is an organic compound that a number of marine animals rely on to find food. Sea turtles use their keen sense of smell to locate this compound, and that may be leading the turtles to consume more plastics.

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According to Matthew Savoca, a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station and one of the study’s authors…

I’ve heard numerous times that animals just eat plastic because they don’t know any better…What this type of research shows is that there are really complex evolutionary mechanisms that govern how animals are finding food.”

CNN

Scientists previously hypothesized that sea turtles consumed plastics because floating bags resembled jellyfish, but that theory doesn’t account for their consumption of other plastics. These plastics block the turtles’ intestinal tract, negatively impacting digestion, and potentially causing the turtle to go into septic shock.

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Microplastics are a threat to nearly all sea turtle populations, which are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list – all but one species of sea turtles are listed as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered.