The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

I am frequently asked if I have an agenda against the pesticide industry in general or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in particular. Of course I don’t have an agenda, but I do like to get the facts out when they are relevant to our health.
I have written many times that pesticides are tested by the pesticide industry and the results are given to the EPA, which accepts the tests or not. Most of the pesticides in use now have not been thoroughly tested. Many of the pesticides that have been removed from the shelves have been in use for years before the truth about their danger came out. Another disturbing aspect of pesticide registration is that many individuals from pesticide companies move into the EPA and then back again to their original employer.

Generally the EPA is doing a good job but they got their start under suspicious circumstances. Let’s talk about asbestos. It is currently thought that asbestos is a very hazardous material that can cause all sorts of problems in society. There are many companies who specialize in asbestos cleanup but it is all a gimmick based on false information.

In the 1960’s, the Bureau of Occupational Safety and Health (BOSH) was a research organization. They had no power besides disseminating information about hazardous products and occupations. They wanted more power and they schemed to get it and they did. Eventually they became the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). In 1964 the folks at BOSH wanted something as a mechanism to justify their existence, and fuel their bureaucratic growth. They came up with asbestos. Asbestos was the initial "le cause celebre'" of the political movement to get the EPA and OSHA acts passed.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that was used commonly in buildings for insulation. Asbestos fibers are exceptionally strong, flexible and are resistant to heat and chemicals degradation. Asbestos is commonly found in ceiling tiles, flooring and pipes among other things. It is estimated that 30 million tons of asbestos was used in the United States in approximately 3,000 different products in the automotive, textile, construction, and electronics industries.

How dangerous is asbestos exposure? Certainly there are cases of asbestosis, a disabling and ultimately fatal scarring of the lungs that can result in severe breathlessness and chest pains. This disease is most common among those who have had regular and high exposures to the fibers, such as textile workers, and those involved in the manufacture of asbestos products. However, the alleged health problems are overstated. When BOSH did their first epidemiology study, their original finding was that workers who were exposed to asbestos were actually healthier than the general population, as derived from a statistical analysis of worker death codes compared to all deaths in the United States as compiled by the Dept. of Commerce. When they studied the deaths among 17,000 asbestos workers they didn’t have enough documented deaths from asbestosis diseases to warrant any action, so they doctored (literally changed) about 14% of the worker death codes to lung cancer and mesothelioma to infer that many more people died from asbestos causes then actually did. The cooked asbestos data and emotional cancer claims went on TV and swept these two legislations (EPA and OSHA) through Congress almost together in a package in 1970. Asbestos was then aggressively pushed in the very first expansive regulation numbered 1001 in the OSHA series (that has gone to above 1450 as this is written).

I did not make any of this information up. I got it first hand from person who worked for BOSH and later NIOSH and who was a consultant for the EPA. When my source was offered a position as assistant director of OSHA in the Carter administration, he turned it down on principal, because he knew firsthand about the fallacy of the asbestos misadventures and because he was told he would have to do things that were against his principles, such as put small businesses out of business and nationalize the steel and oil industries.

What we are left with are a few knowledgeable persons such as my source who were present in the agency and who were privy to what actually happened and who have protested the original fraud or lies on a moral basis over the past 35 years to the limited people they could get to listen to them. A lot of the money derived from this scam has gone in contributions to many congressmen and senators, so even that attempt to communicate with Congress failed. When my source went to congress with the facts, only two senators would even talk to him, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). They told him it was too large an issue to correct and nothing could or would ever be done. The vast majority of the others went along on the basis that the "end justifies the means". They originally thought that OSHA and EPA would be the ideal mechanisms to assure protection of the American workplaces and the environment. But people in these agencies have also created additional self-serving goals, and this tendency alerted wary people to be on the lookout for their shenanigans, including the pesticide issues I alluded to earlier.

Another example of government interference in science is the misinformation about radon, a naturally occurring gas, the radioactive daughter of uranium. It has been stated by EPA that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, next to smoking. This is nonsense. Radon is percolating from the ground virtually everywhere. Tests have shown that radon emissions can be measured between 1 and 2 Pico curies. This is very small number. The EPA came to the conclusion that 4 Pico curies is dangerous and set the limit there. Their number is not based on any science and is completely capricious. Dr. Victor Archer, who worked for the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), formerly BOSH, admittedly hated the nuclear energy industry. Using similarly fraudulent data as the asbestos crowd did, Dr. Archer convinced the EPA that radon was a dangerous gas. The EPA, whose only mission at the time was to exert more power, jumped on it. By passing this bad science off as legitimate, Dr. Archer got his wish as everyone blamed the nuclear technology industry for the radon. President Jimmy Carter put a moratorium on building new nuclear power plants based on this erroneous information.


Although the EPA may have been founded on fraudulent science, it still serves a useful purpose. On May 26 of this year, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson committed to a federal leadership role in expediting the ongoing cleanup of the Michigan Dow Dioxin site and an acceleration of the Environmental Protection Agency’s overall scientific review of dioxins. “EPA is stepping up our commitment to this site, in partnership with the state of Michigan , so that we can accelerate this cleanup and deal with the pressing threats to human health and the environment,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “We are also redoubling our efforts to provide guidance on the science of dioxin health effects to inform cleanup decisions at this site and protect other communities, in Michigan and across the country, facing dioxin contamination.” Dioxins, a class of hundreds of chemicals that are difficult to remove from water and soil, are produced by industries that incinerate waste or manufacture chemicals and pesticides. The Dow Chemical site in Midland , Michigan contains significant dioxin contamination that extends for 50 miles down the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers and into the Saginaw Bay . As one part of its overall cleanup plan, EPA will continue to negotiate an agreement requiring Dow to sample the rivers and bay for dioxin contamination and identify options for cleanup. Administrator Jackson pledged an unprecedented degree of transparency during these negotiations so the public has a full opportunity to be heard. Once the agreement is in place, EPA will implement a comprehensive public involvement plan going forward. While EPA hopes to work cooperatively with the company, Jackson said that the agency will not hesitate to use all tools at its disposal – including a wide range of penalties and sanctions – to ensure Dow Chemical upholds its responsibility to clean up this site. If Dow fails to meet its responsibilities, EPA will conduct the cleanup at the company’s expense. In this situation the EPA is doing exactly the right thing.
All of this information will be available in a book I am writing at the request of a major publisher. The book will deal mostly with non-toxic pest control but will also cover the EPA and some regional pesticide regulators as well as the pest control industry itself. I would like to ask my readers to send me any homemade remedies they are aware of to control pests and, also, any horror stories they have regarding pesticides and the pest control industry. If you want your name published in the book please let me know. The book is scheduled to come out in October, 2010. My email address is richardfagerlund@yahoo.com or you can call me at 505-385-2820.