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Tribal advocates keep up legal pressure for fair political maps; 12-member jury sworn in for Trump's historic criminal trial; Healthcare decision planning important for CT residents; Debt dilemma poll: Hoosiers wrestle with college costs.

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Civil Rights activists say a court ruling could end the right to protest in three southern states, a federal judge lets January 6th lawsuits proceed against former President Trump and police arrest dozens at a Columbia University Gaza protest.

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Rural Wyoming needs more vocational teachers to sustain its workforce pipeline, Ohio environmental advocates fear harm from a proposal to open 40-thousand forest acres to fracking and rural communities build bike trail systems to promote nature, boost the economy.

CA Lawsuit Challenges EPA on Dangerous Pesticides

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Monday, April 7, 2008   

San Francisco, CA - Dangerous pesticides used on California farms are putting farm workers and others at risk, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday by a coalition of farm workers' advocates and environmental groups. They're suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to force them to ban the use of four pesticides, all organophosphates derived from nerve gas that was developed during World War II.

Joshua Osborne-Klein, an attorney with Earthjustice who is working on the case, says farm workers aren't the only ones being exposed to poisons, including methadithion.

"This is a pesticide that has been found to drift in the air far from where it's used. It's been detected in schools and in the Sequoia National Park. This is something that really gets around and kids are breathing it every day."

Osborne-Klein says more than 90 percent of the methadithion use in the United States takes place in California. Other countries have banned some of the pesticides, citing health risks, but the EPA argues the alternatives are not affordable for farmers. Osborne-Klein adds that, although some progress has been made to monitor pesticide levels in farm workers, more needs to be done.

"Both California and Washington have taken important steps to address pesticide risks, but Congress gave the EPA primary responsibility for protecting the public from pesticide poisonings, and the agency is not fulfilling that duty to the public."

The other pesticides named in the suit are ethoprop, oxydemeton-methyl (ODM), and methamidophos. More information about pesticides is available online from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, www.cdpr.ca.gov.


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