Did you know that American authorities want to spray a toxic herbicide over 1.1 million acres of land on the US-Mexico border?
Leave it to some pissed off Texans to throw a cog in that machine.
This, from the latest edition of Texas' most muckrakin' weekly, the Lone Star Iconoclast:
The residents here dodged a bullet when the U.S. Border Patrol delayed the spraying of a toxic herbicide along the Rio Grande.
The herbicide, the U.S. agency said, is meant to eradicate a wild plant that supposedly protects illegal entities from detection on the riverbanks.
However, U.S. citizens living near the 1.1 mile spray area took a legal stand to halt the $2.1 million pilot program before it began last week because they haven’t been educated on the effects of the poison, they said.
"When our government comes and says it’s safe, we have to think back to the many times they said something was safe and it turn out not to be safe," said the citizens’ petition obtained by Pro8News.
The justification for their plan was given to CNN in late March:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it wants to eradicate the invasive Carrizo cane infesting many portions of the Rio Grande's banks between Texas and Mexico. The lanky cane provides cover for immigrants crossing the border illegally and poses a danger to Border Patrol agents trying to stop them, said Chuck Prichard, spokesman for CBP's Laredo sector.
"Someone can be in the cane and be 3 feet away from them, and you cannot see them," Prichard said during a Wednesday phone interview. "[A Border Patrol agent] could literally be surrounded and have no idea."
In addition to aerial spraying of the herbicide Imazapyr, the Border Patrol will employ hand-cutting and mechanical methods that involve applying the killer chemical at ground-level, Sarinana told Frontera NorteSur in an a phone interview.
Working from US EPA labeling, the Pesticide Info Database lists Imazapyr as having an "acute toxicity," but it is not known whether that toxicity can become a water-borne contaminant.
[shameless plug]
A side (but somewhat related) note: I used to write for the Lone Star Iconoclast, and now I read each new edition cover-to-cover. It is thoroughly Iconoclastic, believe-you-me. You won't always agree with their content, but it sure is interesting.
I get the feeling Raw Story readers would get a kick out of reporter/satirist Nathan Diebenow's column archive. Look for him out in front of the paper's editorial page and on the cover every week.
[/shameless plug]
-- Stephen C. Webster
Stupid F-ing Texans.
The hicks are trying to ruin this country before Obama can fix it.
They are doomed...The old white mentality is doomed!
They will be seen for the ignorant, angry, dangerous entities that they are.
Hurting our relationships with anyone they dont like...They are RACIST in Texas...
They are segregationists who have been brewing their fears for too long now.
Texas needs intervention...Media-information intervention.
We can change em if we open some doors that they have kept closed for this very reason...we can change their childrens views of what is and isnt accepted in OUR society...
That all men are created equal.
That justice is equality.
That fear breeds fear...
That a whole new world of thought lives right outside their states borders and that they are a part of a country who elected a Black man...
That fighting with educated-well traveled people is a mistake.
That "cowboys" shouldnt watch the news...
That country music isnt really that fun to dance to...
That living of the land means you dont hurt it.
That New Mexico is where any real cowboys live...
That they might want to put down their guns and pick up some books instead.
That Hollywood makes funny movies...and that Christian Media is as entertaining as watching crap come out of someones arse.
That we are headed towards a much more realistic country...One that doesnt criminalize everyone foe everything...That the hippies werent the reason we lost Vietnam...That Austin is the only place in Texas where art is allowed to thrive.
That...TIMES ARE CHANGING AND THERES NO WAY TO STOP IT.
No bullets, No bombs, No Fear will stop it...
That we must ride this wave of change or fall beneath it.
I am wrong for being so harsh...
Ultimatley...I have friends from Texas...
Some who get way too offended when people even slightly rip on their state...
So it only eggs me on to do it more...Thats the way some react.
Texas...Although an awfully strange place in some ways is far from being unique in the ways I described...
A refuge for some pretty corrupt people and their ideologies.
Kind like our Saudi Arabia.
end.
@ CNNNNNNN -- I'm a native Texan, thereby giving me Authority to speak on the matter.
You're right to a degree.
But, it's also quite obvious you've never spent two weeks in Austin. It's the Coolest, strangest, most Liberal and politically-active locale I've ever lived in. And that's just a fact.
This is the dumbest thing ever.
I work at the VA and you should see what Agent Orange has done to our Veterans of the Vietnam war. It is shear lunacy to spray it now. The Vietnamese are still suffering from our sparying of it back in the 70s.
This "idea" is just another failed legacy of the Bush "era". Its time for President Obama to put this one to rest as well.
I am from the Texas/Mexico border, which gives me a greater right to speak about this more than even non-border Texans. All I'm going to say is this: I oppose the use of ANY poison used in our region. I also oppose the border wall. I am tired of outside politicians trying to decide policy on the border when they don't have a clue how things work in our region.
Sorry folks but you got to have the facts right before you make your case.
The herbicide cited in the article, imazapyr, was never a part of any defoliating Agent used in SE Asia or elsewhere. Agent Orange, Purple, and others that were used to defoliate rainforests used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam war were various combinations of a class of herbicides with strong causal associations with cancer, birth defects, and other harm to people and the environment. 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxy acetic acid or 2,4,5-T, was a primary ingredient in defoliants manufactured in the 1960s/70s and was used in many non-military applications until it was banned. One of the primary reasons for the ban on 2,4,5-T was the inability for manufacturers to completely eliminate the most toxic form of dioxin from the end product. 2,3,7,8-TCDD was found in all of the Agents that used 2,4,5-T, in some cases at high part per million levels. Remember, 2,3,7,8-TCDD is considered to be toxic at the part per quadrillion level.
So, be careful about labeling all herbicides as having some connection to defoliants like Agent Orange.
That said, Imazapyr is a persistent, toxic, broad-spectrum herbicide that kills all plants regardless of what species it is. Thus, any desireable plant will be killed along with the target; and you can be sure that only a small percentage of the applied active ingredient actually reaches the target pest. The rest goes "somewhere else". In this case, imazapyr and its toxic metabolites are likely to move into groundwater where they can persist for years. Each time you reapply you replenish the groundwater toxicant.
The mode of action of imazapyr is to interfere with DNA functioning which doesn't bode well either. Its often best to use pesticides that have modes of actions which humans do not posesses (e.g. interfere with exoskeletons rather than the nervous system, etc.).
Finally, the database on effects in wildlife and humans is grossly incomplete for this chemical. hmmmmmmm.
Enjoy!
cb
[...] via The Raw Story » Texans delay ‘Agent Orange’ spraying on border. [...]
After our experience in Vietnam, I just can't believe they are thinking of using agent orange ANYWHERE! It's plane STUPID!
As we all know when our goverment has a quick an dirty plan it never works and is never permanent
If they want to kill all of those plants,,, why doesn't the goverment hire some of the unemployeed and go cut them down and then dig up the roots.
no roots no growth.
[...] The Raw Story » Texans delay ‘Agent Orange’ spraying on border. [...]
I simply entered CDC: Agent Orange into a search engine. That netted me a huge resource for Veteran groups who are p'd off at the US Government for lying to our troops and among other things canceling studies of the post war effects on the troops.
http://www.usvetdsp.com/agentorange.htm
http://www.drketi.com/agentOrange.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,970675,00.html
Ask any soldier that was in Viet Nam just how safe agent orange is.........