Al's Morning Meeting

An analysis of EPA data by the Center for Public Integrity ... shows that the number of reported human health problems, including severe reactions, attributed to pyrethrins and pyrethroids increased by about 300 percent over the past decade. A Center review of the past 10 years' worth of more than 90,000 adverse-reaction reports, filed with the EPA by pesticide manufacturers, found that pyrethrins and pyrethroids together accounted for more than 26 percent of all fatal, "major," and "moderate" human incidents in the United States in 2007, up from 15 percent in 1998. Although the number of fatalities was low -- about 20 from 2003 to 2007 -- the amount of moderate and serious incidents attributed to the group -- more than 6,000 -- is significantly greater than any other class of insecticide.

The EPA's pesticide incident-reporting system has not been public until now. Called one of the "Ten Most Wanted Government Documents" by the Center for Democracy and Technology, the database was released under the Freedom of Information Act to the Center for Public Integrity in early 2008.

Data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers show a similar trend as the EPA data, with the number of pyrethrin and pyrethroid incidents reported to poison centers jumping from about 16,000 in 1998 to more than 26,000 in 2006 -- a 63 percent increase. The data include all phone calls and other incidents reported to the centers. Experts say that both the EPA and the poison center data probably represent only a fraction of pesticide-related exposures in a given year.