Westchester County

This regional report, a supplement to The Toxic Treadmill: Pesticide Use and Sales in New York State, 1997-1998, is a snapshot of pesticide use and sales patterns in Westchester County in 1998. The analysis is based on data from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) pesticide reporting program. Under the Pesticide Reporting Law of 1996, DEC collects detailed pesticide use data annually from the state’s commercial pesticide applicators and information on sales to farmers.

Summary of Statewide Findings
New York is heavily dependent on the use of toxic pesticides. According to New York’s pesticide reporting data, 4.5 million gallons and 29.4 million pounds were applied by commercial applicators or sold to farmers in 1998 alone. The dangers of such use are myriad. Pesticides pose health risks such as nervous system toxicity, carcinogenicity, and damage to the endocrine, immune, and reproductive systems; environmental risks such as contamination of air, water, and food; and increased pest problems due to pesticide resistance and secondary infestations.

Efforts to mitigate these risks must start with understanding what, where, and why pesticides are used in the state. Analyzing New York’s pesticide reporting data challenges many of our basic assumptions about the nature of that use. Among the key revelations (for a thorough discussion of these points, see the full Toxic Treadmill report):BR>

Urban and suburban downstate counties report greater use than upstate and rural counties, with New York City topping the charts. In 1998, the counties reporting the highest amounts of pesticides overall by gallons and pounds were Kings County (Brooklyn) and Queens County respectively. The downstate area comprising New York City and the adjacent counties of Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester accounted for 60% of the gallons and 48% of the pounds reported statewide, while constituting only 4% of the state’s geographic area. New York City alone accounted for 36% of the total gallons and 27% of the total pounds of pesticides reported for the state in 1998.

Overall, non-agricultural pesticide use is greater than agricultural use statewide. Although pesticides are conventionally thought of as chiefly an agricultural issue, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 77% of the nation’s total pesticide use is agricultural, this pattern does not hold true for New York State. Non-agricultural use predominates over agricultural use on a statewide basis due to the overwhelming total amount of pesticides reported in urban and suburban areas for controlling indoor pests and for lawn care.

Even though safer alternatives abound, a substantial percentage of the overall pesticides reported in New York State have serious toxicity risks, as do the most heavily used individual pesticides. Nearly a third of the total amount of pesticides reported by gallons in 1998 and 44% reported by pounds are classified by EPA as known or suspected carcinogens. More than a quarter are suspected of having endocrine disrupting activity, and approximately one quarter belong to the highly neurotoxic chemical families of organophosphate and carbamate insecticides. The top pesticide reported by gallons and the second by pounds in 1998 was chlorpyrifos (found in the products Dursban® and Lorsban®), a broad-spectrum insecticide recently banned by EPA in June 2000 for virtually all non-agricultural uses because of its high toxicity.

Patterns of Pesticide Use in Westchester County
A more specific look at the pesticide reporting data for Westchester County yields the following information:

Westchester County reports heavy pesticide use.

Westchester County is among the top ten counties in the state (7th by gallons, 5th by pounds) for overall amount of pesticides reported in 1998, with a total of 198,000 gallons and 1.2 million pounds reported. The county’s pesticide use is particularly outsized when compared to its physical size. While Westchester County accounted for 4% of the total pesticides reported for New York State in 1998, it occupies less than 1% of the state’s total geographic area.

Virtually all (more than 99%) of the pesticides reported for Westchester County in 1998 were commercial applications, as opposed to sales to farmers. Pesticide use in Westchester County is, therefore, almost entirely for non-agricultural purposes such as lawn care, structural pest control, and roadside vegetation control (the reporting year precedes any spraying for control of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus).

The specific pesticides and use patterns in Westchester County are hazardous.

Twenty-two percent of the pesticides reported in Westchester County by gallons and 47% reported by pounds are classified by EPA as probable, likely, or possible human carcinogens (Table 1). These percentages, however, are likely underestimates (see below). Twenty-three percent of the total gallons reported and 15% of the total pounds are suspected of disrupting normal hormonal balance, affecting everything from daily physical functioning to the fundamentals of reproduction and fertility. Twenty-three percent of the total gallons reported and 17% of the total pounds are highly neurotoxic, organophosphate or carbamate insecticides.
The top three pesticides active ingredients applied by pounds – pendimethalin, trifluralin, and benfluralin – are all related herbicides. Pendimethalin and trifluralin are classified by the EPA as possible human carcinogens; benfluralin has not yet been classified for carcinogenicity.
The second highest pesticide reported in the region by gallons and the 6th highest by pounds was chlorpyrifos (the active ingredient in Dursban®). As noted above, chlorpyrifos was banned by EPA in June 2000 for virtually all non-agricultural uses because of its high neurotoxicity, particularly to developing fetuses, infants, and children. The fact that a pesticide so hazardous it is now banned for residential uses, ranks as one of the top pesticides used in the county should call into question the prudence of using any synthetic pesticides.
Among the top pesticides reported are 2,4-D, dicamba, MCPP, and mecoprop (Table 2), related chlorophenoxy herbicides used in lawn care, that have been repeatedly linked to certain cancers, most notably non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,1 as well as other adverse health effects. Despite the considerable evidence for their carcinogenicity, EPA still labels 2,4-D and dicamba as carcinogenicity Class “D,” meaning they are “not yet classifiable.” MCPP and mecoprop have not been assigned any carcinogenicity designation at all by EPA. This means that these pesticides are not included in the percentages of suspected carcinogens cited above because EPA has not yet made a final determination for them.

The question is not merely academic. During the period beginning in 1976 and ending in 1997, there was a 45% increase in the incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma for males and a 39% increase for females in Westchester County.2 While no statements about cause and effect are possible, the high use of chlorophenoxy herbicides that have been strongly associated with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and the corresponding dramatic increase in the incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a parallel that should spur immediate investigation and prudent reduction of such pesticide use.
All five of the top pesticide products applied by commercial applicators by pounds (more than 30% of the total pounds) in Westchester County were lawn care products that combine pesticides and fertilizers, as were many of the products applied in lesser quantities. The use of pesticide fertilizer combinations means that applications are not necessarily occurring in response to a documented pest problem, but as a routine part of lawn maintenance and, more than likely, on a set schedule. By applying pesticides in this manner, as part of a fertilizer product that blankets an entire property, overuse is virtually assured and minimization techniques such as spot treatments do not occur.

A bright note….
In 1998, boric acid made it into the top 15 pesticides used by pounds in Westchester County, though not in 1997. It is too soon to tell if this represents a real shift among commercial applicators to using boric acid — a non-volatile insecticide with significantly fewer toxicity concerns than other insecticides (except when directly ingested) – the fact that this stalwart of the least-toxic pest control arsenal shows up among the top pesticides used in Westchester County is an encouraging finding.

…and an unfortunate one
The top “product” by pounds in Westchester County in 1998 wasn’t a product at all, but 128,000 pounds of pesticides without a valid EPA registration number listed. This means that, for a substantial portion of the pesticides applied as solids in Westchester County, we cannot tell what the products used were because of improperly filed forms.

Recommendations
New York’s pesticide reporting data clearly demonstrate the consequences of the current system of pesticide regulation: routine reliance on enormous quantities of toxic chemicals in the face of mounting evidence of their dangers and despite readily available alternatives. Turning the tide will require an institutional commitment to removing the most dangerous pesticides from the market, mandating the use of safer alternatives, and eliminating gratuitous pesticide use. Though many of these steps need to occur at the state and federal levels, there are a number of actions that can be taken locally:

Communities in Westchester County can reduce their use of pesticides by enacting policies that phase out the use of most pesticides on public property in that municipality. Eight municipalities in New York State have already done so, including Westchester County itself, in October 2000, and the Town of Greenburgh, in 1999. Not only do such phase-outs reduce actual pesticide use and exposure, but they are an excellent opportunity for government to lead by example and demonstrate that pest management can occur through safer means than pesticide use.

Westchester County should adopt the lawn notice provisions of the state’s new Pesticide Neighbor Notification Law, enacted in August 2000. In counties that do so, advance notice of pesticide applications on lawns will give neighbors the opportunity to take measures to protect their families and property from pesticide exposure.

The Westchester County Department of Health should use the pesticide reporting data in its ongoing efforts to promote pesticide use reduction, to see where particularly risky pesticides, such as chlorpyrifos, are being used, or where blanket lawn applications are occurring without underlying pest problems, in order to identify and promote safer alternative strategies.

With safer pest management practiced on a daily basis across the nation, continued reliance on pesticides puts New Yorkers at unnecessary risk. The time is ripe to reverse course, to reject the risks and financial burdens foisted upon society by pesticide manufacturers and make pesticide alternatives the norm in Westchester County and New York State.

References
1 Institute of Medicine. 1999. Veteran’s and Agent Orange: Update 1998. National Academy Press. Washington D.C. see also Hardell, L. and M. Eriksson. 1999. A Case-Control Study of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Exposure to Pesticides. Cancer. 85:1353-1360. see also Fontana, A. et al. 1998. Incidence Rates of Lymphomas and Environmental Measurements of Phenoxy Herbicides: Ecological Analysis and Case-Control Study. Archives of Environmental Health. 53(6):384-387. see also Zahm, S.H. and A. Blair. 1992. Pesticides and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Cancer Research (Suppl) 52:5485s-5488s. 2 Figures are taken from the 1999 and 2000 editions of the New York State Cancer Registry, published by the New York State Department of Health.