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 the Western New York region of Cattaraugus, Chatauqua, Erie, and Niagara counties 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):

• 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 Western New York
A more specific look at the pesticide reporting data for the Western New York region of Cattaraugus, Chatauqua, Erie, and Niagara Counties yields the following information:

Erie and Chautauqua counties report high pesticide use, with Erie County’s use dominating the region overall.

• Erie and Chautauqua counties are both among the top ten counties in the state for total amount of pesticides reported in 1998. Erie County is 8th by both gallons and pounds, Chautauqua County is 7th by pounds.

• Within the Western New York region, Erie County logs in the highest amount of pesticides reported by gallons with more than three times the amount of pesticides reported for next highest Niagara County (Table 1). Although Chautauqua County is the highest county in the region for pounds of pesticides reported in 1998, Erie County follows closely with only approximately 7% less pesticide reported than in Chautauqua County. Moreover, 74% of Chautauqua County’s pesticide use by pounds was attributable to a single industrial water treatment chlorine product in a single zip code (14701). Without this single entry, Chautauqua County drops to third place in the region, behind Niagara County, for total reported pesticides by pounds. Erie County, therefore, should be considered dominant overall in both gallons and pounds of pesticides reported and, indeed, in 1997, Erie County was the top county in the region by both gallons and pounds, with Niagara County second, again both by gallons and pounds.

• Cattaraugus County reported the least amount of pesticides in the region by both gallons and pounds in 1997 and 1998.

• Approximately one-third of the pesticides reported in the Western New York region are classified by EPA as known, probable, likely, or possible human carcinogens. Twenty-nine percent of the total gallons and 11% of the total pounds of pesticides reported are suspected of disrupting normal hormonal balance, affecting everything from daily physical functioning to the fundamentals of reproduction and fertility.
• The top three pesticides by gallons both overall and in the commercial applicator category were MCPP, 2,4-D, and dicamba (Table 2), related chlorophenoxy herbicides that have been repeatedly linked to certain cancers, most notably non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,1 as well as other adverse health effects. In Erie County, where the bulk of commercial application occurs, there has been a 46% increase in the incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma for males and a 57% increase for females during the period 1976-1997.2 While no statements about cause and effect are possible, the high use of pesticides linked to this dangerous disease, and the dramatically increasing disease rates are a parallel that should spur immediate investigation and prudent reduction in the use of such pesticides.
• Atrazine, metolachlor, alachlor, and simazine, are all herbicides among the top pesticides sold to farmers in the region and all are significant and unavoidable water contaminants, identified by the EPA as contaminating groundwater as a result of normal agricultural use,3 and documented in the region’s water.4 This contamination is of particular concern given the potential adverse health effects of the pesticides. Atrazine, cyanazine, and metolachlor are classified as possible human carcinogens and alachlor is classified as a likely human carcinogen at high concentrations. Atrazine, cyanazine, and metolachlor have been implicated as developmental toxins.5 Reports have also linked the triazine herbicides (of which atrazine and simazine are examples) to breast6 and ovarian cancers,7 and endocrine disruption.8
• Other top pesticides used in the region also pose a host of health risks. Mancozeb and maneb are fungicides classified as probable human carcinogens by the EPA. Methyl bromide is classified by the EPA in Toxicity Category I, the category designating pesticides of the highest acute toxicity. It presents a significant and immediate danger both to people in the immediate vicinity where they are used and, due to their nature as highly diffusive gases, the more general area as well, and is scheduled for phase-out nationwide in 2005 due to its severe ozone-depleting properties. For descriptions of the health risks of other top pesticides in the region, see the full Toxic Treadmill report.

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 and mandating the use of safer alternatives. 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 Western New York 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, including the City of Buffalo and the town of West Seneca, have already done so. 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.
• Each 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.
• Each county Department of Health should make it a priority to examine the pesticide reporting data for its jurisdiction to see where particularly risky pesticides, such as methyl bromide and chlorpyrifos, are being used, or where blanket lawn applications are occurring without underlying pest problems, in order to identify safer alternative strategies.

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.
3 General Accounting Office. 1991. Pesticides: EPA Could Do More to Minimize Groundwater Contamination. GAO/RCED-91-75.
4 Phillips, P.J. et al. 2000. Pesticides and Their Metabolites in Three Small Public Water-Supply Reservoir Systems, Western New York, 1998-99. United States Geological Survey. WRIR 99-4278.
5 Munger, R. et al. 1997. Intrauterine Growth Retardation in Iowa Communities with Herbicide-contaminated Drinking Water Supplies. Environmental Health Perspectives. 105(3):308-314.
6 Kettles, M.A. et al. 1997. Triazine Herbicide Exposure and Breast Cancer Incidence: An Ecologic Study of Kentucky Counties. Environmental Health Perspectives. 105(11):1222-1227.
7 Donna, A. et al. 1989. Triazine herbicides and ovarian epithelial neoplasms. Scandinavian Journal of Work and Environmental Health. 15:47-53.
8 Cooper, R.L. et al. 1996. Effect of Atrazine on Ovarian Function in the Rat. Reproductive Toxicology. 10(4):257-264. see also Kniewald, J. et al. 1987. Indirect Influence of s-Triazines on Rat Gonadotropic Mechanism at Early Postnatal Period. Journal of Steroid Biochemistry. 27(4-6):1095-1100.