As the title says, Evaggelos Vallianatos, along with Mr. M. Jenkins co-authored the book on EPA, and how the organization has been literally captured by the toxic chemical industry, to the disadvantage of the average American, and by extension, of the people the world over.

I found the book very useful to understand how toxic chemicals get approved and how much of a clout the industry has over the regulatory mechanism. So much so that I approached Evaggelos Vallianatos for a phone interview, even if I was not very successful in pronouncing  his first name accurately.

He agreed and we had a talk a few days ago.

Here are the basic points:

• The prevailing culture in EPA was to pretty much let the chemical industry to run the show.
• The Government has been captured by the industry, and EPA is simply an example.
• EPA is too important to be allowed to be dominated by such outside forces.
• Decision made in EPA are questionable due to the influence that comes from the Congress, from the White House and directly from the Chemical Industry.
• Credibility of science has been damaged due to the history of fraud in the testing of these toxic chemicals for decades.
• The climate of fear, and acceptance of outside influence, is still pervasive.
• America aught to reject the current EPA and redesign it as an independent organization, with a wall of protection from the industry so the scientists would feel secure and confident that their work and decisions are to be made on reliable and untampered data.
• Also, the EPA or the Government needs to create a set of independent laboratories to test all these chemicals before they get into the market, and not rely on labs under control of the industry.
• Credibility of the industry right now is as good as zero. Nobody trusts it’s findings. He himself would not trust them because of what he has seen in EPA.
• This is very important because this not only affects the people of America, but also of Canada and pretty much the rest of the industrial world and beyond.
• The system needs to be reformed, and its workings set right, and the industry needs to be kept away from interfering with the work of this agency.
• We need to raise awareness by speaking about it, in Canada, in USA and elsewhere, in order to raise public awareness to the level where it can make an impact.
• It has been 53 years since Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring. There should be no need now to re-state the problem, and we are still tackling with the same old problem albeit with a new breed of toxins.
• CSPAN book TV has interviewed Dr. Vallianatos to be broadcast soon – and people are encouraged to see it.
• Eggevelos Vallianatos would love to speak to Canadians on this.
• He believes, if we have to select just a handful of pesticides that should be removed immediately, we might choose to kick out 2,4-D and Glyphosate first.
• When EPA banned 2,4,5-T, they likely made a secret agreement with Dow not to touch 2,4-D since it was so popular.
• Glyphosate in Roundup is used for decades and there are some experts that believe it will destroy American agriculture. We don’t think such extremely toxic substances should be in our environment.
• Moms Across America has some young mothers test their breast milk and found traces of Glyphosate in them. Imagine the feeling of the mothers when they know they might poison their babies through breast feeding !!
• There is science papers out there already about how bad these toxins are for many animals and even humans. And now it is in mothers milk.
• Governments should ban it. There is enough good food possible through organic clean agriculture. There is no need for this toxic model.
• So why is this toxic industry surviving? Not to provide nutrition or kill insects or do any favour to nature or people, Vallianatos argues. They survive so a small number of corporations can have a mega empire.
• Advise to  Canadians – start eating organic food. Doing so you avoid GMO, you avoid pesticide, you avoid sludge, radiation, and other synthetic chemicals. Then, start influencing others to do the same. Join environment protection groups. Then try to organize bigger groups to influence the politics of your region and your nation.

Its a 14 minute interview. You can listen to it directly at the bottom of this page, or you can download it to play later through your music player.

I shall be glad to hear your opinion. Write to tony.mitra@gmail.com

Cheers

Tony Mitra