eral researches and articles I have come across recommend some type of “pesticide tracking system”. With a tracking system, determining if a pesticide is cancer causing would be based on reliable and valid data, not estimated figures. Furthermore, a tracking system would provide accurate data for cancer maps, researches, and studies. We can agree the 1996 bill has strictly redefined pesticide regulations. Where pesticides are no longer classified by category of chemicals, but rather what chemicals are in each pesticide. The government is now funding research studies in universities to assist the EPA in its re-registration process. The EPA’s re-registration process will retest all 208 pesticides to determine if they are carcinogenic. This type of project will incorporate independent researches as well as projects to produce cancer maps of the U.S. water reservoirs. In 1998, the government funded the “National Water Quality Assessment Pesticide Synthesis Project” to research any agricultural lands surrounding water areas (i.e. streams, rivers, and ground water) and produce cancer maps. Cancer maps exhibit which waters are fouled and cancerous due to pesticides, industrial chemicals, and other factors. These maps should indicate if any of the 208 pesticides used in the United States are carcinogenic and have contaminated the U.S. water reservoirs due to the floating pesticides or pesticide spills. For instance, Sacramento’s Highway 99 closed for several hours due to a pesticide spill on a February day earlier this year. The Sacramento Bee reported it as an accident and a clean up. The Bee did not report what techniques were used to clean up the spill or how long after the spill did the clean up take place. If wind can carry pesticides when they are applied to crops, what is to say that wind or rain can not carry pesticides away in a spill. The data for the maps were provi...
