Urine battle and Triangle Lake

Triangle Lake Pesticide Issues:
By Oregonians for Food and Shelter

You might be aware of what is happening in the Triangle Lake area. Over the last several years a local advocacy group, the Pitchfork Rebellion, has made numerous complaints about aerial application of herbicides on privately owned forestland in their area and claim that residents are being “poisoned” by chemicals. In fact, 20+ of them have had their urine tested and claim that the test results show traces of 2,4-D and atrazine.
Interestingly, neither Dr. Dana Barr (the scientist who did the analyses) nor the Pitchfork Rebellion individuals who initiated the testing of their own urine will release any details of the sampling or research protocols, the chain of custody requirements and other information that are critical to evaluating the credibility of the results. Officials from the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) say that while they have not seen the actual data from Dr. Barr’s analyses either, they believe the alleged exposures to be “plausible” enough to warrant further study.
As a follow-up action to the Pitchfork Rebellion claiming their urine showed high levels of the two herbicides at a Board of Forestry meeting in Salem on April 29, Oregon and federal agencies announced last week that they will launch their own “exposure investigation” beginning the week of August 29. OHA will be taking the lead on the investigation and will work in conjunction with ODA, ODF, DEQ, Region 10 U.S. EPA and the Agency on Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). They will be seeking about 80 volunteers mostly from the Triangle Lake / Highway 36 area to do another round of human bio-monitoring for the presence of the two herbicides. In addition to the urine sampling, environmental samples of surface and drinking water and local food sources will be analyzed for residues of several hundred other pesticides as well.

 Print This Post  Email This Post