Diabolical! L.A. Times investigation: Company gets rich marketing old, should-be-banned pesticides

[DeepModem Mom]

A TIMES INVESTIGATION
Pesticide maker gives old chemicals new life
While profitable, Amvac's strategy has come at a cost to human health and the environment, according to EPA and state records.
By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer
April 7, 2007


Children play by a field near Arvin, Calif., where an accident with a soil fumigant made by Amvac sickened more than 250 people in 2002.
(Annie Wells/LAT)

From its factory on a lonely strip in Los Angeles' industrial sprawl, Amvac Chemical Corp. does a booming business selling some of the world's most dangerous pesticides.

Amvac has fueled double-digit revenue growth through an unusual business practice: It has bought from larger companies the rights to older pesticides, many of them at risk of being banned or restricted because of safety concerns.

The company has fought hard to keep those chemicals on the market as long as possible, hiring scientists and lawyers to do battle with regulatory agencies.

While profitable, Amvac's focus on older pesticides has come at a cost to human health and the environment, according to EPA and state records, regulatory investigations and a string of lawsuits.

Accidents involving the company's pesticides have led to the evacuation of neighborhoods and the poisoning of scores of field workers in California and elsewhere....Amvac is by no means the largest producer of pesticides that have attracted regulatory scrutiny, but the company stands out for its willingness to embrace chemicals that other firms have abandoned....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-amvac8apr08,0,5491333,full.story?coll=la-home-local

[Jack Sprat]

1. Have you ever had your house and yard

sprayed by Texas's own Tom Delay? :-)

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Yeah, he might be a customer. nt

[Kagemusha]

3. That's an effecitve (if cynical, evil and completely wrong) money-making method

I don't throw around charges of "evil" at corps very often, personally, but in this case it seems cynically premeditated. If that's not crossing the line, nothing is.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Yes. DeepModem Dad is in the business world; I'm not by any means anti-capitalist.

But one assumes these people sleep at night, and to do that, IMO, requires some kind of accommodation with pure evil.

[diane in sf]

5. Time for the corporate death penalty

and prison sentences for corporate officers.