Comments on: Green International Trade Missions http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/03/green-international-trade-missions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=green-international-trade-missions EPA's Blog About Our World Tue, 21 May 2013 17:34:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Anonymous http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/03/green-international-trade-missions/comment-page-1/#comment-33451 Anonymous Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:40:38 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=696#comment-33451 Hi Maria: Please confirm if Fusarium has been used in Colombia, where, when, how much and if possible a picture of the affected plants.
Thank you
Jaime G Gomez, MD,

]]> By: Sheila Kaupert http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/03/green-international-trade-missions/comment-page-1/#comment-14588 Sheila Kaupert Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:57:30 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=696#comment-14588 Hi Jessica,

I am completing a master’s in public health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and I am currently taking a course on environmental health. Given that we are living in an era of extremely heightened globalization, we are learning a great deal about environmental health on both a local and global level. I am currently researching the export of hazardous waste from developed to developing countries, where dumping of extremely dangerous materials, from nuclear to electronic waste, is not uncommon. Moreover, we are exporting waste to countries with no formal or safe recycling technologies/methods.

Trade missions that aim to facilitate U.S. exports of technologies to help these countries heal their environment and begin to properly deal with waste is much needed. I just have a couple questions: 1. How expensive are these technologies? How are these technologies/services sustainable for countries with very little in terms of funds and resources? And will this include the capabilities needed for dealing with a growing e-waste problem (where people in scrap yards are being used as cheap labor for dismantling products containing dangerous materials like computers and cell phones?

]]> By: Maria Duque http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/03/green-international-trade-missions/comment-page-1/#comment-14553 Maria Duque Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:02:26 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=696#comment-14553 I am a graduate student at the University of Miami in an Environmental Health course.
I understand part of EPA’s job is to write environmental regulations and enforce them; to do so EPA works very close with Congress. The United States government as part of its war on drugs to eliminate the cultivation of coca in Colombia launched legislation in 2000 until 2008 known as Plan Colombia. During that process, US Congress approved the use of Fusarium as a biological control agent to kill coca crops in Colombia; according to the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the year 2004 had a record rate of aerial glyophosphate spraying in Colombia. The use of these substances where very controversial because it damaged both legal and illegal crops, where hazardous for environment and produced adverse health effects upon those exposed to the herbicides. When US Congress writes an environmental law to be applied within the United States territory EPA implements it by writing regulations and also setting national standards that states and tribes enforce through their own regulations. Does EPA still have inference on regulations writing and setting standards when Congress launches environmental legislations regarding other countries, like is the case of Plan Colombia? Was this the case when Congress approved the use of Fusarium and glyphosphate in Colombia?

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