Scientists Say Herbicide Used on Mexican Border is Safe

FoxNews ^ | 26 March 2009 | James Osborne

[batter]

Environmental groups are blasting a U.S. Border Patrol project to kill invasive plant life along the Mexican border with what herbicide activists are calling the next Agent Orange — the Vietnam War-era deforesting chemical later found to cause cancer.

But scientists say the chemical, a relatively common herbicide named Imazapyr, poses little threat to humans or native wildlife.

The Border Patrol plans to spray the herbicide to kill Carrizo cane, which grows in dense thickets along vast stretches of the Rio Grande, which separates the United States and Mexico.

Border Patrol supervisor Roque Sarinana calls the plant "a safety hazard for agents” that enables a drug or human smuggler to cross the border almost undetected.

[snip]

But scientists say the chemical, a relatively common herbicide named Imazapyr, poses little threat to humans or native wildlife.

The Border Patrol plans to spray the herbicide to kill Carrizo cane, which grows in dense thickets along vast stretches of the Rio Grande, which separates the United States and Mexico.

Border Patrol supervisor Roque Sarinana calls the plant "a safety hazard for agents” that enables a drug or human smuggler to cross the border almost undetected.

[snip]

“In those heavy, dense areas along the banks, it would seem to me removal provides an opportunity,” [Wayne Hamilton, who lectures in ecology at Texas A&M University] said. “You might actually have a much improved diversity of plant species that could grow without the complete dominance of one invasive species.”

[batter]

The Agent Orange comparison is complete BS. I've used similar chemicals for tamarix (aka saltcedar) control and yeah, it is effective at killing it and letting other, ecologically better species revegitate the area. I'm not sure about Carrizo cane, but tamarix sucks up a lot of water too and killing it is also beneficial in that regard.

Basically, their trying to scare everyone to keep the border secure for the human/drug/etc smugglers. This is a massive red herring.

There's a lot more information in the FoxNews post. Too bad it's excerpt only.

[doc1019]

Scientists Say Herbicide Used on Mexican Border is Safe

To bad.

[Steamburg]

Isn’t there something very wrong with valuing illegals more than plant life? I mean after all, aren’t we trying to become a green nation and save the planet, right? I doubt that many of those plants willingly tried to cross the border.

[freekitty]

Gee, maybe they should be a little more worried about all the people being murdered on the border.

[batter]

Sigh... their = they're. I guess I need a break from the computer for a bit.

[batter]

Gotta love irony - I bet several of the enviro's trying to raise this issue are also the same you value plant life more than a human life. This time they are trying to spin the agent orange thing to get their way.

I remember the enviroweenies also stopping the BLM or USFS (or both) from using another herbicide that targeted non-native invasives (it left the native plants alone and gave them a chance to out compete the invasives). Of course, they went to court, got the right judge, and voila, destructive invasives continue to expand. I wonder if either agency ever appealed the decision...

[RoadKingSE]

Environmental groups are blasting a U.S. Border Patrol project to kill invasive plant life along the Mexican border with what herbicide activists are calling the next Agent Orange — a relatively common herbicide named Imazapyr.

Maybe the "herbicide activists" (funny the herb dudes I knew in college weren't very active) need to demonstrate the courage of their convictions with a human shield.

[BuffaloJack]

See the entire border with poison ivy and briars.

[BuffaloJack]

Seed the entire border with poison ivy and briars.

[Minutemen]

Environmental groups are blasting a U.S. Border Patrol project....

You could just see that coming.

[HiJinx]

Ping!

Sheesh...they care more about an herbicide than they do the utter desecration of our natural lands by the hordes of people trampling everything underfoot on their trek north...

[HiJinx]

Let’s Try This With the List...Ping!

[Jukeman]

The whole damn border needs to be fumigated, pestigated, and I may even have a little DDT inherited from my good old papa.

[BIGLOOK]

Hmmmm....Crash course on herbicides.

There are roughly four generations of herbicides. Fire was first....think 'Slash and burn'; second, kerosene....see number one and add an accelerant. Three and four are a toss up; Salts and Acids.

Salts:

Herbicides like Roundup or Ranger are glyphosate salts combined with a surfactant which allows the salt to translocate to the root system. The roots give up under duress, stress and the organism gives up the ghost.

Acids.

Herbicides like 2,4,D and 2,4,5 T are acid based herbicides that typically burn off the foliage of the plant causing it to die. They were developed early on to mimic the natural processes in a plant which drops it's leaves in the fall, giving you yet another chore during football season. The plant hormone they mimic is Auxin (IAA) which is a growth regulator. Herbicides like Scythe ....and Agent Orange were mixed in concentrations that would speed the process of defoliation....burning off the foliage in a matter of hours, causing the plant's demise. But in the case of Agent Orange, the plants were trees; the canopy was burned by the herbicide causing the organism to abcise it's foliage in a survival mode.....the trees survived and the leaves grew back.

Now pay attention, please. There wasn't a single formula for Agent Orange. The main ingredients were mixtures (Cocktails) of 2.4.D dichlorophenoxyacetic acid.....2,4.5.T (trichlorophenooxyacetic acid) and some contained 2,3.7,8 (tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin). The first two are relatively harmless. The last, Dioxin, is a known carcinogen.

Now a disclaimer. The later cases of cancers in the VN vets compared to the general population doesn't show a significant increase in occurrences due to exposure. If any of you had the privilege of serving in country Viet Nam, bad as anything you'd experienced earlier and returned to the hell hole that developed here while you were away, think again.....and another think. Then think some more. The same lawn and weed control herbicides have been in use during all this time, save one. And we don't hear of nationwide epidemics of life threatening cancers or other maladies from Suburbia, golfers, farmers or muggers in our city parks.

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[SwinneySwitch]

Spray the cane(with .223)!

[norton]

Interesting, as I remember it; we usually just identified them by color.
And, they did change.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BIGLOOK.

[DustyMoment]

I just don’t trust any chemical company’s word, anymore. I was exposed to Agent Orange in ‘Nam and have contracted Diabetes as a result.

And, yet, Dow chemical assured a gullible and complicit government and public that it was safe. I was in the “country club” of Vietnam - Cam Ranh Bay - well away from where they were spraying that stuff. By all rights, I never should have come into contact with it. But, they were aerial spraying at a pretty good altitude and the winds aloft will carry that crap for a hundred miles or better, depending on various weather conditions.

Better safe than sorry. I say, “no way, Jose”. I’d rather we put more boots on the ground with the power and authority to enforce US sovereignty including using deadly force when necessary.