
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 14, 1990                   TAG: 9007140355
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: By MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GREENPEACE TO PROTEST OLIN BILL

Starting Sunday, 25 canvassers from the national environmental group Greenpeace will begin a week in Virginia's 6th Congressional District protesting a pesticide exports bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim Olin.

The Roanoke Democrat's bill is "ridiculously weak" compared with one offered by other legislators, Sandra Marquardt, pesticide information coordinator at Greenpeace's Washington office, said Friday. The group wants Olin to withdraw the legislation.

Greenpeace's favored bill, The Pesticide Export Reform Act of 1990 sponsored by Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would prohibit exports of U.S. pesticides banned in this country or never registered here.

Olin's bill would allow exports of such pesticides but require for the first time that receiving nations be informed of the known risks of chemicals banned in the U.S.

Chemical exports have become a moral and environmental issue in recent years with reports of poisonings overseas and of U.S.-banned chemicals coming back to this country in the form of contaminated food imports. Marquardt said exports account for about $1 billion of the U.S. pesticide market, or roughly a quarter of business.

While U.S. consumers might find the "minute" health risks of some pesticides unacceptable and applaud their banning, people in countries whose food supplies are limited because of pests might choose to take the risk and welcome the crop protection, said Reed Franklin, Olin's agricultural aide.

"We should not make that decision for them" by stopping exports of pesticides, he said.

Some pesticides, such as those for use on bananas, lack U.S. registration not because of health fears but because their target crops are not grown here, he said.

Marquardt said her research showed that most pesticides without U.S. registration are "rejects" singled out for health risks.

Greenpeace workers will be going door to door to tell people about Olin's bill, expected to come up for a vote this summer. They also will gather signatures on petitions asking him to withdraw it.

by CNB