Chlorpyrifos Adverse Incidents and Chlorpyrifos Oxon - Who is responsible for hiding these issues?

There's a very serious irony in what's considered right and wrong today. People like Bernie Ebbers (Worldcom), Dennis Kozlowski (Tyco), John Rigas (Adelphia) and the other company executives involved in embezzlement and fraud get far more attention from the press and the regulators than the people running a company like Dow. The crimes those people committed was financial. They fraudulently "cooked" their company's financial statements to stuff money in their pockets at their stockholders' and company's expense. Yes, it may have harmed people physically through mental anguish in their monetary losses and affected their way of life but what Dow executives do is far more disgusting. They hide product hazards and falsify the research and safety information of Dow's products to make them appear to be safer than they really are. This helps Dow sell more products and make more money by selling those products for what would have been inappropriate uses. There are many Dow products on the market today that would not even have passed the testing required for EPA registration or would not have received certain pesticide uses if Dow hadn't falsified the research and registration information for those products. By falsifying this information, it also gives users of Dow products the erroneous impression these products are safer to use than they really are. This leads to a lackadaisical and an indiscriminate approach during the use of the products which greatly increases the dosage level to all that are exposed to the product.

As many have now concluded and to re-coin an old phrase, "Who needs terrorists when we have a company like Dow". The world worries about terrorist acts but is oblivious to the daily activities of a company like Dow. Dow's hideous crimes directly affect people's health for as long as they live. The effects can start as early as from when they are just a embryo or fetus, or even before by altering or destroying genetic material. What we are now learning about chlorpyrifos is that the most serious concerns are not  the immediately apparent toxicity symptoms from an acute over-exposure but rather the long-term chronic effects of even a single low dose exposure. Chlorpyrifos can continue to influence the health of individuals for the rest of their lives. The future health issues for the exposed individuals will be difficult to connect to a past chlorpyrifos exposure, something Dow is certainly counting on.

Chlorpyrifos has come under increased scrutiny after learning of Dow's cover-up of adverse complaints and many other newly revealed chlorpyrifos issues.  A major push has just begun to ban all chlorpyrifos uses in the U.S.. Dow has manipulated the EPA and intentionally deceived people who experienced adverse reactions and well contaminations. Dow clearly has hidden an immense amount of information concerning what they know about chlorpyrifos. It's obvious that companies that hide this level of information have far more serious problems and are not going to stop doing what comes naturally to them.

Dow Managers knew those with well contaminations were drinking and bathing in chlorpyrifos oxon but by hiding that fact it has been stuffing money in their pockets so it was acceptable to them to harm those people. They didn't personally know their victims so why should they care. They did know that even infants were drinking and bathing in the water they said was clean. Unfortunately to understand that something is wrong takes a conscience. Clearly there are few at Dow with a conscience.

Understanding and reacting to what Dow has done takes experienced and knowledgeable regulatory agencies and a media which will "ferret out" the facts. Dow Managers certainly don't see discovery by regulators as much of a risk, as Dow top management put it, "There aren't any sharp tacks in the box" in referring to the EPA's competence in regulating a business like Dow's. Another analogy of the regulatory oversight is that we have "sheep managing the actions of wolves".

An example of the company-wide chlorpyrifos oxon issue cover-up, a Dow sales manager told his employees that the health department in the state of Maryland's discovery of chlorpyrifos oxon in wells was that state's "contrived attempt to justify their jobs". In a discussion with his sales personnel, he attempted to discredit and hide the state's discovery of the chlorpyrifos oxon in water samples.

The troubling issue with the above event, and others, is that the state of Maryland did not proceed past the discovery of the fact that Dow was hiding the existence of chlorpyrifos oxon in wells. They did not continue their investigation to determine how large an issue their discovery  had uncovered. This failure is what allows Dow to continue doing business in the manner in which they operate. The EPA, Maryland, Illinois, and other states just "sit" on their discoveries and Dow keeps doing what is does while we naively trust these health and environmental agencies for our protection.

Oversight of pesticide registration and use is severely lacking. Pesticides like Dursban and Lorsban are used in so many different applications that they affect nearly the entire U.S. population, and the world's too. As stated before, studies show that over 80% of the U.S. population has been significantly exposed to chlorpyrifos and the insecticide has been found in their bodies. But a pesticide like chlorpyrifos is radically less regulated than nuclear power which has a far lower potential to affect the millions of people chlorpyrifos has affected. This lack of oversight has allowed a company like Dow to hide the negative aspects of the products they sell.

Who were the responsible people at Dow?

Dow's Ag Business has been nearly solely reliant on chlorpyrifos sales for revenue. This drove the top managers' schemes and strategies to fraudulently cover-up chlorpyrifos issues to sell more and to prolong the life of chlorpyrifos. It also involves many additional people in a trickle-down affect. The top manager's created the scheme and those below allowed it to proliferate.  Managers have been fraudulently misrepresenting chlorpyrifos safety to make their scheme work for their monetary gain. The scheme has involved marketing personnel who have had responsibilities dealing with chlorpyrifos from at least the mid 1980's through today. It involves researchers in Dow's Ag Specialty Products and Row Crop businesses. It involves the authors of the chlorpyrifos toxicology studies and the researchers who have been falsifying toxicology studies, have withheld information, and "doctored" reports in an attempt to lower possible regulatory attention on chlorpyrifos. Or as Dow describes it, keep chlorpyrifos "under the radar of regulatory". These individuals have already been caught by the EPA falsifying information so why would any research they conduct on any Dow product be credible to the EPA. As we have shown, this behavior is not confined strictly to chlorpyrifos but extends to other Dow products as well.

Dow has recently registered Profume* (Sulfuryl fluoride) for use in fumigating food commodities. If you aren't aware of where this type of product is used, there probably is not a pesticide used today that can directly impact our food supply more than a fumigant. Dow's Profume has been registered and it will be used to fumigate much of our food supply as a substitute for methyl bromide. One earlier tester of Profume made the following analysis in comparing methyl bromide to Profume, "America better like eating bugs if methyl bromide gets removed from use". Wouldn't you think the same level of illegal and unethical behavior went into the research by Dow for Profume? Many of the same individuals who had managed Dursban now manage Profume research and marketing.

Not criminally pursuing the individuals that commit fraudulent and criminal acts such as those that have been involved in these events allows them to continue their behaviors with new products that Dow now markets. Those individuals have already learned that they will get away with the unpunished behavior so why not push it a little further with the next product.

What's being "cooked" at Dow next?

For most of us it's hard to imagine what kind of people do the things that the people at Dow have done to so many. It's hard to imagine why anyone would want to work for a company like Dow when the company condones these unethical/criminal acts.

Several employees at Dow have said that they "were just doing my job". Those individuals have admitted to helping Dow falsify reports and research. All these individuals clearly knew what they were doing, knew it was wrong and criminal, but did it anyway. They helped contribute to Dow's scheme and allowed the poisoning of people who trusted Dow to do the right thing. They are responsible for the horrific realization of parents who now understand that they bathed their children in chlorpyrifos oxon and allowed them to drink it because Dow intentionally deceived them. "Just doing my job" doesn't justify their actions. They are criminals.

Hiding the chlorpyrifos issues has involved and been driven by the top managers within Dow AgroSciences but the guilty individuals start as low as the lab technicians who analyzed the water samples. These people were first in the line of those who knew chlorpyrifos oxon was present in the samples but fraudulently reported that the water was safe to drink. They allowed entire families to consume and bath in the highly toxic contaminated water.

There actually have only been two technicians who ran the chlorpyrifos water analysis lab during the last twenty years. With, it's believed, only two managers who managed the lab technicians. It is now thought that Dow kept the number of people involved in the lab to a minimum to keep knowledge of what was going on in the lab under control.

If you have experienced an adverse effect from chlorpyrifos or had a  chlorpyrifos well water contamination, we would suggest you contact Stan Howell, Bruce Miehle or Dick Holzschu who are at Dow or worked there to discuss the handling of these issues by Dow.  These individuals have been the primary marketing strategy team for Dursban.

Stan Howell is now the vice president, North America Regional Commercial Unit. He also held many previous managerial positions for Dow Chemical, DowElanco, and now Dow AgroSciences. Most of his positions dealt with managing the marketing of chlorpyrifos including advertising and communication responsibilities for chlorpyrifos products. In the mid-1980's, Howell was the Communications Manager responsible for creating sales literature and the sales strategy for chlorpyrifos products. He then was promoted to Product Manager for Dursban insecticides. Afterwards he held several agricultural positions in which he was responsible for the marketing and sales of Lorsban insecticides (Lorsban is the agricultural trade name of Dow's chlorpyrifos products). He recently held the position of Dow AgroSciences' Specialty Products Manager. In this position he had been again given overall management responsibility for all Dursban insecticides. This position was previously held by Dick Holzschu who retired in 1998 to Traverse City, MI. 

Dick Holzschu was the business manager for Dow Chemical's Ag Department's Industrial Products in the early 1980's when Dursban was starting to gain market share in structural pest control. He then helped Dursban move into the structural termite control market when chlordane was removed from the U.S. market in 1987. Dursban became the number one termiticide in the U.S. from 1990 until 1997 under his guidance and strategies.

Bruce Miehle retired in 2004 from Dow AgroSciences. As the following link to a press release states he has been Dow's Chlorpyrifos Marketing Strategist and is given credit for the strategies which led to the explosive growth of chlorpyrifos sales. Here is the press release concerning his positions with Dow and his retirement at Lake Keowee, SC.

You may also want to contact John Hagaman who was president of Dow AgroSciences from 1989 until 1997. After his retirement, Charlie Fischer then became president until 2000 when he also retired. Currently Jerome Peribere is president of Dow AgroSciences.

Additional marketing personnel contacts involved with Dursban product sales are Dave Morris - Morris has held positions such as Communications Manager for Dursban in which he had responsibilities for developing Dursban marketing strategies. He recently was promoted from Commercial Leader for U.S. Pest Management to a position to lead both the Turf & Ornamental and Professional Pest Management businesses. Mark Neterer - National Account Manager for U.S. Pest Management. Neterer has worked directly with pest management professionals, he also has served in a product management position for general pest control products including Dursban products and was the customer information services manager for Dow's pest control business.

Additional technical individuals who work or have worked directly with chlorpyrifos are Sterett Robertson and Mike Chambers. Both have held the position of chlorpyrifos product development manager. These individuals are research management personnel at Dow that should be able to assist to you. They have been responsible for managing Dow's chlorpyrifos research, handling chlorpyrifos issues including all adverse affect incident reports, disseminating chlorpyrifos technical information, and overseeing the water analysis lab where the fraudulently falsified reports were being created for thousands of chlorpyrifos contaminated water samples. The technician in the lab they supervised was Beth Blakely (or Beth Schotts - maiden name) who was replaced later by Ed King who sent the water sample analysis reports to well owners.

All these individuals should be able to help you. They have been directly responsible for dealing with the EPA and chlorpyrifos research, sales strategies, product communications, managing adverse incident handling, and marketing. Please let us know if they were helpful and the outcome of your discussions with them.

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*Dursban, Lorsban, Equity, Empire, Reldan, Pageant, and Tenure are registered trademarks of Dow AgroSciences