One More Product Problem That Dow Has Hidden ....
 Chlorpyrifos Oxon

If all the issues brought forth to this point are not enough, you also might like to know that the decontamination procedure that Dow created, that Dow stated is EPA approved, and that Dow instructs/requires individuals to use to treat chlorpyrifos water contaminations now raises far more serious ethical and criminal questions about Dow. The entire procedure is now questioned because of the discovery of the chlorpyrifos conversion products that are created from the chlorination of chlorpyrifos contaminated water. Researchers Jigang Wu and David A. Laird believe they discovered this conversion but it has been documented that Dow knew of the existence of this problem from at least the mid-1980s. These researchers are however the first to publish information about what Dow has known for a long time. Three state health departments also discovered the oxon problem but never acted upon their discoveries. While Dow has hidden their knowledge of the conversion because of the ramifications the information brings.

Dow has known since the mid-1980s that the chlorination procedure that they have continued to recommend, and actually require, causes the conversion of chlorpyrifos into chlorpyrifos oxon at very high levels. The creation of chlorpyrifos oxon results in a far greater life-threatening situation than even the chlorpyrifos in the water was initially. Dow has also provided misleading information that chlorpyrifos oxon is a short-lived chemical compound in some research materials. Dow has known since the mid-80s that chlorpyrifos has an extended life in the cool, dark environmental conditions of wells and water systems. Their own water testing clearly showed them the oxon was not short lived.

Dow has used the fact that the chlorpyrifos oxon is both odorless and tasteless to enable them to hide this critical issue with their decontamination procedure. This has helped Dow hide most water contaminations. And Dow has hidden them to simply sell more chlorpyrifos by hiding adverse incidents.

Dow realized that revealing information regarding the creation of chlorpyrifos oxon from chlorinating wells would stop their use of the procedure. Stopping the use of the chlorination procedure would have resulted in unanswerable chlorpyrifos water contaminations and significantly increased regulatory attention causing regulatory actions years earlier. It also would have made the EPA and state health departments aware of the actual number of water contaminations that were really taking place.  Dow researchers and management understood that hiding the oxon problem would mean people would be drinking water contaminated with chlorpyrifos oxon. Dow was willing to do anything to hide this issue at anyone's expense.

The Dow lab that tested the water samples intentionally hid the results of their analysis and the presence of the chlorpyrifos oxon in the water when they reported the results to the well owner. They told well owners that their water was safe to drink when in fact the lab knew of the chlorpyrifos oxon in the water. If you have experienced a well contamination and had Dow analyze your water, you would have received a lab report from Beth Blakely (or Beth Schotts - maiden name) or Ed King (who took over the lab after Blakely) indicating only the level of chlorpyrifos, not chlorpyrifos oxon. The lab did not do this on their own, they were told to do it. Clearly, Dow Management didn't care who it harmed. They did it to hide adverse incidents to stop regulatory reactions.

Special Municipal/City Water Concerns: For those contaminations involving municipal/city water, which is already treated with chlorine to increase water quality, it is important to understand that any type chlorpyrifos water contamination will immediately result in chlorpyrifos oxon creation because of the chlorine already being present in the water. The interaction between chlorine and chlorpyrifos causes the creation of chlorpyrifos oxon. Chlorpyrifos oxon is greater than 3,000¹ times more toxic than chlorpyrifos. The contaminated water should not be used for any purposes.

How much more dangerous is chlorpyrifos oxon than chlorpyrifos? Here are statements by different experts on that subject:

	"Studies done on animals show that even a single, low-level exposure to certain organophosphates, during particular times of early brain development, can cause permanent changes in brain chemistry. Chlorpyrifos, for example, decreases the synthesis of DNA in the developing brain, leading to drops in the number of brain cells. Another study, done in New York in 2003, found that chlorpyrifos and its toxic metabolite chlorpyrifos oxon can cross the placenta barrier. The study found that if pregnant women are exposed to this pesticide, at very low levels, it can affect their unborn child."5
	"OP pesticides already in the oxon form are active as soon as they are absorbed."3
	Chlorpyrifos oxon is about 3000 times as potent against the nervous system as chlorpyrifos itself.
	These compounds have also been shown to be extremely persistent in wells, existing in wells for months after chlorination. "The oxons are more stable than their parent organophosphorus pesticides2", according to pesticide producer Syngenta Crop Protection.

Facts are:

• The oxon has been present in all wells after the decontamination procedure was stated to be successful by Dow and at the time that Dow told the well owners that their water was safe to drink. 

• Dow fully knows that chlorpyrifos oxon has no level of tolerance in drinking water. 

• Dow's statement to resume use of the well for consumption has been based solely on the level of chlorpyrifos from their analysis, it was not based on the level of chlorpyrifos oxon in the water they hid.

• Dow has never provided any information about the presence of chlorpyrifos oxon in the water to those who had well contaminations or to regulatory agencies.
  
  So just how ethical is Dow?

Most toxicology work to date has been done only with chlorpyrifos and not with the oxon of chlorpyrifos. This is because it has been essentially unknown, except by Dow, that chlorpyrifos oxon could exist where it could be consumed by humans. Chlorpyrifos oxon is estimated to be 3,000 times more toxic than the parent chlorpyrifos molecule and it has significant life-long effects on children at very low doses. It is the active form of the chlorpyrifos insecticide. It is very stable in the cool, dark environment of a well for many months.

According to insiders at Dow, Dow had conducted no research on the toxicity of chlorpyrifos oxon through 2001 and we doubt they have conducted any testing to date. Any testing they have done would certainly need to be thoroughly scrutinized because of the fact that Dow researchers have been caught falsifying their research many times. According to insiders at Dow, Dow pushed off this research due to "budget constraints" and "the cost of the tests". Amazingly? or maybe not! Dow hides the existence of this toxic material in people's drinking water, drinking water Dow has been stating is safe to drink, and Dow actually uses an excuse of cost in not conducting this critical testing.  Is it cost that was keeping Dow from doing the research or was it the fact that conducting the testing would have shown acknowledgement of the chlorpyrifos oxon problem? Conducting any testing would have certainly made others aware of this problem earlier.

It is also interesting that in 1999 Dow attempted to experiment with an alternative treatment to decontaminate chlorpyrifos contaminated wells. They attempted to raise the pH of the well using chemicals other than their chlorination process. These unauthorized well treatments used chemical on wells that the owners were not informed of nor were these chemicals approved to be used in treating ground water contaminations by any regulatory agency.

Here's what Dow knew:

	Dow has known that the well chlorination procedure they instruct homeowners to use causes the creation of chlorpyrifos oxon and they have hidden that information for over twenty five years.
	Dow has known that the chlorination procedure causes the creation of chlorpyrifos oxon; it does not reduce it in any way.
	Dow has known for years that chlorpyrifos oxon has significant toxicological affects on humans but that information is only now becoming known outside of Dow.
	Dow told homeowners that their water was safe to drink and to use when Dow knew chlorpyrifos oxon was present in it.

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Links Of Interest

USDA - "chlorine in chlorinated tap water will rapidly transform chlorpyrifos to chlorpyrifos oxon"

Wu J, Laird DA. Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011 "transformation of chlorpyrifos to chlorpyrifos oxon is believed to be a prerequisite for this insecticide to display acute toxicity to organisms. We discovered that active chlorine dispersed in water causes the rapid abiotic transformation of chlorpyrifos to chlorpyrifos oxon"

EPA Addendum to the Drinking Water Memorandum to HED "... the State of Illinois and Region 5 of the U.S. EPA have expressed concern over the substantial formation of chlorpyrifos oxon in wells treated for chlorpyrifos contamination. Because the oxon may also exert substantial toxicity, wells treated for chlorpyrifos contamination should also be monitored for the oxon as well as chlorpyrifos. In addition, a level of concern (LOC) for the oxon in drinking water should be developed"

Dow Chemical: Risks for Investors http://proxyinformation.com/pdf/DowReport.pdf