Regional briefs 12/10/15

EPA reverses herbicide decision

WAPPAPELLO, Mo. -- The Environmental Protection Agency is backpedaling its approval of a herbicide containing the same chemicals that allegedly sickened three people in the spring of 2015 near Wappapello, reported the Daily American Republic. The EPA announced in a court filing Nov. 25 it had received new information from manufacturer Dow AgroSciences a weed killer called Enlist Duo probably is more toxic to other plants than previously thought, according to the Associated Press. In a filing with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the EPA said it "might not have issued the existing registration had it been aware" of the new information when it approved the product a year ago to be used with new strains of genetically modified corn and soybeans. Enlist Duo is a combination of glyphosate, the main active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, and 2,4-D, another herbicide that was one of the chemicals used in Agent Orange, a Vietnam-era defoliant linked to illnesses. The EPA decision comes weeks after the Missouri Department of Agriculture handed down civil actions for pesticide drift against two Southeast Missouri agricultural chemical applicators. While the EPA decision is not related to the incidents near Wappapello, Enlist Duo is composed of the same chemicals three people believe made them ill after aerial applications that later were found to have violated state pesticide regulations.

Woman seriously injured in wreck

One person was seriously injured in an accident that occurred Wednesday morning on U.S. 62, two miles east of Campbell, Missouri. According to the Daily Dunklin Democrat, the accident happened when Joyce Eberle, 65, of Clarkton, Missouri, turned her 2003 Mustang into the path of a 2009 Freightliner truck driven by Paul Blume, 37, of Campbell. Eberle was flown to Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau for treatment.

-- From staff reports