Christopher Doering

cdoering@gannett.com

The Environmental Working Group said Thursday there are nine elementary schools in Iowa that are within 200 feet of a corn or soybean field, a concern the green group highlighted as regulators consider whether to approve a controversial new herbicide.

The report from EWG found nearly 500 elementary schools across the United States are within 200 feet of these fields, with Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina. Iowa did not make the top 10 among states.

Dow AgroSciences has been working for more than a decade on its "Enlist Weed Control System" — a package that would allow the application of its Enlist Duo herbicide on its corn, soybean and cotton seeds, killing pesky weeds but saving the plants. The Dow seeds would act as a competitor to genetically modified products produced by agribusiness giant Monsanto.

Dow AgroSciences' seeds are genetically engineered to resist several herbicides, including one known as 2,4-D, a component of Agent Orange used by the U.S. military during Vietnam, and glyphosate, the main ingredient used in Monsanto's Roundup.

Critics, including the EWG, say the new seed and herbicide combination could lead to environmental and health problems and even more weed resistance.

Dow said Thursday's EWG report ignored prior health and safety evaluations by regulators in the United States and overseas. It called assertions that Enlist will result in increased herbicide exposure "erroneous."

"The Environmental Working Group's (EWG) inflammatory claims represent an irresponsible attempt to proliferate misinformation that has previously been debunked, on multiple occasions, in extensive, published regulatory evaluations," Dow AgroSciences said in a statement. "If pesticide opponents were truly concerned about potential applications near schools, they might have also acknowledged that Enlist Duo herbicide poses far less potential for drift and other forms of off-target movement than the 2,4-D products that are currently in use."

The Agriculture Department and Environmental Protection Agency are expected to announce this fall whether they will approve the herbicide.

"The EPA needs to pay considerably more attention to the additional exposure risks borne by young children who live or study near corn and soybean fields than it did in its risk assessment," said Mary Ellen Kustin and Soren Rundquist with the EWG.

"It is imperative that the agency reconsider its assessment before its final decision on the largest increase of a known toxic weed killer in a generation."

Dow AgroSciences said expects to have corn and soybeans on the market for the 2015 growing season, with cotton coming a year later.