Replacing Poison with Poison: EPA Proposes Lethal Replacement
Stop the Registration of Methyl Iodide!
Methyl bromide is a fumigant pesticide used to grow strawberries, tomatoes, and other crops. In 1992 many of the world's nations agreed to phase out methyl bromide under the Montreal Protocol because this deadly poison was also contributing to the hole in the ozone layer of the atmosphere.
This was an historic opportunity to evolve the way we grow food with less poisonous and more sustainable soil and pest management methods. Researchers and farmers alike took on the task of finding ways to grow crops without chemicals that endanger the earth's protective ozone layer. Unfortunately, the United States has refused to honor this global commitment, and now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is facilitating a chemical industry- and agribusiness-driven effort to introduce an even more severely toxic fumigant in its place -- methyl iodide.
Action Update
Through Feb 21, 2006 US EPA took public comments as part of an evaluation process to register methyl iodide for use in food production. Pesticide Action Network North America joined with scientists, farm workers and families, in asking EPA to refuse the registration of this chemical.
Why Are Fumigants Dangerous?
Both methyl bromide and methyl iodide are fumigants - gaseous
pesticides injected into soils to kill all living things before a field
is planted. "This is an archaic, unsustainable approach,"" remarked Pesticide
Action Network's Senior Scientist Dr. Susan Kegley. "We know so much more
now about soil pests, plant pathology and plant breeding than when fumigants
were first introduced in the 1920s. EPA should be helping farmers move
into the future by expanding the use of new integrated pest management
techniques, not replacing one deadly chemical with another."" Kegley also
points out that fumigation is an inherently risky technology that endangers
farm workers, contaminates groundwater, and threatens schools and communities
surrounding fumigated fields.
If Fumigants Are Dangerous, Why Is EPA Pushing Them?
The
chemical industry wants to maintain their market for soil fumigants
even as EPA is beginning to recognize the full extent of their
toxicity, as well as the difficulty of controlling them once they are
released. Methyl bromide is already subject to a global phaseout
under the Montreal Protocol as a destroyer of the earth's stratospheric
ozone layer. Methyl bromide is also an acute respiratory poison,
strongly linked with prostate cancer, implicated in Parkinson's Disease
and other neurological illnesses, and responsible for many injuries and
deaths. "One time I just couldn't stand the gas. My throat hurt, and I
had to run from the field to get a breath of air," remembers Jorge
Fernandez, a farm worker whose exposure to the gas resulted in chronic
respiratory and neurological problems so severe he can no longer
support his family -- simply talking leaves him dizzy and gasping for
breath.
Methyl iodide may be even more hazardous to human health than methyl bromide. Cancer researchers have used methyl iodide in laboratories to induce cancer in cells. Researchers using methyl iodide use great caution, transferring small quantities from sealed tubes with syringes under special ventilation hoods to prevent its release into the air. The state of California lists it as a carcinogen under Proposition 65.
EPA Invents Cancer Categories
When EPA found that methyl iodide caused thyroid tumors, however,
it invoked a previously unheard-of cancer ranking of "Not likely to be
carcinogenic to humans at doses that do not alter rat thyroid hormone
homeostasis." The EPA's Cancer Assessment Review Committee used only a
single animal test to come to this conclusion -- a questionable study in
which 62-66% of the rats in both the control and the high dose group died
during the experiment. In addition to thyroid tumors, the study showed
large and significant changes in thyroid hormone levels, which are closely
tied to metabolic disorders. EPA did not evaluate potential adverse effects
that might arise from these changes. Other animal studies evaluated by
EPA indicated that methyl iodide causes respiratory tract lesions, neurological
problems, and miscarriages.
The State of New Jersey's Fact Sheet cautions laboratory workers exposed to high levels of methyl iodide that the chemical can irritate eyes, burn and blister the skin, and cause coughing and shortness of breath as well as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. High exposures may also cause a buildup of fluid in the lungs leading to severe respiratory complications. According to the National Institutes of Health, in one case, a chemical plant worker exposed to methyl iodide developed symptoms of central nervous system poisoning and died.
Residents Near Fields in Danger
If
methyl iodide is injected into soil as a fumigant, even tarps will not
be able to keep it from escaping into the open air and endangering
nearby farmworkers and communities. EPA's human health assessment
optimistically recommends that workers handling methyl iodide be
required to wear respirators, and that buffer zones the size of several
football fields may be necessary to keep the poisonous gas from
drifting into nearby communities. But on many farms, agricultural
workers are regularly denied basic safety equipment, and growers have
objected strenuously to buffer zones of any size. Under actual
agricultural conditions, methyl iodide cannot be safely used.
Success Without Fumigants
Meanwhile, researchers and farmers have made great progress in
improving the productivity and cost effectiveness of growing
crops without fumigants . Non-chemical methods include choosing locally
appropriate resistant varieties, rotating crops, planting cover crops,
and soil solarization to control pathogens and weeds. Studies at the University
of California at Davis comparing organic strawberry fields to fumigated
plots found that the organic fields actually enjoyed higher yields, and
both methods produced a profit. In Florida , soil solarization achieved
by trapping the sun's heat with plastic covers produced 23% greater yields
than neighboring farms that used fumigants. Studies in many countries
in Europe, Latin America and other regions are finding successful alternatives
as well. These safe and ecological practices can be greatly expanded and
PANNA is urging EPA to work with USDA to fund more research and outreach
to farmers to make it easier for farmers to move away from fumigants and
adopt non-chemical soil pest control technologies.
Sources:
Pesticide Action Network PANUPS: Replacing Poison with Poison: We Can Do Better
Pesticide Action Network North America . 2005. Why EPA Should Not Register Methyl Iodide. http://www.panna.org/campaigns/driftMeI.html
Mendez, Elizabeth and Jeffrey L. Dawson. 2006. Human Health Risk Assessment: Iodomethane. Office of Pesticide Programs Health Effects Division, US EPA, Docket ID # EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0252, EPA Public Docket, http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic-rel11/component/main
New Jersey Department Of Health and Senior Services. Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Methyl Iodide . http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/rtkweb/1266.pdf
National Institutes of Health , US National Library of Medicine. Haz-Map Occupational Exposure to Hazardous Agents. http://hazmap.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/hazmap_generic?tbl=TblAgents&id=155
McSherry, Lucius and Elizabeth Mills. 2005. "Strawberry and Tomato Farming Without Fumigants and Other Toxic Pesticides" in August 2005 Global Pesticide Campaigner, Pesticide Action Network North America. ttp://www.panna.org/resources/gpc/gpc_200508.15.2.06.dv.html