Methyl Bromide
Controversy Reveals the Politics of Pesticides
November 28, 2005 — By Rita Beamish, Associated Press
WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Shoppers rifle
through store shelves brimming with succulent tomatoes and plump
strawberries, hoping to enjoy one last round of fresh fruit before the
Western growing season ends. There is no hint of a dark side to the
blaze of red.
Strawberries are a painful subject for Guillermo Ruiz. The farm worker
believes his headaches, confusion and vision trouble stem from a decade
working in the fields with methyl bromide, a pesticide that protects the
berries with stunning efficiency.
Cheri Alderman, a teacher whose classroom borders a farm, fears her
students could inhale a dangerous whiff of the fumigant as it drifts
from the adjacent strawberry field. "A little dribble of poison is still
poison," she says.
The concerns stretch globally.
Other nations watch as the United States keeps permitting wide use of
methyl bromide for tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, Christmas trees and
other crops, even though the U.S. signed an international treaty banning
all but the most critical uses by 2005.
The chemical depletes the earth's protective ozone layer and can harm
the human neurological system, an increasing concern as people settle
further into what was once just farm country.
Methyl bromide's survival demonstrates the difficulty of banishing a
powerful pesticide that helps deliver what both farmers and consumers
want: abundant, pest-free and affordable produce.
The Bush administration, at the urging of agriculture and manufacturing
interests, is making plans to ensure that methyl bromide remains
available at least through 2008 by seeking and winning treaty
exemptions. Also, the administration will not commit to an end date.
The administration's "fervent desire and goal" is to end methyl
bromide's use, said Claudia McMurray, deputy assistant secretary of
state.
The amount of the fumigant that the administration requested under
treaty exemptions for the next two years is lower than in 2005. Golf
course sod, for instance, won an exemption this year but not next.
"I can't say to you that each year the numbers (of pounds used) would
automatically go down," she said.
The reason is that farmers who each year grow Florida tomatoes,
California strawberries, Georgia peppers and North Carolina Christmas
trees worth billions of dollars are struggling to find a suitable
replacement. Alternative organic techniques are too costly and
substitute chemicals are not as effective, growers say.
"We're not totally clueless. We've seen this train coming. We've tried
every alternative and put every engine on the track, but none of them
run," said Reggie Brown, manager of the Florida Tomato Committee.
Odorless and colorless, methyl bromide is a gas that usually is injected
by tractor into soil before planting, then covered with plastic sheeting
to slow its release into the air. It wipes out plant parasites, disease
and weeds. It results in a spectacular yield, reduced weeding costs and
a longer growing season.
Workers who inhale enough of the chemical can suffer convulsions, coma
and neuromuscular and cognitive problems. In rare cases, they can die.
Less is known about the long-term effects of low levels of contact, said
Dr. Robert Harrison, an occupational and environmental health physician
at the University of California, San Francisco.
The U.S. signed the Montreal Protocol treaty, committing to phase out
methyl bromide by 2005 as part of the effort to protect the earth's
ozone layer.
A provision allows for exemptions to prevent "market disruption." The
U.S. has used it to persuade treaty signers to allow U.S. farmers to
continue using the chemical.
That exemption process leaves the U.S. 37 percent shy of the phaseout
required by 2005, with at least 10,450 tons of methyl bromide exempted
this year. While that compares with about 28,080 tons used in 1991, this
year's total is higher than it was two years ago.
U.S. officials are heading to a Montreal Protocol meeting in Senegal on
Dec. 7 to begin negotiations on exemptions for 2007 and are preparing
requests for 2008.
That is not what the treaty envisioned, said David Doniger, senior
scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. In the 1990s, he
worked on the protocol as head of ozone programs for the Environmental
Protection Agency.
"Nobody expected you would use the exemptions to cancel the final step
of the phaseout or even go backward," Doniger said.
With methyl bromide probably sticking around for several years, the EPA
is re-examining its health and safety standards.
California, which grows more than 85 percent of the nation's
strawberries and other methyl bromide-dependent crops, launched
regulations last year to improve its strictest-in-the-nation protections
for farmworkers and others.
The increased protections are not enough for Alderman, a teacher at
Pajaro Middle School in the California agricultural belt south of the
Santa Cruz beaches.
Kids chase balls across the grassy playing field. Opposite a chain link
fence, just beyond the range of an errant baseball, is a field where
strawberries grow.
When air monitoring detected elevated methyl bromide levels four years
ago, Alderman joined the outcry. County officials say they pressed the
grower; this fall he used a different chemical on the fields nearest the
school.
Alderman, however, remains concerned because government scientists say
methyl bromide seeps into the air. "We have that nice ocean breeze that
blows it all this way," the teacher said.
Even California's required buffer zones and ban on applying methyl
bromide within 36 hours of school time is not enough, she said. The
school draws youngsters on weekends too, and families live nearby. "It's
ridiculous to think that as long as we don't do it on school days, then
were OK," she said.
The American Association of Pesticide Control Centers logged 395 reports
of methyl bromide poisonings from 1999 to 2004. A national total remains
elusive because farmworkers often do not seek medical care.
Advocates for farmworkers contend in a San Francisco Superior Court
lawsuit that even California's exposure limits to protect neighbors are
too lax. State regulators lately have emphasized stricter enforcement
and tougher penalties.
Ruiz and Jorge Fernandez, two California farmworkers, say they saw
plenty wrong in the strawberry fields they worked, starting with the
dogs, birds and deer that lay lifeless when the workers arrived to
remove plastic sheeting from fumigated fields. "That's how we knew this
was a dangerous chemical," Ruiz said.
His own symptoms added concern. "My eyes watered. I threw up. It gave me
headaches," he said.
Ruiz and Jorge Fernandez say they developed nervousness and depression
by the time they stopped working in 2003. They saw the plastic come
loose in high winds or leak when animals punctured it. Other workers had
symptoms, they said, but kept silent because they feared for their jobs.
The two are in a disability dispute with their former employer, who
denies allegations that workers were forced to remove plastic sooner
than required.
Growers feel hamstrung. Despite millions of dollars spent on research,
no alternative addresses all soils and pests as well as methyl bromide,
they say.
"It just works so good and just does so many things so well," said Mike
Miller, a strawberry grower in Salinas, Calif.
He and other farmers believe the fumigant is safe when used correctly.
"I'm comfortable working with the product and educating our personnel,"
said Jim Grainger, a fourth-generation farmer who grows 700 acres of
steak tomatoes in Florida.
Among those pushing for continued exemptions are financial heavy hitters
such as the family of Floyd Gottwald, vice chairman of methyl bromide
producer Albemarle Corp. of Richmond, Va. The Gottwalds contributed more
than $420,000 to President Bush's campaigns and to national Republican
Party organizations over the past six years.
The size of the U.S. inventory of methyl bromide inventory is secret.
The EPA refuses to disclose how much, saying the figure is confidential
business information. Doniger's group says in a suit against the agency
that the amount exceeds 11,000 tons.
Its continued use makes people such as Lynda Uvari uneasy.
In her Southern California neighborhood of Ventura, people thought they
had the flu a few years back. Then they noticed that their illness
coincided with fumigation of a nearby field. They settled a suit with
the strawberry grower.
Now Uvari wonders about methyl bromide's legacy, even whether it could
be linked to her son's endocrine problems.
"That's in the back of our minds all the time," Uvari said. "You always
question."
Source: Associated Press
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