Leavitt Signs Sharp
Increase In Unhealthy Pesticide
December 16, 2004 — By Natural Resources Defense Council
Outgoing Administrator Approves Increased Use of Cancer-Causing Chemical
Before Transfer to HHS
WASHINGTON, DC (December 16, 2004) — Outgoing Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Michael Leavitt will release regulations today allowing a 2
million pound increase in 2005 in the use of methyl bromide, an ozone-depleting
and cancer-causing farm chemical, in violation of both an international treaty
and the Clean Air Act. This new action follows several other decisions by the
Bush administration to allow more use of the pesticide.
"Catering to a handful of big chemical and agribusiness interests, the Bush
administration is actually expanding the use of this dangerous, ozone-destroying
chemical," said David Doniger, policy director of the NRDC (Natural
Resources Defense Council) Climate Center. "More methyl bromide means more
ozone depletion and higher risks of skin cancer, cataracts, and immune diseases
for millions of Americans."
After a 12 year phase-out process under the treaty, known as the Montreal
Protocol, methyl bromide production and use is supposed to end at the close of
this year, with very highly restricted exemptions available only for
"critical uses." But under the new EPA regulations, methyl bromide use
will actually increase in 2005.
The EPA exemptions will allow agribusiness interests to use 19.7 million pounds
of methyl bromide next year, an increase of nearly 2 million pounds over the
amount used in 2003. More than three-quarters of the chemical will be used by
two crops — Florida tomatoes and California strawberries.
The EPA exemptions will also allow a handful of U.S. chemical companies to
produce and import 17 million pounds methyl bromide in 2005, even though they
have already stockpiled more than 22 million pounds of the chemical. The rules
violate conditions that countries use up the available stockpile of methyl
bromide before authorizing new production — conditions the Bush administration
agreed to in Montreal Protocol talks with 180 countries just last March.
The Bush administration's move contrasts sharply with action this week by the
European Union, which is dramatically cutting methyl bromide use across the
continent, including the tomato- and strawberry-growing regions of Italy, Spain,
and other southern European countries. While American use of this
ozone-depleting chemical in 2005 will grow to 35 percent of the amount used in
1991 (when the phase-out process began), the Europeans will cut their use to
just 14 percent of their 1991 starting point. "The United States used to be
the world leader in protecting the ozone layer, under presidents stretching back
to Ronald Reagan," Doniger said. "Why is the Bush administration
walking the other way?"
The new exemptions follow a pattern by the Bush administration of
industry-friendly increases in methyl bromide use. This September, USDA
published new requirements that could double worldwide methyl bromide use by
providing for raw wood pallets and packaging materials to be sprayed with the
chemical, even though the government admits this will not solve the problem of
foreign pest invasions. In August, USDA proposed a separate new system of
domestic exemptions that could allow farmers to increase use even above the
levels allowed by EPA today.
The Montreal Protocol, signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and supported
by subsequent U.S. presidents from both political parties, is intended to
protect the ozone layer, which shields us from cancer-causing ultraviolet
radiation that increases risks of skin cancer, cataracts and immunological
disease. Methyl bromide also causes prostate cancer in agricultural workers and
others who are directly exposed, according to the National Cancer Institute.
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of
scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public
health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 1 million
members and e-activists nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington,
Santa Monica and San Francisco.
www.nrdc.org
For more information contact: Eben Burnham-Snyder, 202-513-6254, ebsnyder@nrdc.org
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