Scientists, advocates, and farmers converge in Sacramento to keep controversial new pesticide out of California’s strawberry fields
Methyl iodide is so reliably carcinogenic that it’s used to cause cancer in the lab. Yet California's Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is currently considering the chemical for use as a new pesticide in the state's strawberry fields, where it would be applied at rates of up to 175 lbs per acre.
If methyl iodide is approved, Californians living and working near and in treated fields will have a nine to 90 times greater risk of getting cancer over their lifetime compared to someone who is not exposed at all. Scientists familiar with the chemical are “astonished;” farmworkers and fenceline communities are understandably concerned.
Responding to such concerns, California’s Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, under the leadership of Assemblymember Bill Monning (Monterey), has called a special legislative hearing this Wednesday to consider the public health and worker safety risks associated with methyl iodide’s proposed use in agricultural settings.
In January this year, New York declined to register methyl iodide. With California poised to be one of the new pesticide’s largest markets, all eyes are on the battle unfolding in Sacramento. The CEO of Arysta LifeScience, the company that manufactures methyl iodide, is flying in for the legislative hearing. Members of nursery and grower industry groups are also slated to speak at the hearing.
If registered as a soil fumigant, methyl iodide would be applied primarily in California’s strawberry fields, affecting people in the Coastal parts of the state from San Diego and Ventura to Watsonville. Methyl iodide is transformed to a gas that will readily drift away from the application site and expose neighboring residents and farm workers in nearby fields. Methyl iodide is a threat to air and water supplies and has been linked to very serious illnesses including cancer, miscarriages, thyroid disease, and neurological problems.
“It is difficult to over-state how hazardous this chemical is, and how inappropriate it is for agricultural uses,” states Dr. Susan Kegley, chemist and consulting scientist for Pesticide Action Network. “Methyl iodide is a highly reactive chemical, and it cannot be contained once it is released into the environment.
With the proposed use patterns, people will be inhaling much more of the pesticide than the dose that DPR assumes to be without harm. For those who spend time near fields where this pesticide is applied, this will likely translate into more miscarriages, more cancer, more thyroid disease, and more nervous system disorders. Workers involved in the application of methyl iodide will have the highest exposures and the most significant health problems.”
“For fieldworkers at work near fumigations, exposures would be up to 3,000 times higher than the level of concern for miscarriage risk and 15 times the level of concern for nervous system effects,” explains Anne Katten, pesticide and work safety specialist for California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, “The resulting debilitating thyroid and nervous system disorders would likely go undiagnosed and untreated in farmworkers because of their extremely limited access to health care.”
If approved, methyl iodide would be the first new fumigant pesticide registered in nearly ten years. “We’ve grown organic strawberries, without the use of any fumigant, for over twenty years,” says Karen Lucero of Lodi-based Lucero Organic Farms. “We can’t grow healthy farms and healthy families while using outdated fumigants. The future of farming rests on our ability to grow just strawberries, for workers, farmers and families.”
In the last month, Senator Mark Leno (San Francisco) and Assemblymember Monning co-authored a letter with 35 co-signers from the state Assembly and Senate in opposition to the proposed use of methyl iodide in California. The decision to approve the pesticide ultimately lies with DPR, who has convened a Scientific Review Panel in order to conduct a scientific evaluation of the chemical. The Panel is scheduled to meet on September 24-25 this fall.
Highly toxic, methyl iodide has been controversial from the time US EPA announced its intent to register this chemical for legal use as a pesticide. In 2007, US EPA fast-tracked the registration of methyl iodide (a Proposition 65 carcinogen) for use as a soil fumigant despite serious concerns raised by a group of over 50 eminent scientists, including five Nobel Laureates.
These scientists sent a letter of concern to US EPA explaining, “Because of methyl iodide’s high volatility and water solubility, broad use of this chemical in agriculture will guarantee substantial releases to air, surface waters and groundwater, and will result in exposures for many people. In addition to the potential for increased cancer incidence, US EPA’s own evaluation of the chemical also indicates that methyl iodide causes thyroid toxicity, permanent neurological damage, and fetal losses in experimental animals.” The letter concludes, “It is astonishing that the Office of Pesticide Programmes (of US EPA) is working to legalise broadcast releases of one of the more toxic chemicals used in manufacturing into the environment.”
“We’re shocked to be having this conversation in this day and age,” notes Marilyn Lynds, a community member whose home is adjacent to fields that would be fumigated with the new pesticide. “Methyl iodide is known to the state of California to cause cancer. The US EPA knows that it causes thyroid toxicity, permanent neurological damage, and spontaneous abortions. This chemical has no safe place in California agriculture. I certainly don’t want my daughter growing up under constant threat of a drifting cloud of methyl iodide.”
Methyl iodide is so reliably carcinogenic that it’s used to cause cancer in the lab. Yet California's Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is currently considering the chemical for use as a new pesticide in the state's strawberry fields, where it would be applied at rates of up to 175 lbs per acre.
If methyl iodide is approved, Californians living and working near and in treated fields will have a nine to 90 times greater risk of getting cancer over their lifetime compared to someone who is not exposed at all. Scientists familiar with the chemical are “astonished;” farmworkers and fenceline communities are understandably concerned.
Responding to such concerns, California’s Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, under the leadership of Assemblymember Bill Monning (Monterey), has called a special legislative hearing this Wednesday to consider the public health and worker safety risks associated with methyl iodide’s proposed use in agricultural settings.
In January this year, New York declined to register methyl iodide. With California poised to be one of the new pesticide’s largest markets, all eyes are on the battle unfolding in Sacramento. The CEO of Arysta LifeScience, the company that manufactures methyl iodide, is flying in for the legislative hearing. Members of nursery and grower industry groups are also slated to speak at the hearing.
If registered as a soil fumigant, methyl iodide would be applied primarily in California’s strawberry fields, affecting people in the Coastal parts of the state from San Diego and Ventura to Watsonville. Methyl iodide is transformed to a gas that will readily drift away from the application site and expose neighboring residents and farm workers in nearby fields. Methyl iodide is a threat to air and water supplies and has been linked to very serious illnesses including cancer, miscarriages, thyroid disease, and neurological problems.
“It is difficult to over-state how hazardous this chemical is, and how inappropriate it is for agricultural uses,” states Dr. Susan Kegley, chemist and consulting scientist for Pesticide Action Network. “Methyl iodide is a highly reactive chemical, and it cannot be contained once it is released into the environment.
With the proposed use patterns, people will be inhaling much more of the pesticide than the dose that DPR assumes to be without harm. For those who spend time near fields where this pesticide is applied, this will likely translate into more miscarriages, more cancer, more thyroid disease, and more nervous system disorders. Workers involved in the application of methyl iodide will have the highest exposures and the most significant health problems.”
“For fieldworkers at work near fumigations, exposures would be up to 3,000 times higher than the level of concern for miscarriage risk and 15 times the level of concern for nervous system effects,” explains Anne Katten, pesticide and work safety specialist for California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, “The resulting debilitating thyroid and nervous system disorders would likely go undiagnosed and untreated in farmworkers because of their extremely limited access to health care.”
If approved, methyl iodide would be the first new fumigant pesticide registered in nearly ten years. “We’ve grown organic strawberries, without the use of any fumigant, for over twenty years,” says Karen Lucero of Lodi-based Lucero Organic Farms. “We can’t grow healthy farms and healthy families while using outdated fumigants. The future of farming rests on our ability to grow just strawberries, for workers, farmers and families.”
In the last month, Senator Mark Leno (San Francisco) and Assemblymember Monning co-authored a letter with 35 co-signers from the state Assembly and Senate in opposition to the proposed use of methyl iodide in California. The decision to approve the pesticide ultimately lies with DPR, who has convened a Scientific Review Panel in order to conduct a scientific evaluation of the chemical. The Panel is scheduled to meet on September 24-25 this fall.
Highly toxic, methyl iodide has been controversial from the time US EPA announced its intent to register this chemical for legal use as a pesticide. In 2007, US EPA fast-tracked the registration of methyl iodide (a Proposition 65 carcinogen) for use as a soil fumigant despite serious concerns raised by a group of over 50 eminent scientists, including five Nobel Laureates.
These scientists sent a letter of concern to US EPA explaining, “Because of methyl iodide’s high volatility and water solubility, broad use of this chemical in agriculture will guarantee substantial releases to air, surface waters and groundwater, and will result in exposures for many people. In addition to the potential for increased cancer incidence, US EPA’s own evaluation of the chemical also indicates that methyl iodide causes thyroid toxicity, permanent neurological damage, and fetal losses in experimental animals.” The letter concludes, “It is astonishing that the Office of Pesticide Programmes (of US EPA) is working to legalise broadcast releases of one of the more toxic chemicals used in manufacturing into the environment.”
“We’re shocked to be having this conversation in this day and age,” notes Marilyn Lynds, a community member whose home is adjacent to fields that would be fumigated with the new pesticide. “Methyl iodide is known to the state of California to cause cancer. The US EPA knows that it causes thyroid toxicity, permanent neurological damage, and spontaneous abortions. This chemical has no safe place in California agriculture. I certainly don’t want my daughter growing up under constant threat of a drifting cloud of methyl iodide.”
No comments:
Post a Comment