Tainted Melons Traced to Kern County; Ban Goes On : Pesticides Found on Two Farms

State officials today extended through the weekend an order requiring grocery stores to remove possibly contaminated watermelons from their shelves and said investigators have found a pesticide believed to be responsible for the problem in two Kern County growers’ fields.

At the same time, state health and agriculture authorities--saying that about 30 people have become ill from eating watermelons--issued a ban against shipping the fruit from Kern County and all other counties where it is grown until the extent of the problem can be determined.

Urging Californians not to eat watermelons, state Health Services Director Kenneth W. Kizer said officials are hopeful that they will be able to determine how widespread the contamination is by Monday.

Watermelons were ordered pulled from grocery bins on the Fourth of July by state officials when at least 18 persons reported suffering abrupt illnesses after eating watermelon. Kizer told reporters today that the figure had climbed to about 30 victims, including a family of nine in Santa Clara County.

Found on 2 Farms

Kizer and Rex Magee of the Department of Food and Agriculture said inspectors had found the highly toxic chemical, aldicarb sulfoxide, at two watermelon farms in Kern County. The chemical is a breakdown product of the pesticide aldicarb, and is more toxic than the parent compound, they said.

“We are confident that the contaminated watermelons are coming from at least those sites,” Kizer said. “But at this time, we are not able to say with certainty that these are the only places they are coming from.”

He said the names of the growers would be announced later and noted that aldicarb is authorized for use on cotton but not on watermelon. Offenders can be subject to a misdemeanor fine of $5,000 and six months in jail or can be sued in civil court by the attorney general, Kizer said.

The actions against selling and transporting watermelons in California followed similar steps taken a day earlier in Oregon and southern Washington where at least 15 illnesses were linked to a possible pesticide contamination.

Illness Seldom Fatal

Symptoms of the sickness include nausea, vomiting and gastrointestinal pain, Kizer said, but the illness is seldom fatal to a person in good health. He said people who suffer heart or lung problems have been more severely affected.

Aldicarb is manufactured by North Carolina-based Union Carbide, which sells the product under the brand name Temik.

At their headquarters near Raleigh, N.C., Union Carbide officials expressed outrage at the watermelon contamination and vowed to assist state officials in tracking down the applicator of the pesticide.

“We’re utterly appalled,” said Mary Ann Ford, Union Carbide’s public affairs manager. “This is just a gross misapplication.”

The pesticide, produced in a granular form that is applied to the soil, is barred for use on watermelons because they accumulate residue from Temik in potentially harmful amounts, officials said.

Temik is approved for use on several crops--potatoes, grain sorghum, peanuts, cotton, sugar cane, sugar beets, sweet potatoes, dried beans, soybeans, pecans, some citrus fruits and some commercially grown flowers, Ford said. Those crops are specified on packages of Temik sold to licensed pesticide applicators, she said.

The labels carry a warning in bold black letters: “Do not use on any crop not listed on this label. Any residues may be illegal or harmful.”