Peril in Termite-Killer Cited : Chlordane Victims Seek to Halt Sales of Pesticide

At first, Ellen Warmbrunn thought the strong chemical odors permeating her Claremont home would disappear, certainly within hours after an exterminator treated her garage for termites.

But chlordane, a pesticide that has been used on 30 million American homes since 1947, was just beginning to affect the California mother and her two teen-age daughters.

Within days, Warmbrunn began suffering from extreme fatigue, headaches, nausea and other flu-like symptoms. In time, she developed a short-term memory loss and a tingling in her legs and arms. Months later, one of her daughters came down with pneumonia, and the other experienced crippling arthritis in her wrist.

Warmbrunn initially did not suspect the termite treatment, even though she later learned that the pesticide had been improperly sprayed into her home. But she soon grew less skeptical: Within a year, she and her daughters abandoned the house and destroyed most of their belongings, which had been contaminated with the chemical.

This week, Warmbrunn and other plaintiffs--including several national environmental organizations--are expected to seek an injunction in federal court here to immediately halt sales of chlordane and a related compound known as heptachlor.

Although she has reached a hefty settlement with the manufacturer and exterminator for her medical bills and her property, Warmbrunn believes that nationwide protection is needed.

“People have to realize that when they apply this pesticide to the bugs in their home, they’re also applying it to themselves,” she said. “Chlordane is a real hazard.”

Officials of the Velsicol Chemical Corp. of Rosemont, Ill., the sole manufacturer of chlordane, insist that there are no health risks from the product if it is applied properly. A spokesman said the company expects to resume production of chlordane soon when the new tests prove its safety, adding: “It will be just like when this product first appeared. It met a need then and it meets a need now.”

But complaints such as Warmbrunn’s have become increasingly familiar in recent years as scientific knowledge about the chemical’s possible health effects has grown. Federal and private studies have shown that it causes cancer in laboratory animals and other tests suggest that humans who inhale it may experience birth defects, leukemia, anemia, brain cancer and lung disorders.

But as the evidence from studies has piled up--and the number of people who say they have been harmed by the product continues to grow--the federal government has been slow to act.

The Environmental Protection Agency banned the use of chlordane on crops nine years ago but only moved this year to halt its use in homes. Last month, EPA officials announced that Velsicol had agreed to halt further production until new tests determine whether the product can be used safely.

But the agreement did not cover the millions of gallons of chlordane still being sold in hardware stores, lawn-care centers and other outlets across the nation, an inventory that could last for 90 days, according to EPA officials.

While several pest control firms said they are halting use of the product, critics note that they are not legally bound to do anything as long as current supplies last. The government has recommended, but not required, that the companies use several alternative termite killers that are now available.

“The EPA has said it’s not OK to make this product, because it may cause cancer, but it’s OK for millions of people to keep using it,” said Jay Feldman, director of the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides. “This decision says a lot about how the government regulates pesticides these days.”

Controversial Law

It has also focused attention on a controversial section of the nation’s pesticide control law that requires the EPA to indemnify--or reimburse--chemical companies for the cost of any products that are banned and immediately taken off the market.

Critics estimate that it would cost $50 million to $60 million to remove chlordane from stores, and they believe the agency was hesitant to take such decisive action because of the cost. EPA officials deny that this played any part in their handling of the chemical, contending that there is simply not enough evidence to justify an immediate ban of the product.

“What we have done today is protect the American consumer,” said John Moore, an EPA official in charge of pesticide regulation, in announcing the agreement with Velsicol. “We have done essentially what needs to be accomplished.”

Chlordane, a colorless liquid, is typically injected into the soil, pumped through foundations or placed in dirt-covered trenches around a building. The pesticide is used widely because it does not break down quickly and can keep killing insects for years. Humans are exposed to the chemical when its residues vaporize and seep into a building, usually through air ducts or spaces underneath a house.

When chlordane first came on the market, shortly after World War II, it was hailed as a miracle product that protected crops and killed termites effectively, said Christopher Bosso, a political scientist at Northeastern University in Boston who has written about pesticides.

The chemical, which was a by-product of U.S. Army research into nerve gas, became the nation’s leading termite-killer. But allegations began surfacing in the early 1960s, especially in biologist Rachel Carson’s best-seller, “Silent Spring,” that chlordane was harmful to humans and the environment.

‘Toxins May Sleep Long’

Carson wrote that chlordane was highly toxic, poisonous when inhaled and likely to build up in the body over long periods of time. The “carefree” suburbanite who dusted his lawn with it might not develop health problems immediately, she wrote, but this “has little meaning, for the toxins may sleep long in his body, to become manifest months or years later in an obscure disorder almost impossible to trace to its origins.”

Velsicol officials reacted with a fury, threatening legal action and charging that the author was trying to cripple farmers and weaken America at a time when it was battling for economic supremacy against the Soviet Bloc.

Nevertheless, attacks on chlordane continued. Environmentalists charged that its residues were washing into rivers, lakes and streams and killing fish. Others predicted that a long-term buildup of chlordane in the soil eventually would contaminate the nation’s groundwater supplies.

Cancer in Animals

The EPA took action when Velsicol’s own laboratory tests in the mid-1970s revealed that ingestion of chlordane caused cancer in laboratory animals. After acrimonious negotiations, the federal government banned farm uses of the pesticide in 1978.

However, in exempting household termite treatments, the agency said there was no proof that humans were threatened by inhalation of the chemical, and it also expressed concern that no alternative products were then available.

Velsicol officials maintained at the time that chlordane was not harmful to humans. Nine years later, despite growing controversy, they say little has changed.

“We have done extensive research . . . and the results are that chlordane is not a health hazard (for humans), absolutely not, when used according to proper directions,” Donna Jennings, a company spokeswoman, said last week. “It’s been used in 30 million homes for 40 years, and if there was a health problem, we would have seen evidence of it just by the number of homes that have been treated.”

Point to Evidence

Critics say the evidence could not be more clear.

Feldman notes, for example, that a wave of consumer lawsuits has been filed in recent years against Velsicol, pest control firms and chain stores selling chlordane.

The number of cases and out-of-court settlements is “growing exponentially,” said Arthur Bryant, a Washington public interest attorney who helps coordinate such litigation. In one pending case, seven Long Island homeowners are seeking compensation for homes and belongings that had to be destroyed because of contamination, with the debris buried at a special landfill.

At the same time, a number of new scientific studies have suggested a strong link between chlordane exposure and anemia, leukemia, miscarriages, brain cancer in children, lung disorders and premature births, according to Dr. Samuel Epstein, a professor of environmental medicine at the University of Illinois who has studied pesticides extensively.

In recent years, several states have decided to ban the sale of chlordane. The EPA did not act until tests it analyzed this year showed that as many as 3 out of 1,000 people living in homes that had been properly treated with chlordane ran a long-term risk of developing cancer.

Under an agreement reached with Velsicol, no more chlordane will be produced until tests show that it can be used safely. In particular, EPA officials ordered the company to show that the chemical’s residues would no longer persist in homes after proper use.

The EPA’s Moore said that the agreement would “shut down the chlordane pipeline” and protect consumers. He stressed that homeowners do not face imminent health risks from low-level chlordane exposure.

But others are unconvinced. Despite the agency’s insistence that indemnification costs did not affect their decision to avoid an outright ban, Bosso said such considerations historically have played a major role in the EPA’s actions.

Millions of Dollars

“This agency has always preferred a less Draconian way of doing things, because these requirements (indemnifications) can run into millions of dollars,” he said. “If you ban or cancel a pesticide, it can become a heavily politicized process. EPA typically prefers to avoid a fight and let people use the stocks they have on hand.”

Warmbrunn said that as long as chlordane is on the market, millions of homeowners who worry about termite infestations but are not well-informed about pesticide hazards might be endangered.

“Most people don’t know the right questions to ask about pesticides and generally expect the government to protect them,” she said. “In this case, I think a lot of people, through no fault of their own, could be very much at risk.”