Ban on Melon-Tainting Pesticide Urged

A state scientific panel is calling for a total ban on the pesticide responsible for the 1985 watermelon poisoning epidemic because of evidence that the chemical poses a serious threat to California underground drinking water supplies, The Times has learned.

As a result of the scientists’ findings, the widely used and highly toxic pesticide aldicarb could become the first agricultural chemical outlawed under a 4-year-old statute intended to prevent ground water contamination.

Aldicarb, marketed under the trade name Temik, was the sixth pesticide reviewed under the pesticide contamination law but the first for which the scientific panel found evidence supporting an outright ban.

Before a ban goes into effect, the state director of food and agriculture must cancel the registration for the chemical, but the law is unclear on when or if the director is required to act on the scientific panel’s findings.

Nevertheless, the scientists’ conclusion was hailed as an important precedent by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that has been urging state and federal authorities to end all permitted uses of the chemical.

“The amount of evidence that has accumulated over the last 10 years about aldicarb’s threat to health and the environment is overwhelming,” said Jennifer Curtis, a researcher with the council. The evidence “implicates aldicarb as one of the worst bad-actor chemicals in use in agriculture today.”

However, the manufacturer, Rhone-Poulenc, contends that aldicarb is safe if used properly. “We don’t believe that evidence was presented to warrant an action like this,” said company spokesman Rick Rountree. “We don’t know of an instance in California or anywhere else in the U.S. where there has been an adverse health effect from the legal use of Temik.”

A majority of the three-member scientific panel concluded that the pesticide “cannot safely continue to be used,” said Paul Lillebo, the scientist representing the state Water Resources Control Board on the committee.

The findings were based on the company’s own tests, which showed that aldicarb moves easily through soil and can persist in ground water for years, Lillebo said. And the levels found in well water were high enough to cause health effects, particularly in infant or young children, he said.

The lone dissenter on the committee--Department of Food and Agriculture scientist Lyndon Hawkins--argued that it would be enough to modify use rather than ban the chemical outright.

Later this week, the panel is expected to deliver its report to state Food and Agriculture Director Henry Voss, who will review the findings before considering a ban.

But there is a dispute whether the law gives Voss any choice in what action he can take.

Lillebo and Department of Health Services scientist Don Mengell wrote in the panel’s majority report that it is their “understanding and intent that the California registration of aldicarb will now be canceled,” Lillebo told The Times. “We were careful to avoid the use of the word ‘recommendation.’ ”

An aide to Assemblyman Lloyd G. Connelly (D-Sacramento), the author of the 1985 statute, said the Legislature intended to give the food and agriculture director no choice but to implement the scientific panel’s findings. “It appears clear that the director has no discretion,” said Connelly’s senior legislative assistant, Sally Magnani.

However, state food and agriculture officials are still trying to determine whether Voss has any alternative.

Voss could say that “the law binds my hands,” said Associate Food and Agriculture Director Rex Magee. “But his legal advisers may look at the law and say that is possibly not what the Legislature intended. Whatever we do, somebody will sue us.”

The panel’s conclusion is the latest sign of trouble for aldicarb.

The pesticide first came to widespread attention in 1985 on Fourth of July weekend when health officials warned consumers not to eat watermelons because a part of the California crop was contaminated with the chemical.

What followed has been described as the largest outbreak of food-borne illness in North America. Despite the warnings, about 1,000 cases of aldicarb poisoning were reported over the next several days. Most of the victims suffered flu-like symptoms, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. But a few reported even more serious problems--seizures and irregular heartbeats. In at least two cases, pregnant women reported stillbirths following brief periods of illness.