Poison in the Land

Monday’s decision by Henry J. Voss, director of the California Food and Agriculture Department, to ignore the advice of his scientific advisers and permit continued use of the pesticide aldicarb is dangerously illogical. It already has damaged his department’s standing as a responsible regulatory agency, and it ought to be reversed before it does harm to the public’s health as well.

Aldicarb is a particularly effective pesticide manufactured by Rhone-Poulenc and distributed here by Union Carbide under the brand name Temik. When injected into the soil before or during planting, aldicarb eliminates various soil and airborne pests so completely that there usually is no need for subsequent spraying of other hazardous chemicals. However, the root of aldicarb’s effectiveness--its extreme toxicity--makes it unsuitable for use on all but a few crops, mainly cotton, citrus, potatoes, sugar beets and soybeans.

Four years ago, the illegal application of the substance to portions of the state’s watermelon crop led to what is thought to be the biggest outbreak of food-borne illness in America’s recent history. About 1,000 people who consumed the poisoned melons suffered symptoms ranging from nausea to seizures. Some pregnant women reported stillbirths after their illness.

Recently, evidence has surfaced that aldicarb, which was thought to break down rather quickly in the soil, is in fact contaminating the ground water in regions where it is used. Researchers employed by the compound’s manufacturer, Rhone-Poulenc, say their studies in the Central Valley show that aldicarb moves quite easily through the soil to the ground water 50 feet below. There it remains, they found, for two to three years. Similarly, local agricultural officials have traced the fouling of wells in two Northern California counties to the use of the pesticide on commercially grown flower bulbs.

These and other findings were reviewed by a scientists from the Department of Health Services, the State Water Resources Control Board and the Agriculture Department. The representatives of the health and water agencies recommended a ban; the scientist from agriculture opposed prohibition.

Voss, a former president of the corporate farmers’ major trade association, the California Farm Bureau, chose to follow the minority opinion. Citing the harm a ban would do to the economic interests of cotton and sugar beet growers, he discounted the results of Rhone-Poulenc’s own tests and refused to consider the findings of the local agricultural commissioners. He did, however, announce that the amount of aldicarb that legally can be applied to each acre of land will be reduced by 50%. Use of the pesticide will be prohibited entirely in the autumn, when rains are likely to carry it into the ground water.

The willful illogic of these proposals is but the most recent example of the Agriculture Department’s inability to put protection of the public’s health ahead of its consideration for corporate farmers’ profits. As such, it is further evidence of why the Legislature ought to move quickly to put the power to regulate pesticides in the hands of the Department of Health Services, where it can be exercised responsibly.