Costs High in Cutting Use of Pesticide

* I read with interest the Dec. 7 article on methyl bromide, titled “State Urged to Uphold Threatened Ban on Pesticide.”

The article mentions the number of pounds of methyl bromide used in Ventura County and points to its use in strawberry production. It might also have been of interest to your readers that the strawberries produced in Ventura County, on approximately 4,000 acres, were valued at $130 million in 1994. Other important uses in Ventura County include use as a pre-plant soil fumigant for lemons, nursery plants and cut flowers. In 1994, Ventura County lemon production was valued at $200 million.

Another issue that might interest your readers is what the loss of methyl bromide would mean if Ventura County were to experience another infestation of the Mediterranean fruit fly. In the not-so-distant past, portions of the county were subject to quarantine restrictions. During that time, approximately 9 million pounds of Ventura County avocados were treated with methyl bromide before movement outside the quarantine area.

Of the 10 studies required by statute, eight have been submitted, one will be submitted before the March 30, 1996, deadline and the final study is scheduled to be completed in December 1997. The required studies are “chronic” toxicology studies, not “acute” toxicology studies. This is, therefore, not an “immediate” injury issue. Western Growers Assn. believes that it is important to keep the issue at hand in perspective--an extension of the deadline for the last study will not compromise the health or safety of workers or the public.

The article quotes a UFW representative saying that methyl bromide is “odorless.” That is correct but only half the story. It is a routine practice to use chloropicrin along with methyl bromide as a warning agent when chloropicrin is not being used as a co-fumigant. The use of the irritant warning agent is an important and effective safety mechanism.

Since the inception of the state’s Pesticide Illness Surveillance Program more than a decade ago, it is my understanding that not one illness of a fieldworker has been attributed to exposure to methyl bromide residue.

Methyl bromide is not only an agricultural production and import/export/quarantine issue. Nonagricultural businesses throughout the state may well be impacted as they seek to import or export various products. Even cargoes that are not subject to a mandatory fumigation as a condition of entry are subject to quarantine inspection/fumigation. The alternative is either destruction or reexport.

David L. Moore

Irvine

David L. Moore is president of Western Growers Assn.