Activists Urge Ban on Methyl Bromide Use

A citizens “summit” staged Sunday by a grass-roots coalition of activists called for banning methyl bromide, a pesticide widely used in Orange County and elsewhere in the state to sterilize fields for growing strawberries.

“The widespread use of methyl bromide is a stealth war being waged with a poison gas against unsuspecting citizens,” said Donald Tollefson, an activist and lawyer from Encino.

Tollefson urged people to sign petitions imploring California Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren to take action against companies that produce the chemical.

The pesticide, also used to fumigate fruit and vegetable shipments for export and to eradicate insects in houses, is a clear, odorless and highly volatile gas that has killed 18 people since 1982 and poisoned 452 others, according to state pesticide records.

George Rauh, a teacher from Lompoc, said he came to the summit, which drew about 40 participants, because of increasing concern in his city about the health effects of heavy pesticide use.

“People are really worried about the health effects of pesticides,” said Rauh. “When parents, teachers and school boards start questioning the use of methyl bromide where they live, you will see people begin to make a difference.”

Rauh and others referred to a study earlier this year by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group, which analyzes pesticide use nationally.

The study said Orange County led the state with nearly 300 schools and day-care centers located within 2 miles of fields fumigated with at least 2,000 pounds of the gas.

Kert Davies, who coauthored the study and participated in Sunday’s gathering via a telephone conference call, said the group is updating the study and exploring ways to monitor methyl bromide use throughout California during the next strawberry-planting season.

“Methyl bromide is in the public vocabulary in California and the job now is to elevate the conversation to the point where we can all find solutions to its use that are workable,” Davies said.

The pesticide was due to be banned in California by law in March but Gov. Pete Wilson, at the urging of agricultural interests, called the Legislature into special session to repeal the ban.

At the time, the governor claimed that dropping the weapon from the chemical arsenal would cause $346 million in annual strawberry crop losses--a figure disputed in a study by University of California scientists.

The ban was to have taken effect automatically because the companies that make the pesticide had failed to provide all the scientific tests required under the 1984 California Birth Defects Prevention Act.

In requesting the repeal, Wilson asserted that thousands of jobs would be lost to growers in Florida, Texas and Mexico, where the pesticide is permitted.

The legislative repeal stirred the interest of Shelley Erwin, who organized the summit with the help of student activists and others at Koo’s Co-op in Santa Ana.

The group twice sent letters to Orange County’s state legislators asking them to explain why they voted to repeal the ban.

“We did not get a single response,” said Erwin. “We think the time has come for people to challenge the system and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Erwin and others are particularly concerned over the environmental damage caused by methyl bromide.

Even after it is trapped under thick sheets of plastic following its injection into strawberry fields, 50% to 90% of the gas eventually escapes into the atmosphere and depletes the protective ozone layer, according to estimates by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This effect led industrialized nations to sign a treaty in 1995 agreeing to halt the use of methyl bromide by the year 2010.

“These are angry people,” Erwin said of the activists. “Now it’s time for everyone to network.”