Groups Cite Test Results in Urging Suspension of Cropland Fumigant’s Use

Citing new tests said to confirm high levels of toxic pesticide vapors in an east Ventura neighborhood, a coalition of environmental and farm worker groups called Thursday for statewide suspension of the use of the cropland fumigant methyl bromide.

“These test results show clearly that California’s current pesticide regulations are not protecting public health and safety,” said environmental attorney Marc Chytilo at a curbside press conference attended by several Tamarin Avenue residents who say they were sickened recently by methyl bromide vapors from adjacent strawberry fields.

“We feel that we have been uninformed as to the dangers of methyl bromide,” said a tearful Raili West, who temporarily moved her day-care business from her home last week after suffering headaches and nausea. “We feel that we have been poisoned.”

Watching the speeches were many parents who had come with infants in strollers. One 5-year-old girl held a sign stating, “Methyl Bromide is Poison.” A large orange banner behind two cages of furry rodents proclaimed: “These Are Guinea Pigs. Children Are Not!”

Tests for methyl bromide vapors by a national environmental group last week detected vapors in the neighborhood 27 times over a 12-hour period, including several concentrations five to nine times higher that the state’s safety standard for a 24-hour period.

The average reading for the 12-hour study was substantially higher than allowed by the state over 24 hours. But figured over 24 hours it is within safety standards, analysts acknowledged Thursday.

In Sacramento, however, a top state pesticide control official described the study as a “publicity stunt, not science.” The highest readings detected by the environmental group are not significant, said Paul Gosselin, assistant director of the state Department of Pesticide Regulation.

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“It is continuous exposure levels that are significant, and they are within safety margins,” Gosselin said in a statement released by his department.

Yet, spokespersons for five groups chastised state and local authorities Thursday for doing too little to protect residents, schoolchildren and farm workers from illnesses related to methyl bromide.

Since an immediate ban is not very likely, they argued for an expansion of buffer zones around strawberry fields sterilized by the chemical and recommended that residents be warned by farmers or authorities before it is used.

Listening at the back of the press conference crowd, county Agricultural Commissioner W. Earl McPhail was unshaken in his conclusion that residents’ concerns are unwarranted. He said he has not been able to confirm through a doctor that any Ventura resident was made ill by pesticide vapors over the past two weeks.

“Talking to medical professionals, as far as we’re concerned there still hasn’t been any exposure to cause a health problem here. We really don’t feel there was a problem here,” he said.

He added, however, that neither his office, which oversees pesticide use locally, nor local growers would oppose expanding the buffer zone around residences and schools. It is now a minimum of 30 feet from an occupied structure, such as a house, to the closest point of fumigation. That buffer zone may include a homeowner’s backyard.

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State officials recommended in April that agricultural commissioners, such as McPhail, begin figuring the buffer from the fence line of the field, not the house. In the case of day-care center, operator West, the buffer zone included three feet of her yard, McPhail said. He said he did not see the state advisory.

But McPhail said the state, beginning in January, intends to make the fence line standard for buffer zones mandatory. He said he believes such action a good idea.

“We don’t want anybody to become ill,” he said. “We have to coexist and get along with each other. We have to learn to get along.”

Methyl bromide is a highly volatile and widely used pesticide, most commonly sprayed in strawberry fields but also used on vegetables, in plant nurseries and to fumigate crops for export.

In strawberry fields, the pesticide is injected about 18 inches into the soil then covered with a plastic tarp for at least five days to contain the chemical’s toxic fumes. It is used on about 4,500 acres of strawberries in Ventura County.

The chemical will be banned nationwide in 2001 because it depletes the Earth’s ozone layer. A California ban was sidestepped in March after Gov. Pete Wilson, citing job and economic losses, asked the Legislature to extend the chemical’s use for two years even though mandatory health studies had not been completed.

Even as environmental and government officials debated the safety of methyl bromide Thursday, some east Ventura residents attending the press conference said the discussion has finally helped them explain nagging illnesses that have plagued them in recent summers.

“I’ve had sore throats every summer since the strawberries have been in,” said Cal Haskell, who lives across from the day-care center. “But I didn’t relate it. It’s only this year that this all has come out.”