State Control of Pesticide Called Lax

The state agency responsible for protecting the public from the potent pesticide methyl bromide has failed to do its job, allowing residents living near farmland to be exposed to dangerous levels of the poisonous vapor, an environmental watchdog group maintained Tuesday.

In its third report on the highly toxic cropland fumigant, the Washington-based Environmental Working Group criticized Gov. Pete Wilson and the state Department of Pesticide Regulation for allegedly allowing California farmers to use millions of pounds of the pesticide each year under safety standards they call far too lax.

“The evidence shows clearly that the state of California is not doing an adequate job of protecting its residents from exposure from this hazardous pesticide,” said Bill Walker, a spokesman for the nonprofit research organization that focuses primarily on pesticide issues.

State officials quickly countered that the report, which will be formally released today, is apparently based on misinformation, faulty assumptions and bad science.

In tests conducted over the last year, the environmental group found methyl bromide vapors in 12 suburban neighborhoods in five counties, with by far the highest reading on a quiet Ventura street next to a strawberry field and a day-care center.

There, the report said, methyl bromide levels averaged 294 parts per billion over 12 hours in August, compared with a state safety standard of 210 parts per billion over 24 hours.

State officials said there was no health hazard, but a spokesman for the environmental group said Tuesday that the state standard is too high and shows more concern for the health of agribusiness than for residents of surrounding areas. “I think the broadest conclusion to be drawn from the report,” Walker said, “is that Gov. Wilson and the DPR have repeatedly ignored evidence, departed from sound scientific practices and improperly intervened in the regulatory process to make sure that methyl bromide is not regulated in its agricultural applications as a cause of birth defects.”

While the environmental group insisted that Wilson exempted methyl bromide in farming from the strict regulations of a 1986 statewide toxic substance control measure, an administration spokesman said Wilson was not involved in that 1994 decision.

“The governor never played a role,” said Dan Pellissier, a Cal/EPA spokesman. “A committee of seven scientists unanimously made that decision.”

And officials from the Department of Pesticide Regulation said they did not know what to make of the new report.

“All this goes back to the same problem we had with them last time,” said Paul Gosselin, a top state pesticide control official, referring to the group’s report on high pesticide vapor levels in Ventura last summer. “They’re either trying to purposely mislead, or they don’t take the time or don’t understand the science.”

California does more than any other jurisdiction to protect residents from methyl bromide, he said.

“To make the assertion that we have not [properly] regulated methyl bromide is ludicrous,” Gosselin said. “We have the strictest exposure standards anywhere in the world. . . . And I really want to know what data we’ve covered up.”

The new Environmental Working Group study--its third in a year on methyl bromide hazards in California--was completed as a state Senate committee is set to hold a hearing Monday into allegations by others that researchers in the scientific arm of Cal/EPA were ordered last year to shred documents that contradicted the state’s official position on methyl bromide safety. The Department of Pesticide Regulation is part of Cal/EPA.

“Every time a study has pointed the way to imposing some kind of stricter health standard,” Walker said, “they either ignored the evidence, covered up the evidence or tampered with the methodology in order to conduct sham science to attempt to prove their contention that the stuff was safe for use.”

Specifically, the environmental group’s 31-page report maintains that the Department of Pesticide Regulation imposes a methyl bromide safety standard for agricultural uses that is four times weaker than recommended by federal public health officials--and that the agency has ignored recommendations from its own scientists to toughen standards to protect children.

But Gosselin said the environmental group is mistaken because the lower standards were for exposure over one week, not over one day. “So what they’re doing is comparing apples and oranges,” he said.

In turn, environmental group analyst Kert Davies, citing state and federal memos, said Gosselin is wrong. “We stand by our report,” he said.

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.