EPA Cracks Down on Illegal Pesticides
Cracking down on illegal insecticide sales, the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced more than $200,000 in fines against 15 stores that sold toxic pest killers that look like candy and blackboard chalk.
Many are Asian markets, and six are in Los Angeles County.
“In the case of some of the mothballs, they literally look like big bubble gum balls,” said Leo Kay, a spokesman in the federal agency’s San Francisco office. “That’s the worst thing when you’ve got kids crawling around the house.”
At stores in California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam, investigators found illegal mothballs containing carcinogens and insecticidal chalk containing two toxins that have regularly poisoned children across the United States.
Many of the products are unlabeled, unregistered and illegally imported, said Bill Lee, an EPA enforcement officer.
“Because it’s not a registered product, it could contain whatever,” he said.
“No one’s quality-controlling. The product is coming in illegally. It’s very difficult to track down. If you don’t know where it’s coming from, you don’t know what it actually contains.”
Many of the insecticides, particularly the chalk, are illegally imported from China and Taiwan, which is why they are more common in Asian markets, Lee said. But the problem of illegal insecticides is widespread, he said.
“It’s not possible to inspect every marketplace,” he said.
“This way, if we can educate consumers not to purchase products and also educate businesses not to import them, not to sell them, that they may be subject to penalties, then through these 15 cases, maybe we can reach a lot more people.”
The companies fined were:
* Hannam Chain U.S.A. Inc., Buena Park, $43,164.
* Marukai Corp., Honolulu, $34,650.
* Vien Dong Inc., El Monte, $29,700.
* Golden Globe Foods Center, Monterey Park, $24,750.
* Duc Heung Group Inc., Industry, $24,750.
* Asian Market, San Diego, $9,900.
* Hing Mau Inc., Honolulu, $9,900.
* L&G; Household and Healthcare America, Cerritos, $3,960.
* Price Power, Vernon, $3,960.
* Western Supermarket, Las Vegas, $3,960.
* International Supermarket, Reno, $3,168.
* Bega Trading Co., Los Angeles, $3,000.
* International Thai Market, Las Vegas, $3,000.
* Big N Save, Gardena, $2,376.
* Han Sun Reep, Barrigada, Guam, $2,376.
