EPA OKs pesticide over scientists' protest

Despite the protests of more than 50 scientists, including five Nobel laureates in chemistry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday approved use of a new, highly toxic fumigant, mainly for strawberry fields.

The new pesticide, methyl iodide, is designed for growers who need to replace methyl bromide, which has been banned under an international treaty because it damages the Earth's ozone layer.

In a letter last month to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, 54 scientists, mostly chemists, warned that "pregnant women and the fetus, children, the elderly, farmworkers and other people living near application sites would be at serious risk."

But EPA officials said Friday that they carefully evaluated the risks and decided to approve its use for one year, imposing restrictions such as buffer zones, in an effort to protect farmworkers and neighbors.

"We are confident that by conducting such a rigorous analysis and developing highly restrictive provisions ... there will be no risks of concern," EPA Assistant Administrator Jim Gulliford said in a letter sent Friday to the scientists.

Growers, particularly those who grow strawberries and tomatoes, have been searching for 15 years for a new soil fumigant to replace methyl bromide. Fumigants are valuable to growers because injections into the soil before planting will sterilize the field and kill a broad spectrum of insects and diseases without leaving residue on crops.

But fumigants also are considered among the most potentially dangerous pesticides because the toxic gas can evaporate from the soil, exposing farmworkers and drifting into nearby neighborhoods.

The pesticide's use will be prohibited within a quarter-mile of a school, day-care facility, nursing home, hospital, prison or playground.

Methyl iodide will be manufactured by Tokyo-based Arysta LifeScience and marketed under the name MIDAS. Its use will be allowed on fields growing strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, turf, trees and vines.

Robert Bergman, of the University of California, Berkeley, chemistry department, led the effort by scientists to persuade the EPA to reject methyl iodide.

EPA officials called their review, which lasted four years, "one of the most thorough analyses ever completed on a new pesticide."

The manufacturer, Arysta, spent eight years and more than $11 million collecting toxicological and environmental data to persuade the EPA to register methyl iodide as a pesticide.

The EPA last year dropped its plan to approve methyl iodide after objections from the United Farm Workers, environmental groups and California pesticide officials. But after review of additional data, the one-year approval was granted.