Alert: Help Stop Carcinogenic Methyl Iodide!

Alert prepared with URL links to PAN’s GetActive page (paste the entire text below into an email). You may also substitute your own GetActive or other mobilization service site into the appropriate place.

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Alert: Help Stop Carcinogenic Methyl Iodide!

EPA Considers Legalizing Methyl Iodide for Food & Tobacco Production

1/24/06

Methyl iodide is a chemical that EPA is now evaluating for registration as a replacement for the fumigant methyl bromide, which is being phased out because it causes ozone depletion in the atmosphere. Methyl iodide and methyl bromide are highly volatile fumigant pesticides that are injected into the soil to kill soil-borne pests. Because of the high application rates and gaseous nature of these chemicals, they drift away from the application site to poison neighbors and farmworkers. Fumigant-intensive crops include tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, tobacco, melons, potatoes and other root crops.

Take Action Now to stop methyl iodide from being registered as a new pesticide.

Methyl iodide is even more hazardous to human health than methyl bromide. Cancer researchers have used methyl iodide in laboratories to induce cancer. California lists it as a carcinogen under Proposition 65. EPA found that methyl iodide caused thyroid tumors, and evidence linked to metabolic disorders and immune function, respiratory tract lesions, neurological effects, and miscarriages.

“This chemical represents the antithesis of modern biologically based farming,” remarked Pesticide Action Network's Dr. Susan Kegley, a senior staff scientist. “We know so much more now about soil pests, plant pathology and plant breeding than we did when fumigants were first introduced in the 1920s. EPA should be helping farmers move into the future by expanding the use of new integrated pest management techniques, not by replacing one hazardous chemical with another.” Kegley points out that fumigation is an inherently risky technology that endangers farm workers, contaminates groundwater, and is a drift hazard to schools and communities surrounding the fields.

EPA is taking public comments on the registration of methyl iodide through February 21, 2006. PAN is requesting the public to get involved in expressing opposition to the registration. Please take the time to tell EPA to not allow the registration of methyl iodide for agricultural use.

Read More

Background info:

PAN article “Why EPA Should Not Register Methyl Iodide”

www.panna.org/campaigns/driftMeI.html

URL for EPA health Risk Assessment Report http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic-rel11/component/main

Letter:

Dear Mr. Jim Jones (opp-docket@epa.gov) FAX 7033054646

Docket #EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0252-0002, EPA Public Docket,

Please refuse to register methyl iodide for agricultural use. As you know from your health risk assessment, methyl iodide is a threat to air and water supplies and linked to a variety of illnesses and disease, including cancer, developmental toxicity, neurological problems, and depression. Rural communities have repeatedly been poisoned by existing fumigants—it is time to move to much safer methods of pest control, not backwards to a chemical that is even more toxic.

I appreciate your efforts to identify replacements for methyl bromide and support complete phase out of that chemical in accordance with the Montreal Protocol.

Please invest EPA focus and resources on non-chemical alternatives to methyl bromide and work with USDA to provide funding for our farmers to transition towards least-toxic methods of growing food and fiber. Your responsibility for protecting public health demands that you refuse the registration of methyl iodide. I urge you to do so.

Sincerely,

If you have questions about how to adapt the above Alert to your own listserv, email or mobilization service provider, call or email Paul Allison at PANNA (415) 981-1771, ext. 329