The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), under outgoing Governor Schwarzenegger, has formally approved methyl iodide for use on strawberries and other food crops in California. Methyl iodide is a potent carcinogen and neurotoxin that is a clear danger to those who consume and grow food.
The DPR faced the largest opposition in the history of the public comment period. More than 53,000 including leading scientists on health and safety asked for a ban on the pesticide. The company that produces methyl iodide, the largest private pesticide company in the world Arysta LifeScience, overcame the public opinion and scientific community warnings through a massive lobbying campaign.
The Scientific Review Committee (SRC) noted in its final report in February that “Based on the data available, we know that methyl iodide is a highly toxic chemical and we expect that any anticipated scenario for the agricultural or structural fumigation use of this agent would result in exposures to a large number of the public and thus would have a significant adverse impact on the public health. Due to the potent toxicity of methyl iodide, its transport in and ultimate fate in the environment, adequate control of human exposure would be difficult, if not impossible.”
Dr. John Froines, Chair of the SRC and Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health at UCLA said in a Senate Food and Agriculture Committee Hearing in June, “I believe that if you go out into the real world, and I think everybody in this room knows what the real world in the valleys are about, that the mitigation strategies that are promised so articulately by Mary-Ann [Warmerdam, DPR Director], are not going to be adequate, because this is without question one of the most toxic chemicals on earth.” (page 46 of transcript)
“The decision to permit use of a chemical in the fields that causes cancer, late-term miscarriage and permanent neurological damage is a ticking time bomb,” said Dr. Susan Kegley, Consulting Scientist with Pesticide Action Network. “The idea that this pesticide can be used safely in the fields is a myth.”
In a world where now we constantly hear hackers bypass controls, financial controls fail to stop fraud, and rivers and lakes show the awful effects of pesticide runoff…California is foolish to gamble on such extreme risk.