Mexico Leak Forces Evacuations

Hundreds of people in central Mexico were evacuated and 120 were hospitalized after an accident at a pesticide factory released clouds of malathion pesticide, authorities said Wednesday. 

(Another Bophal is probably on the horizon:  It is only a matter of which country, what city which, neighborhood has to die?)

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Subject:  Mexico Leak Forces Evacuations------
Date:     Sat, 16 Sep 2000 16:08:44 -0400
From:        Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
          Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation 

Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might like to read a 9/15/00  article from the New York Times entitled: Mexico Leak Forces Evacuations. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Filed at 5:40 p.m. ET

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Hundreds of people in central Mexico were evacuated and 120 were hospitalized after an accident at a pesticide factory released clouds of malathion pesticide, authorities said Wednesday.

The accident occurred late Tuesday at a plant owned by the Mexican chemical firm, Tekchem, in the agricultural hub of Salamanca, 200 miles northeast of Mexico City.

`People reported dizziness, vomiting, and skin and eye irritations,'' said Arturo Gutierrez, the civil defense director in Salamanca. ``The cloud was quite dense and large.''

About 1,100 people were evacuated, with about 500 taken to improvised shelters at government buildings in Salamanca. Most of them were able to return to their homes Wednesday after the two-mile-wide cloud dispersed.

Thirty-six people remained hospitalized Wednesday, and five of them were under close observation by doctors for more severe reactions to the gas.

Malathion is used in the United States to kill mosquitoes and a host of agricultural pests. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has said it doesn't pose a serious risk to most people, but the pesticide is suspected of sickening 123 people in Florida in 1999.

However, the quantity and density of the gas cloud involved in Tuesday's accident was apparently far above what people experience in normal spraying of the pesticide.

The accident occurred when emergency valves opened automatically after pressure rose in tanks holding malathion at the plant, Gutierrez said.

Well Mr. Helliker, Once again I say to you, accidents will always occur and more and more innocent people will continue to be injured and/or die because of your continued reliance on your "registered" POISONS - unless you "legally" allow the use of safe and far more effective alternatives.  I wonder if anyone bothered to check for the more deadly transformation products the heat would have changed malathion into?  Probably not!

(Note:  Does knowing that this was the same pesticides sprayed over New York and many other residential areas make you feel better?)

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