Subject: TOXIC PESTICIDE DRIFTS ONTO FLORIDA CHURCH PROPERTIES
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 19:03:30 -0500
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
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker,
I thought you might like to read an article entitled: TOXIC PESTICIDE
DRIFTS ONTO FLORIDA CHURCH PROPERTIES.
HOMESTEAD, Florida, February 23, 2001 (ENS) - An alliance
of consumer, farmworker, and environmental groups announced test results
Thursday that show high levels of a toxic pesticide have drifted from farms
onto the properties of two separate churches in Homestead, Florida.
The groups called on Florida Governor Jeb Bush to protect
local residents from toxic exposure and to help farmers adopt alternatives to
the agricultural pesticide methyl bromide.
Concerned about the human health impacts of the pesticide
methyl bromide, the Florida Consumer Action Network (FCAN), the Farmworker
Association of Florida (FWAF) and Friends of the Earth (FoE) conducted air
monitoring tests to determine if significant amounts of the pesticide had
drifted from tomato fields into neighboring residential areas.
Exposure to methyl bromide, an acute toxin, can harm the
lungs, throat, eyes, skin and central nervous system. Federal law mandates
that use of the pesticide, which ranks in toxicity alongside arsenic and DDT,
must be eliminated by 2005.
"Methyl bromide should not be used near churches,
homes, schools or any other place where people gather," said Sister Gail
Grimes of the Farmworker Association of Florida. "We are concerned that
this is happening in Florida and putting people's health at risk. Children,
the elderly, farmworkers and their families are especially vulnerable, and
there appears to be insufficient regulation to protect people against
exposure."
In two separate tests, volunteers placed test canisters
near the farm fields where the pesticide had been applied. After an eight to
10 hour period, the canisters were sent for independent analysis at Advanced
Technologies, a certified laboratory in California.
The tests indicated that the gas drifting off the fields
reached levels as high as 625 parts per billion (ppb), exceeding the maximum
allowable level of 210 ppb, set in California, by 200 percent.
The California limit is used by agricultural counties to
protect people near farm fields. The Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services (DACS) has not set any similar standards for the state.
More information is available at: http://www.notoxicdrift.com
Well Mr. Helliker, Might I be so bold
as to suggest that safe (unregistered) alternatives would actually protect
people near farm fields more than limiting the amount of "legal"
POLLUTION and would actually control the pest problems.
Respectfully,
Stephen L. Tvedten
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