BRADENTON (Florida) HERALD

June 19, 2008

EPA decision near on pesticides' fate

By MAURA POSSLEY

The Environmental Protection Agency decides this month how several pesticides used by Florida growers on tomatoes and other crops can be used.

The decision follows public meetings held last year during which growers fought for fumigants they depend on to grow their crops while farmworker advocacy groups charged the fumigants put workers' lives at risk.

The agency's decision includes methyl bromide, a fumigant many farmers depended on for years until it began to be phased out when it was found to be ozone depleting.

The University of Florida's Gulf Coast Research and Education Center developed alternatives for growers in response. They are Midas, Paladin and a combination that includes Chloropicrin, 1,3-Dichloropropene with either K-PAM or VAPAM, said Andrew MacRae, center assistant professor of weed science.

But even those alternatives won't match the power of methyl bromide.
"We will never be back at that point for these other alternatives," he said. "We have to be realistic that we're going to have pest problems that escape control."

Another fumigant on the EPA's plate is methyl iodide, or Midas. Farmworker advocates objected to its use temporarily while the agency decides its fate.

Jeannie Economos, of the Farmworker Association of Florida, has said it threatens the health of workers and the communities that surround fields where it is used.