U.S. Methyl Bromide Exemption Passes First Step

WASHINGTON, DC, October 22, 2003 (ENS) - The United States has won the approval of an international expert committee for wide ranging exemptions to a ban on methyl bromide, a toxic agricultural pesticide and fumigant that destroys the Earth's ozone layer.

The ban is set to take effect in January 2005 under the Montreal Protocol, a treaty to phase out chemicals, such as methyl bromide, that degrade the protective layer of stratospheric ozone blanketing the planet.

Still, the Montreal Protocol includes a provision to ensure that a Party may be considered for an exemption from the phaseout for any chemical until a viable alternative can be commercialized.

In a report made public Saturday, the United Nations Environment Programme's Methyl Bromide Technical Options Committee recommended that some 5,300 tons of the chemical be permitted for use on U.S. tomato and strawberry fields because no alternatives are commercially available.

On strawberries, the pest most difficult to control without methyl bromide, the panel acknowledged, is nutsedge, a common perennial weed that is tough to eliminate even with the use of methyl bromide.

One of several varieties of nutsedge, a weed controlled with difficulty by methyl bromide. (Photo courtesy Virginia Tech)

In addition, the allowance of smaller amounts of methyl bromide was recommended for use on peppers, eggplants, and sweet potatoes, forest nursery seedlings, fruit tree nurseries and orchards, and in ginger production.

The United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Japan won recommendations for the use of smaller amounts of methyl bromide for the same crops.

The U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) says methyl bromide is a "highly effective" fumigant used to control insects, nematodes, weeds, and pathogens in more than 100 crops, in forest and ornamental nurseries, and in wood products. Its primary uses are for soil fumigation, postharvest protection, and quarantine treatments.

The total amount of methyl bromide requested by the U.S. as a critical use exemption is 9.9 million kilograms for 2005, and 9.7 million kilograms for 2006 - about 39 percent and 37 percent of the country's 1991 baseline level.

The United States uses about 60 million pounds of methyl bromide each year - about 75 percent to fumigate soil before planting crops, and about 11 percent to fumigate harvested commodities during storage and export. About six percent to fumigate structures such as food processing plants, warehouses, and museums, as well as antiques and transport vehicles. The remaining eight percent goes to the production of other chemicals.

Environmental groups object to the methyl bromide exemptions on the grounds that the health of agricultural workers and nearby communities as well as the ozone layer is adversely affected by methyl bromide use.

Damage to the ozone layer causes hundreds of thousands of cases of cataract induced blindness and non-melanoma skin cancer each year, as well as immune suppression and disruption of global ecosystems, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental research organization.

An international assessment of methyl bromide by 200 atmospheric scientists assembled by the United Nations in 1995 rated methyl bromide 50 times more damaging to the stratospheric ozone layer than CFCs, refrigerants that are being phased out under the Montreal Protocol.

Ranchers in California set aside portions of their farms for collaborative studies on methyl bromide alternatives for strawberries. (Photo by Scott Bauer courtesy USDA)

Jeffrey Burnam, deputy assistant secretary for environment at the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, expressed the administration's position on methyl bromide in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality on June 3, saying that alternatives to the chemical are given top registration priority by federal agencies.

Through 2002, the USDA Agricultural Research Service alone has spent $135.5 million to implement an aggressive research program to find alternatives to methyl bromide, Burnam told the subcommittee. The USDA has provided an additional $11.4 million since 1993 to state universities for alternatives research and outreach.

But in the absence of any single alternative that can operate as effectively as methyl bromide, the panel's recommendations are expected to influence debate on the exemptions at the next meeting of Parties to the Montreal Protocol, set for Nairobi, Kenya November 10 to 14.

For more information on U.S. research on alternatives to methyl bromide, visit the USDA Agricultural Research Service at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/mb/mebrweb.htm