[Sosfbay-discuss] Fwd: from United Farm Workers--Hazard ALERT!

[Andrea Dorey]

FYI, in case you have not seen this.
Critical info!
Andrea

This came to the attention of Peninsula Raging Grannies:
>  
> Stop the Registration:  Send your comment to EPA before February 6.
> The Montreal Protocol, a 1992 commitment by the world's nations to 
> phase out methyl bromide--one of the five deadly pesticides targeted 
> by Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers--gave hope that farm 
> workers and others would finally stop being put at risk by this deadly 
> pesticide.  Unfortunately, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
> (EPA) is not only backpeddling on this, but is also facilitating the 
> chemical industry and agribusiness efforts to introduce methyl iodide, 
> a fumigant that may be even more hazardous to human health than methyl 
> bromide. The state of California lists it as a carcinogen under 
> Proposition 65.
> EPA found that methyl iodide caused thyroid tumors--and introduced a 
> previously unheard-of cancer ranking of "Not likely to be carcinogenic 
> to humans at doses that do not alter rat thyroid hormone homeostasis." 
> The EPA's Cancer Assessment Review Committee used only a single study 
> to come to this conclusion—in which 62-66% of the rats in both the 
> control and the high dose group died during the experiment. In 
> addition to thyroid tumors, the study showed significant changes in 
> thyroid hormone levels, which are closely tied to metabolic disorders.
> According to Pesticide Action Network, if methyl iodide is injected 
> into soil as a fumigant, even tarps can not stop it from escaping into 
> the open air and endangering nearby farmworkers and communities. The 
> EPA recommends that workers handling methyl iodide be required to wear 
> respirators, and that buffer zones the size of several football fields 
> may be necessary to keep the poisonous gas from drifting into nearby 
> communities. But on many farms, agricultural workers are regularly 
> denied basic safety equipment, and growers have objected strenuously 
> to buffer zones of any size. Under actual agricultural conditions, 
> methyl iodide cannot be safely used.
> In recent years, researchers and farmers have made great progress in 
> improving the productivity and cost effectiveness of growing crops 
> without fumigants. Studies at the University of California at Davis 
> comparing organic strawberry fields to fumigated plots found that the 
> organic fields actually enjoyed higher yields, and both methods 
> produced a profit. Studies in many countries in Europe, Latin America 
> and other regions are finding successful alternatives as well.
> Take Action today and call on the EPA to deny registration of methyl 
> iodide for use as a soil fumigant.
>
Andrea Dorey
Santa Clara County Green Party

Chinese Proverbs:
"Serving the powerful is like sleeping with a tiger."
"It is difficult to get off a tiger's back."
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