{"id":19231,"date":"2016-10-13T00:47:10","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T04:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=19231"},"modified":"2016-10-13T09:51:58","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T13:51:58","slug":"california-regulators-fail-protect-public-health-farmworkers-toxic-fumigant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2016\/10\/california-regulators-fail-protect-public-health-farmworkers-toxic-fumigant\/","title":{"rendered":"California Regulators Allow an Increase in Toxic Fumigant Use, Failing to Protect Public and Farmworker Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, October 13, 2016) Last week, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) released new rules<\/a> that allow for continued use of the toxic fumigant Telone and reduce public health protection by permitting increased usage. One of the active ingredients in the product Telone, \u00a01,3-Dicholorpropene<\/a> (1,3-D), has many documented health risks, including cancer<\/a> and kidney and liver damage. While CDPR and many news outlets reported the rule change as a tightening of the restrictions, the new rules effectively increase the previous annual cap from 90,250 pounds to 136,000 pounds per township, a defined area of 6×6 miles.<\/p>\n

\"cdpr\"According to CDPR documents<\/a>, the primary revisions include: increasing the annual limit to 136,000 pounds within each pesticide township, eliminating \u201crollover\u201d of unused pesticide allotments from prior years, and banning use of Telone in December, when weather conditions are especially problematic for air pollution. These new rules, which go into effect January 1, will allow for 1,3-D\u2019s continued use in strawberry fields, vineyards, almond orchards, and other crops around California.<\/p>\n

CDPR has been characterizing \u00a0its changes in management of 1,3-D as increasingly protective of public health in the state. In making these revisions to the rules, CDPR completed an updated risk assessment to determine the annual use limit of 1,3-D that would still maintain a minimal risk of cancer to humans. The risk assessment failed to consider synergistic effects<\/a> and does not adhere to the standard of \u201cone-in-a million risk of cancer from life-long exposure\u201d recommended by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment<\/a>, which ultimately enabled the increase in the annual limit of 1,3-D in crop production.<\/p>\n

1,3-D is a federally restricted use soil fumigant, used to kill nematodes, insects, and weeds that has strong links to cancer and other serious health issues. The use of the chemical in the production of strawberries came into prominence with the forced reduction of another fumigant, methyl bromide<\/a>. Scientists became concerned about methyl bromide in the 1970\u2019s, when it was linked to serious effects on the ozone and was blamed for between 5 and 10 percent of ozone depletion. Methyl bromide is still widely used in California to grow strawberries, despite its ban under the Montreal Protocol, but it will no longer be eligible for a critical use exemption after 2016. This phasing out of methyl bromide gave rise to a new class of fumigants, which included 1,3-D, the chemical in Telone.<\/p>\n

Telone was also the subject of a recent University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) study that found mixtures of pesticides to be more harmful than individual pesticides. The report, titled Exposure and Interaction \u2014 The Potential Health Impacts of Using Multiple Pesticides: A Case Study of Three Commonly Used Fumigants<\/a>, was published by the Sustainable Technology and Policy Program, based in the UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. The case study looked at three commonly used fumigants \u2014 chloropicrin, Telone, and metam salts, and found that:<\/p>\n