They look good, but are they poisoned with methyl bromide |
Methyl
bromide is blamed in the accidental poisonings of a mom, dad and their
two teen sons at a Caribbean resort. The boys remained critically ill
Monday at a Philadelphia hospital. Criminal investigators are examining
how and why the bug killer got sprayed in a room beneath the family's
rented villa two days before they arrived in mid-March.
U.S.
law forbids exterminators from using methyl bromide but the
Environmental Protection Agency grants a "critical use exemption" to
certain farmers — primarily strawberry growers — letting them inject the
chemical directly into their soil, the EPA said.
And some organic advocates are worried about the pesticide perhaps reaching grocery-store fruit.
"You have nurseries producing strawberry transplants — the nurseries are the main users of methyl bromide in the U.S. today. The plants in the fields are all started in nurseries.
That ground at the nursery is all fumigated," said Jonathan Winslow, field services manager at Farm Fuel, Inc., a farmer-started, organic distribution and research company on the central California coast.
"So
that strawberry transplant can get pulled out of the ground at the
nursery and moved to an organic field and be produced under an 'organic'
certification," Winslow said. "The use of methyl bromide has
diminished, yes. But I am concerned about it. That's why I work for an
organic company."
The
pesticide is so nasty that, in 1987, the United States and 26 other
nations signed a treaty called the Montreal Protocol, vowing to phase
out methyl bromide mainly because it depletes the ozone layer. Today,
nearly 200 countries have signed that agreement.
But the use of the neurotoxin goes on in farming.
"In
the United States, strawberries and tomatoes are the crops which use
the most methyl bromide," the EPA says on its website. "Other crops
which use this pesticide as a soil fumigant include peppers, grapes, and
nut and vine crops."
Read more: Methyl Bromide Pesticide in Paradise Poisoning Case Still Used in U.S. Crops - MyArkLaMiss.com - KTVE NBC 10 - KARD FOX 14 - Your homepage for the latest News, Weather and Sports in the ArkLaMiss!
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