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 ore than 2.3 million pounds of the acutely toxic pesticide
methyl bromide are applied near California schools each year,
but the state is proposing new regulations that ignore its own
scientists' recommendations for protecting children from the
lethal chemical, according to a report by Environmental Working
Group. (EWG).
 An Ill
Wind: Methyl Bromide Use Near California Schools provides
a county-by-county, school-by-school listing of all methyl bromide
use within 1.5 miles of 455 public schools throughout the state
in 1998, the latest year for which state pesticide use data is
available. The report includes maps detailing the use of methyl
bromide near schools in five major growing regions: Ventura/Santa
Barbara, Monterey/Santa Cruz, the San Joaquin Valley, Orange
County and San Diego County. The report is available online at
www.ewg.org/california.
California
is the world's largest user of methyl bromide, a volatile nerve
gas that causes brain damage and birth defects in laboratory
animals and has killed at least 19 people in California since
1985. State and independent air monitoring tests show that when
methyl bromide is used on strawberries and other crops, potentially
harmful concentrations of the chemical routinely drift from the
application site into nearby schools and neighborhoods.
According
to EWG's computer-assisted analysis, almost 70,000 California
children attend 87 schools located near fields where more than
10,000 pounds of methyl bromide each was used in 1998. The potential
for exposure was greatest on the Central Coast. Schools in Monterey,
Ventura, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz counties ranked highest
in the state for proximity to the greatest amounts of methyl
bromide use, and use near those high-risk schools is rising sharply.
The state
Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is under court order
to develop new methyl bromide regulations that will protect the
public from harmful exposures to the chemical, as required by
a 1989 state law. But DPR's proposed regulations ignore repeated
recommendations from the agency's own scientists that an extra
margin of safety is needed to protect children.
The state's
proposal would also permit methyl bromide applications within
60 feet of homes, 50 feet of farm workers, and near schools during
after-school extracurricular and community events.
"Some
of the proposed regulations take a step back from the methyl
bromide rules in effect under the Wilson Administration,"
said Bill Walker, EWG's California director. "It's very
disappointing that it took a court order to make the Davis Administration
obey the law, and even worse that instead of protecting public
health, they're trying to protect the continued use of a deadly
toxin."
The EWG
report also found:
- Although total statewide use of methyl bromide
has gone up and down in recent years, use near the ten schools
most at risk of exposure increased by 41 percent. from 1995 to
1998.
- In areas of heavy methyl bromide use, some
students face potential exposure 20 or more times per year. One
San Diego County elementary school averaged almost one nearby
application every week.
- Potential exposure to methyl bromide at school
falls disproportionately on children of color. More than 85 percent
of the students enrolled at the schools nearest the most methyl
bromide use were non-Anglo.
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ewg.org,