Toxic Free NC

Policy Watch:
US Gains Time with the Notorious Methyl Bromide
The Bush administration has undermined a world-wide
phase-out of the deadly chemical

Methyl bromide (MB) is a pesticide widely used in agriculture as a fumigant. An incredibly potent sterilizer known for its toxicity to a broad range of life forms, methyl bromide is the most notorious depleter of the earth’s ozone layer, which shields us from the sun’s radiation. The international treaty known as the Montreal Protocol initiated a world phase-out of this chemical in 1988 in order to stop the destruction of the ozone layer, and the US incorporated the phaseout into the Clean Air Act in 1990. The Montreal Protocol is widely considered to be the most effective environmental treaty ever negotiated, but its integrity has been undermined in recent years by the US’s consistent attempts to win exemptions for US agriculture.

Under the Protocol’s total phase-out of Methyl Bromide, the ozone hole (now at 27 million km2) would take about 50 years to recover completely. The destruction of the ozone layer makes people far more vulnerable to skin cancers and cataracts. Methyl bromide itself is suspected of causing prostate cancer in farmers and farmworkers who use it, and because of its high toxicity, many farmworkers have been disabled and even killed by exposure to this notorious poison.

Farmers worldwide have achieved drastic reductions in MBr use over the last decade, and the total phase-out is to be completed by 2005. However, the Montreal Protocol has allowed indefinite exemptions for "critical" uses of the chemical, and American agribusiness interests have pursued them vigorously, with active support from the Bush administration. In North Carolina, tobacco, berry, pepper, Christmas tree, and turf grass growers have all requested "critical use" exemptions from the phase-out. The US uses approximately 30% of the world’s methyl bromide (21,000 tons annually).

The Parties to the Montreal Protocol recently granted the US exemption requests, allowing US growers to continue using MB in 2005 at 37% of 1991 levels, the year the phase-out began. The US requested the same amount of MB in 2006, but was granted 27% of 1991 totals and a promise to re-visit the issue this summer. Many critics have charged that the new allowances actually represent an increase in MB use, which in the US was down to only 30% of 1991 levels in 2002. Because of steady improvements in technology, it is reasonable to expect that US methyl bromide usage this year may have been even lower. Part of the reason for the debate, and the inflated exemption requests, is that US users of methyl bromide are not required to report to EPA how much of the chemical they actually use, and so official estimates are rough, and subject to bickering. Under pressure from public interest groups, the EPA recently revealed that as of early 2006 more than 11,000 tons of the chemical are stockpiled at various locations around the US.

EPA could protect the Methyl Bromide phase-out with a few straightforward steps: