In August, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made an agreement with DuPont Agricultural Products to reduce risks to US farm workers from methomyl, an insecticide used on a variety of crops.
The agreement calls for reductions of maximum use rates and number of applications, more restrictive precautions for inhalation and eye, skin and oral exposure, and longer intervals before workers can enter fields after the pesticide has been applied. The action was prompted by reports of poisonings in California and other areas of the country.
A final decision on whether methomyl is eligible for continued registration in the US is expected in 1997. In the meantime, according to Customs shipping records analysed by the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education (FASE), methomyl is being exported at the rate of 2.722 tonnes a day. Between 1991 and 1994, total exports of methomyl increased from 800,000 to 1 million kilograms. The largest importers included Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore.
Concerns about methomyl's acute toxicity are heightened for workers in the developing world. The recommended level of protection for application of the insecticide — protective clothing, goggles and a mask or respirator — is rarely seen in tropical regions.
"These developments underscore the urgent need for export reform", said Carl Smith, project director for the FASE export survey. "Even if methomyl is banned in 1997, current US law would place no restrictions on exporting it. In the meantime, the practices that have been forbidden in the US will likely continue in developing countries."
Methomyl, with the trade name Lannate, was registered by the EPA in 1968. In 1972, EPA was mandated by Congress to review this registration as part of the agency's re-registration program for older pesticides. According to the 1995 annual report of the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs, EPA has gathered the scientific data necessary for a final registration decision for only one third of all pesticides used in agriculture since 1972.
"Aside from export issues, the lag of more than two decades in completing the evaluation of this and other pesticides is troubling", said Smith. "Unfortunately, in the case of this product, restrictions were forced not by laboratory findings but by the fact that workers were being harmed."
The FASE project began in 1990, in an attempt to monitor exports of US-banned and other hazardous products to the developing world. The most recent FASE report reviews exports from US ports between 1992 and 1994. Although nearly two-thirds of the pesticides shipped during this period were not identified by name in Customs shipping records, FASE identified at least 11 million kilograms of pesticides whose use is forbidden in the US.
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