Methyl iodide is a highly toxic fumigant pesticide that was developed by Arysta LifeScience Corporation, and is marketed as a replacement for methyl bromide, a chemical being phased out under the Montreal Protocol because it depletes stratospheric ozone. On March 20, 2012, following an intense multi-year coalition campaign launched by PAN, Arysta pulled methyl iodide from the U.S. market. It remains in use in other countries, including Mexico.
Methyl iodide is arguably even more toxic for workers and rural communities than methyl bromide, and its use is extremely controversial. Among scientist's greatest concerns is the potential for human exposure to unsafe levels of methyl iodide from drift.
Humans exposed to methyl iodide experience dizziness, sleepiness, nausea, diarrhea, slurred speech, lack of coordination, muscle convulsions---and in some cases, pulmonary edema. Listed as an EPA Hazardous Air Pollutant, methyl iodide also affects the the lungs, liver, and kidneys.
Methyl Iodide: A Mutagenic Agent
Methyl iodide reacts readily with DNA, altering its structure and causing mutations. In a report to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Scientific Review Committee on methyl iodide emphasized the fumigant's "unequivocal status as a mutagenic agent."
Synthetic chemists treat this chemical with great respect, handling it only in a fume hood using specially sealed bottles and syringes for transfer to ensure that none of this highly toxic chemical escapes.
Like all fumigants, methyl iodide is likely to drift away from application sites, putting nearby residents and farmworkers at risk. Reoccurring accidents with widely used fumigants reveal the inherent danger of methyl iodide fumigation. For example, methyl bromide was involved in 168 incidents reported to Poison Control Centers between 1993 and 2005. Metam sodium was involved in 428 over the same period. As recently as October 2005, at least 300 people, including paramedics, were poisoned by chloropicrin when a strawberry field a quarter-mile away was fumigated in Salinas, California.
Even when accidents do not occur, soil fumigation exposes communities to unsafe levels of toxins. Air monitoring in the rural community of Sisquoc detected chloropicrin — a toxic fumigant known for causing respitory harm — in levels that exceeded the 24-hour level of concern for children, as well as the acceptable cancer risks set by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. Download the report summary.
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