A highly toxic chemical that has faced strong opposition from farmers and chemists nationwide after it was approved as a pesticide is being reviewed today by the Florida Department of Agriculture in the Reitz Union.
Methyl iodide, a soil fumigant that can emit an odorless gas to fight off weeds and fungi from crops like strawberries, tomatoes and peppers, is extremely poisonous and can kill a person within seconds of inhalation, said Donald Dickson, a UF professor in the Entomology and Nematology Department.
The fumigant, however, was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in October for a restricted one-year period after the agency said its tests had found risks associated with the compound to be minimal.
The compound's approval from the Florida Department of Agriculture, which will review the issue today at 9 a.m., is needed before it can be used on the state's farmlands.
The fumigant, though fairly new in the agriculture community, has already raised a furor over possible dangers associated with its field use.
More than 50 professors and chemists, including five chemistry Nobel Laureates, sent a joint letter to the EPA in September urging the agency to rethink its approval.
"As chemists and physicians familiar with the effects of this chemical," the letter stated, "we are concerned that pregnant women and the fetus, children, the elderly, farm workers, and other people living near application sites would be at serious risk if methyl iodide is permitted."
The EPA responded with its own letter vouching for the agency's rigorous tests. However, the chemists who wrote the letter, as well as the nonprofit Florida Certified Organic Growers & Consumers, have questioned the EPA's initial tests, suggesting weak trials or conflicts of interest as the only reasons the fumigant was approved.
Part of the danger with methyl iodide, Dickson said, is that half of the fumigant is composed of a toxic liquid called chloropicrin that serves as a warning agent to keep people and animals away.
In combination with other ingredients, the liquid has been used in the past as a wartime chemical weapon, a tear gas mixture for riot police and a fumigant to rid bugs from houses.
Though the fumigant has yet to be used in an agricultural setting, the chemists who wrote the letter said methyl iodide is a cancer hazard and can cause permanent neurological damage as well as fetal problems in exposed people and animals.
