In a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt, Doniger, now a policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), asserts that by pushing for major exemptions to the Montreal Protocol, the Bush Administration is "risking a catastrophic breakdown of the global ozone treaty, endangering the health of millions of Americans, and exposing American businesses to as much as $10 billion per year in trade sanctions."[1]

The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty between more than 160 developed and developing countries, negotiated as far back as the Reagan Administration. Under this treaty and the Clean Air Act, methyl bromide production has successfully been cut by 70 percent in the U.S. and other developed countries, and is due to be phased out completely by next year.

But the Bush Administration has recently filed requests to increase methyl bromide production, rather than continuing to reduce it -- a move that has prompted an unprecedented special meeting of the treaty parties scheduled for March 24-26 in Montreal.[2]

Methyl bromide is a pesticide used to fumigate agricultural products (including wood) and to protect crops such as strawberries and tomatoes from organisms in the soil. It is most heavily used in California and Florida.

Besides causing destruction to the ozone layer, methyl bromide -- developed during World War II as a nerve gas -- is also a neurotoxin that causes reproductive problems. Exposure to this pesticide has been linked with increased risk of prostate cancer among pesticide applicators and farm workers. It is often applied in close proximity to homes and schools, exposing people through the air (it drifts during application) and water (it penetrates deep into the soil).

"The continued use of methyl bromide isn't just a debate between growers of crops like tomatoes and strawberries and scientists concerned about depletion of the ozone," said Bill Walker, vice president of the Environmental Working Group's west coast office. "While depletion of the ozone is a serious problem, the more immediate concern is for the health of people in Florida and California who conduct their lives in proximity of millions of pounds of methyl bromide each year."

This week, a special committee of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) met to discuss the exemptions that will be the subject of next month's meeting. The proposed exemptions deadlocked a meeting of the treaty parties last November. The UNEP committee is recommending that if any exemption is granted, the increased production can be for one year only, and no higher than 35 percent above 1991 levels. The Bush Administration is requesting an increase of 39 percent.

The committee is also recommending that the issue be revisited in one year, and that any country seeking an exemption be required to use any existing stockpiles of methyl bromide before producing anymore. For future years, the committee recommends that any exemption for methyl bromide production be matched by requirements to destroy other ozone-depleting chemical stores, such as halon, which the U.S. keeps stockpiled for fire protection purposes.

NRDC's Doniger told BushGreenwatch.org that there are plenty of alternative compounds available for methyl bromide, as well as for chemicals such as halon, and that the U.S. exemptions are entirely unnecessary.

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SUBMIT A COMMENT
Email the EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt, and let him know that in the interest of public health and ozone depletion the U.S. should comply with plans to end the production of Methyl Bromide.

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SOURCES:
[1] Letter from David D. Doniger to Hon. Michael O. Leavitt, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency.
[2] Ibid.