“DON’T SEND A BOY to do a man’s job,” urges the website for Bayer CropScience, promoting its pesticide, Temik. “Growers of cotton, peanuts, citrus, potatoes and tree nuts,” the website continues, “all say the result is greater yields and an unsurpassed return on investment.”
Yes, Temik, the registered trade name for aldicarb, is a superb killer of pests such as thrips and nematodes – as well as other living things. It is reportedly manufactured by mixing two toxic chemical intermediates – methyl isocyanate and aldicarb oxime – with a solvent.
It’s rather amazing that Temik is proudly being marketed today as a macho man’s pesticide, considering its notorious past – and its continuing, dangerous presence in our groundwater.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called it “the most acutely toxic chemical ever registered.” One drop of aldicarb absorbed through the skin can kill an adult, according to a report in The New York Times.
The dangerous, highly toxic pesticide’s adverse health effects are many: It is a suspected endocrine disruptor, linked to neuro-toxic and reproductive effects, asthma, and learning behavior problems. It is highly toxic to birds, fish and other aquatic organisms, and it has been frequently detected in groundwater. It's rare that you can see the immediate effects of poisoning from toxic chemicals in our air, food and water. It may take five, 10, 15 years before people become ill and start dying, but the result is no less tragic.
In 1986, epidemiologists in Wisconsin studied how the immune system was functioning in women who were drinking water from wells that were contaminated by low levels of aldicarb. They found that consumption of aldicarb-contaminated water was associated with one immune system abnormality (an increase in the number of T8 cells). “The public health implications of continuing to expose large populations to potential immuno–modulating environmental contaminants warrants careful review,” the researchers concluded.
In 1989, the EPA’s pesticide division recommended its use on potatoes and imported bananas be banned, citing its risk to infants and children. No apparent action was taken. Instead, Temik was re-registered in 2007 for pesticide use by the EPA in 2007, under the less-than-stringent watch of President George W. Bush’s laissez-faire environmental policies. The European Union, however, phased out Temik’s use in 2007.
Temik has been reportedly found in the groundwater in at least 27 states. It has been widely used on potato crops in Idaho, Maine and Washington. Temik’s use has been banned in Rhode Island since 1984, where it resulted in contamination of drinking wells near every field where it was used to control the Colorado potato beetle. Its use is also restricted in Wisconsin and New York because of contamination of underground water supplies.
TEMIK’S MANUFACTURE in India resulted in one of the worst industrial toxic poisonings in history. On Dec. 3, 1984, just after midnight, a deadly gas cloud of methyl isocyanate, released by an explosion at a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, spread out over that city, killing thousands and maiming tens of thousands.
The first “official” death toll was 2,259; a later government figure raised the figure to 3,738 related to the toxic gas release – more than the 2,750 people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, and more than the 3,477 Americans killed in combat in Iraq since 2003.
However, the actual death toll was actually closer to 20,000, according to Aram Subramaniam, an investigative reporter with Business India, who conducted extensive interviews with doctors and survivors of the accident.
In the aftermath of the mass poisoning, Dr. Ramana Dhara, an Indian physician, reported that some 70,000 Bhopal survivors continue to suffer from progress pulmonary fibrosis – a scarring of the lung tissue that renders many of the victims unable to even walk upstairs without gasping for breath.
Today, 25 years later, the groundwater in Bhopal is still highly toxic and making residents sick, leading to cancer, congenital effects, immunity problems and other illnesses, according to a new study. The water is contaminated with more than 350 tons of toxic waste still strewn about the site of one of the world’s worst industrial accident. As Suketa Mehtu wrote on Dec. 2 in The New York Times, "A Cloud Hangs Over Bhopal," the current owner of the site, Dow Chemical, has washed its hands of any clean up.
HERE IN THE UNITED STATES, Temik's apparent misuse in 1985 on a crop of watermelons in Kern County, California, poisoned more than a thousand consumers. Later than summer, a ruptured tank spewed aldicarb oxime gas at the Institute, West Virginia, plant that was manufacturing the pesticide Temik, sickened hundreds of residents in an incident strikingly similar to the Bhopal tragedy.
Shortly afterwards, a revealing story appeared in The Washington Post, with the headline, “Leaked Gas Far Less Toxic Than Pesticide.” The story, perhaps meant to be reassuring, reported that industry studies showed the chemical vapor that had poisoned West Virginians was less toxic than Temik. Indeed, Temik was shown to be 2,400 times more toxic than the leaking aldicarb oxime gas, and 70 times more toxic than the pesticide’s other component, methyl isocyanate. Small comfort, indeed.
In the words of Yogi Berra, it was déjà vu all over again when, in August 2008, two workers were killed at the Institute, W.V., facility, as a storage tank of methyl isocynate exploded. In the aftermath of the accident, Bayer CropScience, the facility’s current owner, announced plans to reduce storage of methyl isocyanate at the Institute plant, but that it will continue to store up to 50,000 pounds of the toxic chemical on site. Concerned residents fear that they may become statistics in another industrial accident reminiscent of Bhopal.
IN 25 YEARS, WE HAVE NOT LEARNED VERY MUCH when it comes to toxic tragedies. Nor have we, as a society, a culture, or a government, been willing to send corporate executives to jail for criminal wrongdoings related to such poisonings for profit.
From melamine in baby formula to high concentrations of PCBs in farmed fish, from toxic imported sheetrock to lead-infested toys, we are poisoning ourselves – and our children. It is not a communist conspiracy. It is not a terrorist plot. It is poorly regulated corporate greed, run amok.
We are outraged by E.coli in are hamburgers, salmonella in our peanut butter, and listeria in our sprouts. We are rightfully fearful of the swine flu epidemic. In Washington, D.C., the major political zeitgeist is healthcare reform. Yet, we are seemingly indifferent to the toxic chemicals in the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink, a corporate witches’ brew that certainly contributes to our nation’s ill health.
A quarter-century ago, in the aftermath of Bhopal, I wrote an angry op-ed, “We Have Toxic Tragedies of Our Own,” for The Los Angeles Times, urging jail terms for executives would spur corporate responsibility. “They need to hear the slam of the jail door behind them,” I wrote, quoting a Los Angeles district attorney. Today, that proposed solution still rings true.
But, after two decades of living in Rhode Island, where corruption is as endemic to the political culture as toxic chemicals are to our groundwater, I have become inured – and pray that my body has become similarly hardened to such contamination. I am a former environmental activist clearly in denial.
President Obama, in his address at West Point explaining his decision to send some 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, likened the resurgence of the Taliban and the continued presence of Al Qaeda as a cancer, as a direct threat to the United States. Imagine if that same analysis – and resources – were applied to Temik and other toxic chemicals that are poisoning us in a terrifying manner.
In our fight against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack, we have marshaled tremendous resources in the new Department of Homeland Security – to protect us from potential threats of terrorism. Yet, all too frequently, toxic pesticides banned or restricted in the United States are used extensively in Latin and South America, only to be brought back home to us on the food we import, such as bananas and coffee.
The public seethes with outrage when a killer is pardoned, as Maurice Clemmons was in 2000 by then Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, only to go another murderous rampage, killing four police officers in a coffee shop near Tacoma, Wash. The question is: Why was a known toxic killer, Temik, still being allowed to poison our food and water again?
Postscript: Nicholas Kristof asked what Studs Terkel would call 'the impertinent question' in his Dec. 6 column: “What if breast cancer in the United States has less to do with insurance or mammograms and more to do with contaminants in our water or air – or in certain plastic containers in our kitchens? What if the surge in asthma and childhood leukemia reflect, in part, the poisons we impose upon ourselves?”
Kristof cites Dr. Philip Landrigan, the chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Mount Sinai, who said that the risk that a 50-year-old white woman will develop breast cancer has soared to 12 percent today, from 1 percent in 1975.
Likewise, Kristof continues, asthma rates have tripled over the last 25 years, according to Dr. Landrigan, and childhood leukemia is increasing by 1 percent per year
Kristof goes on to say: “A number of studies, mostly in animals, have linked early puberty to exposure to pesticides, PCBs and other chemicals. One class of chemicals that creates concern — although the evidence is not definitive — is endocrine disruptors, which are often similar to estrogen and may fool the body into setting off hormonal changes.”
Kristof continues: "Rep. Louise Slaughter, the only microbiologist in the House of Representatives, has introduced legislation this month that would establish a comprehensive program to monitor endocrine disruptors. That’s an excellent idea, because as long as we’re examining our medical system, there’s a remarkable precedent for a public health effort against a toxic substance. The removal of lead from gasoline resulted in an 80 percent decline in lead levels in our blood since 1976 — along with a six-point gain in children’s IQ’s, Dr. Landrigan said."
A good place to start with Rep. Slaughter’s program to monitor endocrine disruptors would be to study the pesticide, Temik.
