Methyl Iodide
© Delicious Truth

Basic science was ignored when California approved the use of methyl iodide, a cancer-causing pesticide, said scientist John Friones at an environmental safety hearing last week.

California berry growers are hoping to use methyl iodide, a registered carcinogen, to kill weeds and eliminate soil disease in their fields. It was developed as a replacement for another chemical that had a damaging effect on ozone levels. Activists, however, have fought methyl iodide for years, pointing to its danger for farmworkers and the general public.

In 2007, fifty-four scientists, including Nobel prize winners, famously intervened as the EPA prepared to approve the chemical, calling methyl iodide one of the most toxic chemicals used in industry.

To investigate concerns, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) convened an independent Scientific Review Committee, headed by Dr. Friones and others. The results of the investigation were clear: "any anticipated scenario for the agricultural ... use of this agent would ... have a significant adverse impact on the public health," said the committee's assessment.

The DPR, however, ignored the findings and approved the chemical for commercial use at a level 100 times higher than recommended by the committee. The DPR pointed to risk management strategies that could reduce the chemical's harmfulness.

But trying to reduce one of the Earth's most toxic chemicals through basic risk management strategies is "utopian ... fanciful and even ludicrous," said Dr. Friones in this week's hearing.

Late last year, several organizations also filed a lawsuit claiming the use of methyl iodide violates several of California's important environmental protections. The United Farmworkers have further warned that the toxin poses a serious risk to farmworkers. Methyl iodide is so toxic, says UFW, that it's used to induce cancer in laboratories and is only handled in tiny amounts with the use of protective equipment. And now the state of California wants farmworkers, whose job is notorious for lacking basic health and safety protections, to come into contact with the toxin.

Legendary farmworker organizer Dolores Huerta has also weighed in on the issue. She recently promised the Monterey County Weekly that she will speak with new California governor Jerry Brown and make methyl iodide one of her personal missions.

"The only reason we have any protection is because of Jerry Brown ... hopefully he will go back to his values and will help us stop this," she told the Weekly.

Because of actions by activists like Ms. Huerta and over 1,000 Change.org members, the fate of methyl iodide and farmworker health in California is still up in the air.

Join Dolores Huerta and hundreds of Change.org readers and tell California Governor Jerry Brown that farmworkers shouldn't be exposed to toxic methyl iodide.