Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Thursday, September 27, 2007
In an effort to find an acceptable substitute for Methyl Bromide, Tokyo’s Arysta LifeScience Corp is marketing Methyl iodide, a compound they are calling MIDAS (MIDASusda). Was this product named after King Midas? Maybe Arysta plan was to make farmers feel that everything their new product touches will turn to gold?
Then again maybe it’s merely a stroke of good luck with the acronym.
In any case at least 54 scientists and physicians feel what this product touches may turn to death and destruction. The Methyl iodide is being called “one of the more toxic chemicals…”
EPA is expected to approve the use of MIDAS, in the US, as soon as tomorrow. 6 chemistry Nobel Prize winners are concerned that people living near, and those working with this product will be at “serious risk”
Methyl Bromide has long been known to be a severe and serious detriment to our fragile Ozone layer, and therefore a contributor to global warming. The EPA is taking the position buffer zones could be created around fields to reduce the risk of nearby residents and neighbors and that farm workers could be protected by using respirators.
The EPA, evaluated studies that linked Methyl iodide inhalation a horrifying array of illnesses and deaths in rats, but concluded the chemical was not likely cancerous in humans! Okie Dokie then!
The Montreal Protocol banned the use of Methyl Bromide and is calling for smaller and smaller usage with a complete fade out by 2010. Though the U.S. is using more Methyl Bromide each year than the rest of the world combined, and has applied for conditional use permits up to 2009, MIDAS may not be a less toxic alternative.
As for the depletion of the Ozone layer, Methyl Iodide is destroyed by light in as little as a few days, where Methyl Bromide can stay in the atmosphere for as long as 2 years.
Methyl Iodide seems to be an affordable alternative when it comes to being more friendly to the ozone, but as 1981 Nobel prize winner, Professor Roald Hoffmann from Cornell says “I wouldn’t like to live near a field where it’s (Methyl Iodide) applied.
Methyl Iodide was studied as long as 50 years ago…Provided there is no breaking news will have more on that sad subject tomorrow.
Labels: EPA, Global Warming, Methyl Bromide, Methyl Iodide, Montreal Protocol, Ozone
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Replacing Methyl Bromide with the MIDAS Touch?
