Today the Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service
(APHIS) published a notice of availability in today’s Federal Register (80 FR
10661-10662) concerning a new treatment schedule for the use of methyl
bromide as a fumigant on imported figs for external pests.
This new treatment regime adds another to the critical uses
of methyl bromide that will be another block to its elimination from use under the Montreal
Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Protocol) and the
Clean Air Act (CAA). It was the promise by the EPA of the elimination of the
use of this toxic inhalation hazard chemical that lead the Department of
Homeland Security to remove methyl bromide from their draft list of DHS chemicals
of interest (COI) under the CFATS program.
While the use of methyl bromide has certainly diminished greatly
since the 2007 COI draft it has not been eliminated. It is still manufactured,
transported and used in the United
States . And, as this notice indicates, its
efficacy as a fumigant almost certainly insures that it will not be eliminated
from commerce in the foreseeable future.
DHS needs to reconsider its delisting of methyl bromide as a
release toxic chemical on its CFATS COI list.
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