Product: Methyl Bromide 99.5 %; Terr-o-Gas 98 Active Ingredients: METHYL BROMIDE 98%; CHLOROPICRIN 2% Type: Biocide/Soil fumigant Methyl bromide is a soil sterilant injected into soil prior to planting new grapevines. It is extremely toxic and can kill outright if inhaled. Methyl bromide causes a significant amount of destruction to the earth's protective ozone layer. Most methyl bromide evaporates during and after soil fumigation and can drift off site for up to several miles. It is colorless and odorless. Chloropicrin, a tear gas is added as a warning agent but it may not be effective for that purpose. Methyl bromide and chloropicrin are each restricted use chemicals which can only be applied by licensed applicators and require a special permit in advance of application. TOXICOLOGY U.S. EPA describes methyl bromide as a Toxicity Category I chemical, the highest classification for acute [immediate death] toxicity. Twenty deaths have been reported as a result of methyl bromide fumigation in California since 1985, two of the victims died in their own homes by licensed applicators (Examiner 1992; EWG 1997). Methyl bromide is listed by California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) under Proposition 65 as a developmental toxicant when used as a structural fumigant. Developmental studies in test animals show birth defects (missing lobes of the lung, missing gall bladder, and skeletal deformity). OEHHA proposed to list methyl bromide as a developmental toxin under Proposition 65 for soil fumigations, but the listing was defeated by agricultural interests. For this reason, advance notification is not available to neighbors of fumigated fields. Exposure to methyl bromide can occur by inhalation, by absorption through skin, or by drinking contaminated water. Absorption is rapid following inhalation, the main route, and it is quickly distributed to many tissues including the lung, adrenal gland, kidney, liver, nasal turbinates, brain, testicles, and adipose tissue [fat] (UNEP/WHO 1994). Symptoms generally do not appear for 3-12 hours after exposure (Tomes 1992), thus the link between exposure and symptom is often difficult to make. The primary clinical signs of toxicity following high levels of exposure include irritation of mucus membranes, convulsions, paralysis/coma, central nervous system depression, respiratory failure, heart failure and death. Lower dose exposures manifest in irritation to the skin, eyes and lungs, loss of sensation in extremities and other peripheral nerve areas, disorientation, disruption in sleep and metabolic cycles, loss of coordination, and speech defects. Long term studies of test animals show cellular damage in the brain, kidney, nasal mucosa, heart, liver, adrenal cortex, and testicles. Studies show that specific metabolic enzyme levels are depressed following exposure (UNEP/ILO.WHO 1994). Chloropicrin, a tear gas and fungicide, is added to methyl bromide as a warning agent. The gases, however, remain mixed sufficiently to guarantee a detectable odor warning when methyl bromide drifts off-site. The California Department of Food and Agriculture Worker Health and Safety Unit states in its Methyl Bromide Safety Information Series, "Do not rely on smelling chloropicrin, if used as a warning agent... certain conditions may allow excessive exposure to methyl bromide vapors before you can detect the chloropicrin." Additionally the methyl bromide formulations used in Sonoma and Napa wine country contain a very small amount of chloropicrin. Exposure to chloropicrin causes intense tearing of the eyes, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and cough. Exposures can cause the lungs to fill with fluid resulting in death pulmonary edema, and death. Long term health effects include bronchitis, liver damage, and kidney damage. Other health effects of chloropicrin exposure are unresearched and unknown (CDFA 1988). ENVIRONMENTAL FATE AND EFFECTS At least 33-80% of methyl bromide evaporates to the atmosphere during and after soil fumigation, depending on organic matter, moisture, temperature, pH, and other factors (MBTOC 1995). It is listed as a toxic air contaminant (DPR 1994). In post-fumigation monitoring and modeling in 1993, the California Air Resources Board determined that methyl bromide could move off-site up to four miles in concentrations considered excessive under California's Proposition 65 developmental toxicity standards. Air tests conducted in 1996 found methyl bromide up to six times beyond the state recommended "safety" distance, or buffer zone for fumigations, and at levels that at times exceeded the state's "safety" standards. Other tests near fumigated fields consistently found airborne levels of methyl bromide above the state standard (EWG 1996, 1997). Tests conducted by Department of Pesticide Regulation also found excessive levels of methyl bromide outside " safety" buffer zones (EWG 1997; DPRa 1997). DPR recently made minor adjustments to buffer zone sizes (EWG 1997; DPRb 1997) and initiated weather studies to adjust buffer zones by region (DPR 1997). Methyl bromide harms health indirectly by contributing significantly to the destruction of the Earth's protective ozone layer, which leads to increased UV B radiation exposure and related health problems, including skin cancer, cataracts and suppression of the immune system. Methyl bromide causes at least 10-15% of present ozone depletion and eliminating it is the single most important action left to take to lessen ozone destruction (WMO 1995). Methyl bromide will be banned by 2005 in industrialized nations and by 2015 in all other nations under the international ozone protection treaty called the Montreal Protocol. Methyl bromide is a potential groundwater contaminant; there was an unconfirmed detection in California groundwater. It has been detected in wells in California (Pease 1995). Little is known about the effects of methyl bromide on wildlife. Dead birds have been observed on fumigated fields according to anecdotal reports of workers and nearby residents, but we could find no evidence that investigations regarding the impacts to wildlife have been undertaken in the field or in laboratories. Chloropicrin is a high priority candidate for evaluation as a toxic air contaminant. (CA DPR 1994)