Suit against EPA fights use of pesticide in Florida

Fenthion is key to fighting mosquito-borne diseases, officials say. But opponents claim it kills other wildlife.

By CRAIG PITTMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 29, 2002

Three conservation groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Monday for continuing to allow Florida counties to spray a controversial pesticide that has been blamed for the deaths of birds, butterflies and crabs.

Mosquito control officials say they cannot properly combat West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne threats to public health without using the pesticide, known as fenthion.

Fenthion, developed in the 1960s by the company that makes Bayer aspirin, works by attacking the nervous system. It was once used in a product called Rid-A-Bird that killed nuisance birds and anything that ate them.

Known commercially as Baytex, it has been employed for three decades by mosquito control officials around the state -- including Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties.

Bayer nearly discontinued it in 1980 because of tightening government regulations. But Florida's mosquito control districts begged the company to continue making it, so Bayer manufactures it exclusively for Florida use.

In January 2001, the EPA proposed curtailing -- but not ending -- the use of fenthion. EPA officials cited concerns about the effect it might have on birds, golfers, homeowners doing yard work and toddlers playing outdoors.

The EPA has made no final decision. The agency has been trying without success to negotiate a way to mitigate the risks associated with the pesticide so Florida counties can continue using it, EPA spokesman Dave Deegan said Monday.

The delay is the reason the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Defenders of Wildlife and the American Bird Conservancy finally sued the EPA in U.S. District Court in Washington, said Nancy Payton of the Florida Wildlife Federation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has blamed the deaths of 200 birds on Marco Island in 1998 and 1999 on fenthion that Collier County officials sprayed nearby to control mosquitoes.

But federal wildlife officials have refused to discuss the results of their tests with Bayer or the Collier mosquito control district, citing a continuing criminal investigation into the deaths of birds protected under migratory and endangered species laws.

That has led Collier mosquito control officials to suggest that the EPA should not consider the federal wildlife agency's findings.

However, there have been other incidents involving inadvertent deaths from the pesticide.

Fenthion sprayed north of Marco Island killed fiddler crabs in the pristine Rookery Bay National Estuary Reserve. And University of Florida researchers say fenthion nearly wiped out the nation's rarest butterfly, the Schaus swallowtail, in the Florida Keys.

Earlier this year a federal grand jury investigating the bird deaths subpoenaed spraying information from the Collier mosquito control district, but so far has issued no findings.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright