Customers stock up on pesticide

Despite the EPA's warning of potential harm, fans flock to grab the bug killer before it's all gone from store shelves.

By CRAIG PITTMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 9, 2000

The parade of homeowners started early Thursday. All day, customers concerned about their suburban homes and lawns swarmed through the doors of Corrie Cora's store in Palm Harbor.

They wanted to stock up on Dursban, the popular pesticide that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just declared too dangerous to use anymore.

"People are in here buying this stuff like crazy!" said Cora, owner of the Do It Yourself Pest Control store on U.S. 19.

The selling frenzy was provoked by the EPA's ban of chlorpyrifos -- sold as both Dursban and Lorsban -- because of its potential effects on the nervous system and brain development of children.

"We did this because children are not just small adults -- their bodies are still developing and are more susceptible to risks from toxic chemicals," EPA Administrator Carol Browner said at a news conference Thursday.

"They play on floors and in yards where pesticides have been applied, and they eat proportionately more food with respect to body weight than do adults."

For decades one of the most widely used insecticides, chlorpyrifos is found in everything from pet flea collars to garden and lawn chemicals to indoor bug sprays. It also has been used widely by farmers to protect fruits, vegetables and grains from insects.

Under an agreement with the EPA, chemical giant Dow Chemical Co. and five smaller manufacturers will immediately halt production of chlorpyrifos for virtually all non-agricultural uses.

The EPA will impose tighter restrictions on using the pesticide on some agricultural products, specifically apples and grapes, and ban farmers from using it on tomatoes. These restrictions are designed to eliminate the chemical's residues on foods often consumed by children.

The ban on residential use of Dursban, which has been on the market since 1965, will not include childproof ant traps and aerial mosquito sprays. For exterminators, spot termite treatments for "gross visible infestations" will be permitted until 2002. Use of Dursban to combat fire ants and for professional applications to golf courses also will be permitted.

EPA officials stopped short of ordering Dursban yanked off every shelf in America. That decision was essential to the compromise with the pesticide's manufacturers that avoided protracted litigation, Browner said.

"This was the fastest way possible" to reduce the use of Dursban, she said. EPA officials said they expect the pesticide to be off most store shelves by the end of this year.

One group urging a ban of the pesticide, the Environmental Working Group, has written to Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Kmart, Lowe's and other major retailers asking them to immediately stop selling Dursban. They have received no response.

"If I were Home Depot, I would ask myself if two months worth of sales are worth the public relations problems that could arise from selling a product that the country has determined is dangerous," said the organization's Mike Casey.

The chemical that makes Dursban work is an organophosphate developed by the German company I.G. Farben during World War II for use in nerve gas. In pesticides, organophosphates kill insects by disrupting their brains and nervous systems. The organophosphates inhibit the function of a key enzyme in the nervous system.

That enzyme is also a component of the human nervous system. Children's brains and nervous systems are still developing, making them especially vulnerable to injury from overexposure to organophosphates. The ban on Dursban was based largely on Dow research that showed brain damage to fetal rats whose mothers were given the chemical.

Other studies show that human overexposure to Dursban can cause dizziness, nausea, paralysis, coma and death. Dow -- which recently tried testing its product on humans at a Nebraska laboratory to convince EPA not to ban it -- has long maintained that the insecticide is safe if used properly.

But guaranteeing that everyone uses it properly is impossible, as Robert Christ learned.

Christ, 40, of Clearwater, used to make a living maintaining lawns. He didn't pay much attention to warnings about dangerous chemicals. When the EPA banned the insecticide Chlordane in the late 1980s, he hit the stores and stocked up on it.

"I didn't know what I know now," he said.

Four years ago, he had a summertime contract to mow a large lawn at a local hospital. The lawn was repeatedly treated with Dursban. The worker who put out the pesticide did not water the lawn to break the pesticide down, as the label suggests. So Christ's lawnmower kicked up a lot of Dursban residue that Christ inhaled.

Soon he was suffering from dizzy spells and fatigue. He became so sensitive to dust and other chemicals he moved out of his house and into his carport just so he could breathe.

"It's pretty unbearable to go through what I've gone through," he said. "I don't think a green lawn is worth that much."

Marie Christopher, 32, tells a similar story.

Ten years ago the Cape Coral dance instructor had to undergo a four-month detoxification treatment because an exterminator used excessive amounts of Dursban on the building she lived in. Even after she was apparently cured of the poisoning, she and her husband waited until last year to have a baby "to make sure it was not still in my body."

Environmental groups say that each year there are about 1,000 reports of Dursban poisoning around the country. There are plenty of safer alternatives available, according to pesticide experts. Big companies such as Terminex and Orkin switched to other pesticides several years ago.

Yet among smaller exterminators, plant nurseries, farmers and lots of homeowners, Dursban has remained a popular product for its effectiveness in killing bugs.

"People love that stuff," said Renato Carvalho, assistant manager of Frank's Nursery and Crafts on 34th Street S in St. Petersburg. He said he had seen customers Thursday walk up to the store's display of Dursban, examine it carefully and then walk away.

"They're afraid they're going to be shot if they buy it," he said, chuckling. News of the ban has them "real scared."

The EPA announcement convinced some longtime Dursban users to give it up immediately.

"We're not as threatened by pests as vegetable growers, but we won't be buying any more Dursban," said Chris Collins of Color Country Nursery in Lecanto.

But at the Do It Yourself Pest Control store in Palm Harbor, the Dursban fans kept flocking in.

Late Thursday, store manager Craig Kippenberger answered the phone and heard the same question he'd been hearing all day.

"Do you still have it?" the caller asked.

"Yeah, we got plenty of it," he replied.

After he hung up, Kippenberger said he had just ordered more Dursban from his supplier, explaining: "I suspect Saturday is going to be a busy day."

Staff writer Jorge Sanchez contributed to this report, which also contains information from the Associated Press and Scripps Howard News Service.

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