U.S. to Seek Support for Broad Ozone Exemptions

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November 10, 2003At Meetings, U.S. to Seek Support for Broad Ozone ExemptionsBy

ANDREW C. REVKIN

 

he two-decade effort to eliminate chemicals that harm the ozone layer faces its

most serious test in recent years this week as the Bush administration seeks

international support for broad exemptions to a 2005 ban on a popular pesticide.

 

Many American farmers say the pesticide, methyl bromide, is vital as they try to

compete with farm production in countries where fields are tended by low-paid

laborers. Critics of the proposed exemptions, led by the European Union, say

that substitute chemicals are already in wide use and that the American request

threatens progress toward repairing the ozone layer, which shields the earth

from radiation that causes cancers and other problems.

 

The United States and 180 other countries begin a weeklong meeting today in

Nairobi to consider the methyl bromide question and other aspects of the

Montreal Protocol, a 1987 treaty eliminating a host of ozone-destroying

substances. Methyl bromide was added to the treaty in the first Bush

administration.

 

The issue is widening a rift that separates Europe and the United States on a

number of environmental issues, including the stringency of testing for

industrial chemicals and the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty controlling emissions

linked to global warming, which President Bush has rejected.

 

Senior American environmental, agricultural and State Department officials have

been urging their counterparts around the world to support the exemptions,

which, if granted this week, would cause a substantial increase in American use

of the chemical after a long decline.

 

Industry lobbyists have gone a step further in recent weeks, seeking support

from governments by contending that methyl bromide poses no significant threat

and that the ozone layer is already healing.

 

That view is strongly disputed by many atmospheric chemists, who say that while

human sources of methyl bromide are less significant than was once thought, they

remain a significant destroyer of ozone. Experts almost uniformly say the damage

to the ozone layer is unlikely to mend for at least 50 years.

 

American officials and farmers, particularly in Florida and California, say that

strawberries, tomatoes and other crops cannot be affordably grown without methyl

bromide's soil-sterilizing properties and that alternatives are either untested

or too expensive. Other exemptions are being sought for continued use of methyl

bromide in the production of products including cut flowers, smoked hams and

honey.

 

But many countries, environmental groups and scientists say the proposed

exemptions would reverse steady progress in healing the ozone layer, would

discourage farmers from shifting to safer products and would encourage poorer

countries to seek new loopholes or delays.

 

" Many farmers worldwide successfully grow crops without methyl bromide, " said

Margot Wallstrom, the environment commissioner for the European Union.

" Substitutes are available for the majority of its uses. Methyl bromide

exemptions should be agreed only where alternatives are not available and not on

any other basis. "

 

James L. Connaughton, the top environmental official in the White House, said

the administration had carefully scrutinized each request for an exemption.

 

" We went with the essential amount of this very important substance that the

United States needs to ensure safe and affordable agricultural and food products

for Americans, " Mr. Connaughton said.

 

A dozen other industrialized countries are seeking exemptions as well, including

eight from the European Union. But the American requests, totaling about 10,000

tons a year, far exceed all the others, which combined add up to about 6,000

tons.

 

Until 1999, when the treaty started requiring industrialized countries to cut

methyl bromide use, 72,000 tons was typically used worldwide each year, with

about 25,000 tons of that in the United States.

 

The 2005 ban applies only to industrialized countries, with developing countries

getting a 10-year reprieve.

 

Bush administration officials noted that last month a technical review panel

that advises the parties to the Montreal Protocol rejected only a handful of the

proposed American exemptions.

 

But senior European officials pointed out that the panel said it was accepting

two-thirds of the American proposals on faith because there was insufficient

data to determine whether such applications of the chemical were truly

essential.

 

A bill introduced in the House on Oct. 29 by Representative George P.

Radanovich, Republican of California, would authorize the Environmental

Protection Agency to grant industries the methyl bromide exemptions even if the

parties to the Montreal treaty rejected them. The bill is sponsored by 20

Republicans and one Democrat, most from California and Southern farm states.

 

David D. Doniger, who works on global atmosphere policy for the Natural

Resources Defense Council, a private environmental advocacy group, said that

bill would " flout our country's binding obligations under a treaty that the U.S.

has ratified and legally bound itself to follow. "

 

Mr. Radanovich replied, " The intent of the legislation is to preserve the use of

the only effective and affordable pesticide available for certain crops until an

alternative is developed. "

 

Industry has aggressively lobbied Congress and foreign governments to reconsider

elimination of the chemical.

 

One presentation given to various African governments this year by Rene Weber, a

lobbyist for the American methyl bromide industry, shows a pair of satellite

images of the ozone hole that forms each austral spring over Antarctica. One is

from Sept. 22, 2001, and the next from exactly a year later, when the hole was

far smaller. The caption reads, " The ozone hole appears to be closing. "

 

But it does not mention that the hole grew to near record size in September and

October this year, that it varies greatly from year to year and that many

scientists say it shows no trend toward shrinking.

 

A printed copy of the presentation was provided to The New York Times by an

official who attended one briefing and was upset by its conclusions. A similar

presentation has been shown around Europe by MeBrom, a Belgian company that

sells methyl bromide in 60 countries.

 

Mr. Weber did not respond to several e-mail and telephone messages.

 

Cris Thiers, the managing director of MeBrom, said the company saw no logic in

the impending ban. Not only had the risk from methyl bromide diminished, he

said, but most of the substitutes offered to it pose bigger environmental

dangers.

 

" I want a greener world for myself and my kids and the kids after my kids, " Mr.

Thiers said. " I have no problem dropping a product if it's dangerous. But I do

have a problem replacing it with one that is worse for the environment. "

 

Cecil Martinez, who oversees strawberry fields on 700 acres in Oxnard, Calif.,

said that for five years he had experimented with alternatives to methyl bromide

in small plots, but added, " None of them have really proven their worth. "

 

Marten Barel, a Dutch consultant who develops methyl bromide substitutes in poor

countries for the United Nations, said options were safe and affordable.

 

" For many years I used methyl bromide myself as a fumigator in the Netherlands, "

Mr. Barel said. " But the government decided to phase it out for safety reasons

in the 1980's. We all complained bitterly, predicting it would be the end of the

world for farming. But we did manage to adopt alternatives, and after a couple

of years no one wanted to go back. "

 

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company |

 

 

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