LAT: U.S. Has Been Stockpiling Banned Pesticide

[DeepModem Mom]

U.S. Has Been Stockpiling Banned Pesticide
The U.N. hadn't known the size of the reserve -- about a year's worth -- when it gave exemptions to make ozone-depleting methyl bromide.
By Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer
September 15, 2006

The United States has stockpiled millions of pounds of methyl bromide, a pesticide that depletes the ozone layer, according to newly public documents — information that could create a stir during international negotiations next month, when the Bush administration seeks permission to produce more.

Methyl bromide has been banned for almost two years under the United Nations' Montreal Protocol. Under that pact — designed to stop the thinning of the ozone layer, which shields the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation — the United States is granted annual exemptions to use the chemical at farms that grow California strawberries, Florida tomatoes and other crops deemed "critical."

The new Environmental Protection Agency data, which show that the stockpile is big enough to provide those farmers more than a year's supply, are likely to put the Bush administration in the position of defending the size of the U.S. reserve while seeking approval for chemical companies to manufacture more.

In a negotiating process that already has been highly contentious, nations that ratified the U.N.'s 1987 treaty meet yearly to allocate how much methyl bromide each can use and produce. When the parties convene in New Delhi in late October to set 2008 allocations, it will be the first time they have had access to information about the size of the U.S. stockpile.

Under the treaty, nations are allowed to produce more only if "methyl bromide is not available in sufficient quantity and quality from existing stocks."...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ozone15sep15,0,5761786.story?coll=la-home-nation

[dipsydoodle]

1. See link to anthrax

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2002/B/20025995.html

May help explain stockpiling.

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Strawberries and Tomatoes, "critical" - Ozone layer - NOT - hmmmmmmm

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I think we need the ozone layer more, no?

Just asking . . .

[dipsydoodle]

7. I wasn't agreeing with its uses

I simply searched to find out what on earth it was. However - the link to uses for anthrax clean ups may well be what this is all about rather than fruit ! Yes - the ozone layer is more obviously more important.

[Solon]

2. How FUCKING STUPID ARE WE?

FUCK, the Ozone layer is JUST beginning to recover from our stupid use of ozone-depleting aerosols. And we STILL use this fucking shit. I swear, we are the only species that is fucking suicidal as a group, I mean seriously, hello, without the OZONE LAYER, we DIE!!!

[truthseeker1]

3. a "free market" indeed!

How can producing strawberries and tomatoes be MORE CRITICAL than potentially destroying the ozone layer???
I'll give up strawberries and tomatoes if I have to, thank you very much.

[rodeodance]

4. Our national SEcurity depends on tasty morsels you know.

[Ragin_mad]

5. Why the fuck do they still allow the use of chlorine in pools

That is going to do nothing but evaporate into the atmosphere ?

[Xithras]

8. Pool chlorine doesn't harm the ozone layer.

Argue against pools because they waste water and energy (proven), not because they harm the ozone layer (refuted by pretty much every study). Low atmosphere chlorine gas releases recombine with other gasses and water vapor before ever reaching the stratosphere, allowing them to rain back down to Earth. CFC's get through because they don't chemically bond to anything except ozone.

[NotGivingUp]

9. Why are they stockpiling this crap??