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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 20, 1985)
I P • Portland Oteurver, March 20, 1905, Page 9 Salem sulfite death raises pesticide concerns A .M . PRINTING CO. by Robert Lothian The death o f an asthmatic Salem girl after she ate sulfite-treated lettuce and guacamole in a Salem restaurant has once again focussed public atten tion on the use o f potentially danger ous chemicals. In response to the death o f IO-year- old Medaya Hester M cPike, the Ore gon Health Division now requires res taurants that use sulfite-treated pro duce to post warning notices. In addition, Rep. Ron Wyden has introduced a bill that would ban alto gether the use o f sulfite preservatives to treat fresh fruits and vegetables. ; Co-sponsor o f the bill. Sen. Albert Core, D .-T en n., said that at least five deaths in the last three years have been linked with sulfites. Gore and Wyden sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration asking for an interim ban pending Congressional action. Sulfite preservatives are among hundreds o f chemical substances used on food products, some safe, some not so safe. In I982, a National Resources De fense Council study o f chemicals on produce in San Francisco area super markets came up with some interest ing results: strawberries had been doused with 15 different pesticides, carrots I I , oranges IO and lettuce 4, “ including known carcinogens," or cancer-causing substances. Pesticides make life easier, accord ing to chemical manufacturers, but only at the risk o f human health in the interest o f profits, say critics, who accuse manufacturers o f flooding the environment with inadequately tested and dangerous chemicals. Two experts criticized the use of chemicals on food and in the urban environment in Portland recently. Maura Doherty, an industrial hy gienist with the state o f Oregon, ad dressed the 50th anniversary meeting o f the East Multnomah Soil and W a ter Conservation District board. She reported the results o f her 1983 study o f seven Portland spray pro grams conducted by four municipal agencies — the Portland Parks Dept., the Portland School District, M u lt nomah County Vector Control, and the State Highway Dept. “ City residents are subject to pesti cide exposure repeatedly during the year, without notification, and with out any comprehensive planning on the part o f the city," said Doherty. " In addition," she continued, “ pub lic employees are not systematically informed o f the hazards o f the pesti cides they spray." According to Doherty, the four municipal agencies used a total of 42 chemicals: 2 1 herbicides, 12 insecti cides and 9 fungicides. She found that all schoolyards within the city are regularly doused with chemicals that haven’t been tested adequately, and that many o f the 29 pesticides used by the Parks Dept. also lacked adequate testing for long-term health effects. Some chemicals used in the city are known to be dangerous, accordir g to Doherty. Benlate, for instance, a fungicide commonly used on the city’s roses, can cause mutations and a decrease in sperm production in exposed animals, she said. Pregnant wxxiKji should not use it, she continued, but parks employees often are not warned of the danger. Other chemi cals used in the city spray programs can cause cancer, birth defects and ipontaneous abortions, said Doherty. Both the Parks Dept and the School District lacked pesticide spray plans and use reports. That makes it hard For the public to know what it’s being txposed to, said Doherty. Multnomah County Vector Control does keep food records o f its insecticide spray wogram, however, she said. Dr. M ary O ’ Brien, with the North- vest Coalition for Alternatives to ’ esticidcs, spoke at a conference on safety o f the food supply at Portland State University. O f the approximately 2 billion pounds o f pesticides used in the world today, she said, about half are used on produce. But only about 20 per cent have been tested for their ability to cause cancer, “ even less fdr birth defects and genetic damage,” though a 1972 law requires such testing, ac cording to O ’ Brien. "T he Environmental Protection Agency is not doing its jo b ," she charged. The few tests that are conducted are often compromised by shoddy mot hods, said O ’Brien. Testing be comes a rubber stamp process where chemical companies seek to get their products past the E .P .A . the easiest way possible, she said. One danger is the possibility of long-term chronic health problems that, ironically, can't be traqed to the Offending chemical!s). "If*, in effect, your immune system is being dam aged by a certain pesticide, you ha -e no way to know whether those two extra colds a year are because of that," she said. Both speakers said that bureaucratK foot-dragging on testing and enforce ment compounds the problem. In Oregon, for instance, before the recent tragic sulfite-related death, stale officials failed to act on three separate requests from the federal government that restaurants be re quired to post sulfite warnings. Sul fites did not seem a high priority be cause they seem to affect only a small number o f allergic people, was the answer given by the administrator o f the Oregon Health Division. But had the state acted sooner. Medaya Hester M cPike might still be alive. FOR ALL YOUR PR IN TIN G NEEDS Off lea fr Buainaaa Letterheads • Buainaaa Card* Bullatina • Prlca Uata • Charts Nawslattars • Forms • Flyars Envelopes «AOS PLACED chemicals post notices and keep rec ords, whether in restaurants, on roses, street trees, in parks, schoolgrounds, along roadsides, crops — wherever contact with people or animals is a possibility. SAFEWAY REGULAR Approximate 5-Lb. 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