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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.
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