Docket # OAR-2003-0230
Environmental Protection Agency
Mailcode 6102T
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20460

RE: My comments on methyl bromide

Dear EPA,

I very strongly urge the EPA NOT to bow to big chemical companies and agribusiness and allow huge exemptions from the phase-out of the dangerous pesticide methyl bromide. Methyl bromide depletes the ozone layer, exposing millions of Americans to skin cancer and a host of other diseases. Methyl bromide also causes prostate cancer in workers who apply pesticides and others directly exposed to it.

Pesticide producers and agribusinesses have already had nearly a dozen years to phase out this chemical and adopt safer alternatives. Methyl bromide production is finally supposed to end this year. Yet just when we are supposed to be getting rid of this dangerous chemical for good, the EPA has proposed allowing big agribusinesses to use more methyl bromide in 2005 than they actually used in 2003.

What's more, the big chemical companies have squirreled away huge amounts of methyl bromide in secret stockpiles. Why is the EPA helping the big chemical companies keep their methyl bromide stockpiles secret? And why is the EPA proposing to let them make even more?

I expect the EPA to protect my family and me, not big chemical companies and agribusiness. It is time to end the use of dangerous methyl bromide and switch to safer alternatives to grow our crops.