ShareThisSALT LAKE CITY - Federal regulators have clamped strong new controls on the pesticide believed to have caused the deaths of 4-year-old Rebecca Toone and her 15-month-old sister Rachel the week after an exterminator fumigated rodent holes outside of their Layton, Utah, home.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said aluminum and magnesium phosphide fumigants can no longer be used near homes. The agency also expanded the buffer zones required when using it outdoors and imposed a new requirement for posted warnings when the pesticide has been applied.
"Phosphine fumigants are poisons and must be kept away from where our children live," said Steve Owens, assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances.
Agency spokesman Dale Kemery said the Layton sisters' deaths had "focused EPA to get these tighter restrictions as quickly as possible," and added that the " action demonstrates that concern."
State and local authorities continue to investigate the pesticide's role in the girls' deaths and will discuss possible criminal charges next week.
Phosphide pesticides create deadly phosphine gas, which has been used for decades to kill insects and burrowing rodents. Federal law limits the fumigant to use by trained and certified applicators, who were not to use it in burrows within 15 feet of a residence. Still, the pesticide's use around homes has been linked to the deaths of at least four children.
The Toone sisters died in February after the Bugman extermination company applied Fumitoxin near the family's front door and garage to control voles. In 2002, a 5-year-old South Dakota girl died after the pesticide was used outside her home and, a 4-year-old Texas girl died in 2007 after it was used in the home in violation of the label restrictions.
Nathan and Brenda Toone, the Layton girls' parents, did not directly comment on the EPA regulation change in a brief statement. But they did say they "applaud any efforts by government officials to continually seek to improve the safety of our community."
The EPA's action comes a dozen years after agency scientists recommended restrictions similar to the ones now being imposed. A coalition led by the tobacco industry and agriculture interests fought the restrictions because phosphide pesticides had become powerful and effective tools that not only eliminated pests from commodities, like grain, beans, animal feed and tobacco but also left no harmful residue.
Though tobacco companies like R.J Reynolds wanted to be able to use phosphine to control cigarette beetles, these other agricultural uses helped the coalition grow to around 150 members, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and even the U.S. Agriculture Department.
In the end, the EPA's proposal for expanded buffer zones were scrapped completely, and the pesticide was cleared for use beyond 15 feet from homes. The EPA's plan to require warnings for neighbors up to 750 feet away also was abandoned after the coalition said people would be safe as long as the pesticides were properly applied.
Gina Solomon applauded the EPA's steps A medical doctor who works for the environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Solomon wrote about the tobacco industry's successful efforts to stymie phosphine restrictions when EPA first proposed tougher standards in 1998.
"The announcement today really will increase public safety," she said, calling the EPA's actions swift, decisive and "critically important."
"It's sad that it takes a tragedy like a death to light a fire" underneath those responsible for these regulations, she said.
Larry Lewis, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, also praised the EPA's new restrictions.
"This clearly decreases the possibility of accidents and it increases public safety," he said.
"The public can feel confident this product will not be used in residential neighborhoods in Utah any more."
Lewis emphasized that the public's exposure to phosphide pesticides already is very limited. Only licensed applicators can buy it and legally use it, and only authorized suppliers can sell it to them.
Consumers can't buy it at their local hardware or garden supply stores, he noted.
Meanwhile, he said his office is wrapping up its administrative probe of Bugman, the exterminators who applied the Fumitoxin at the Toone home, and whether the pesticide was applied according to the label.
"We've thoroughly reviewed the paperwork from Bugman," he said. "Based on the review, we are considering citations."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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