Lethal pesticide banned - Resort workers seek medical help after exposure to clorpyrifos
Published:Saturday | February 11, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer
MONTEGO BAY, St James:
ONE OF three employees of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in western Jamaica is still suffering from respiratory complications more than a year after receiving medical attention after being exposed to a lethal pesticide at the workplace.
The Pesticides Control Authority (PCA) has since banned the chemical clorpyrifos from local use and revoked the licence of the pest- control operator, citing at least three breaches of the pesticides regulations.
"What happened there is a case of misuse based on the labelling, and under the pesticides law, a misuse of that nature is something that is prosecutable," Registrar of the PCA Michael Ramsay told The Gleaner.
A PCA probe unveiled that clorpyrifos, which the PCA has approved for outdoor use as a spray, was mixed with diesel oil and administered as a fog in an underground employees' dining room in an effort to control cockroaches. Thereafter, three of the employees, who had their meals in the room, took sick and had to seek medical attention.
The hotel's general manager, Tony Mira, while confirming the incident, refused to provide any details, stating that the resort had proper procedures in place for contracting outside companies to handle these services.
"We have very strict procedures and policies in place to ensure that the people we hire to do this service for us have the proper licences and certificates that they need to do the job that we're asking them to do."
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay has Green Globe certification.
Meanwhile, the PCA's investigation officer told The Gleaner that after his initial inspection of the dining room, the resort's management, which had contacted the authority, began to stonewall him, refusing to cooperate further.
The PCA subsequently convened an investigative panel which interviewed the licensed pest-control operator implicated in the incident who admitted that he had used the chemical in an adverse manner and had been doing so for years, an admission which caught panellists off guard.
"That was even the bigger surprise since it was a registered and certified pest-control company which has been in business for quite some time - for years," said Ramsay, who did not sit on the panel.
He said the misuse of pesticides is a growing concern since in most cases, it is the chemical's apparent effectiveness against pests which leads to this abuse, very often without any regard to its potentially toxic effect on humans.
The dangers of clorpyrifos to human health are grave, according to the Internet site Clorpyrifos.org, which states that the chemical has been registered for both outdoor and indoor use. It is used in cornfields, on apple and grape farms, as well as beet, wheat, cotton, peanut, and vegetables.
Unfortunately, this pesticide, the website says, passes from the plant to the human system and can, therefore, "cause untold harm within the body. It can get into the body when you touch it or even if you breathe in the air that is contaminated by it".
In the meantime, the PCA is cautioning users not to cut costs as they run the risk of using certain pesticides that are cheap but not approved for the purpose for which they are being used.
"Once an individual learns of the efficacy of a particular pesticide and the price is right, they are going to use it, which is the scary thing," said Ramsay.
Customers, he insists, must become more proactive.
"The other thing that I would like to remind the public (of) is that they need to have the information whenever they are doing pest-control work," Ramsay pointed out. "Whether they themselves are doing the work, they need to read the labels to see what it is they are using and whether they are willing to accept the risk of what they are using and if there are alternatives. If it's a pest-control company that they are employing, they need to know what the pest-control company is using as pesticide and what other measures are going to be required along with the chemical treatment."