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REPORTS: LATIN AMERICA - ENVIRONMENT |
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Methyl
Bromide on Its Way Out in Brazil and
Cuba
Mario
Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO, (IPS) - Although they
are major producers of tobacco, Brazil
and Cuba are several years ahead of
schedule in meeting the goals of curbing
the use of methyl bromide, a pesticide
commonly used on tobacco fields that
damages the earth's ozone layer.
Pioneers in Latin America, the two
countries have reduced consumption of
this ozone-depleting pesticide by
hundreds of thousands of tons, well
ahead of the reduction goal of 20
percent by 2005.
With the aim of reducing methyl bromide
use 20 percent by 2005, Brazil went from
consuming 1,790 tons in 1998 to 440 tons
in 2002, and kept consumption rates
stable in the first quarter of this year
at 115 tons, reports the Environment
Ministry.
The program to reduce use of the
agro-chemical began six years ago. The
decline has been rapid and will hit 90
percent this year, and 100 percent in
2004, Jorge Kampf, agronomist and head
of the Brazilian Association of Tobacco
Growers, told Tierramérica.
Cuba, meanwhile, has already completely
eliminated methyl bromide use in its
tobacco plantations, but application of
the substance continues among flower
growers and in greenhouses, says Nelson
Espinosa, director of the governmental
Technical Office on Ozone.
Total Cuban consumption is just 35 tons
a year, a third of the methyl bromide
volume used annually in the mid-1990s.
Methyl bromide is one of the several
gases that deplete the ozone in the
Earth's stratosphere, a layer that
protects all living organisms from the
most harmful ultraviolet rays of the
sun.
According to the Montreal Protocol,
signed in 1987 with the aim of
controlling and curbing emissions of
ozone-depleting gases, developing
countries must curb their use of methyl
bromide 20 percent by 2005 and
completely eliminate use by 2015.
The United States and Europe are
required to ban this agro- chemical by
2005.
Methyl bromide is used in sterilising
soils and farm products and killing
insects, mould, bacteria, nematodes and
weeds.
It is a very efficient poison, but
extremely toxic. Its impact on the ozone
layer is 60 times greater than that of
the famed CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons)
commonly associated with ozone
depletion, according to the Brazilian
Environment Ministry.
Latin America in general is complying
with commitments to freeze usage levels
as of 1999.
El Salvador, Panama and Uruguay are very
close to achieving a 50- percent cut in
methyl bromide use by 2005, says Miriam
Vega, regional coordinator of the Ozone
Action Program of the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP).
The success of the Montreal Protocol,
which 184 countries signed, is due
largely to the fact that the world
population quickly associated the
depletion of the ozone layer with health
risks, Vega told Tierramérica.
If the ozone layer is thinned by
emissions of gases like CFCs and methyl
bromide, more ultraviolet rays reach the
earth's surface and contribute to skin
cancer, reduce the oceans' production of
proteins, and harm agriculture, as well
as ecosystems in general.
Through the Montreal Protocol, Brazil
obtained 2.34 million dollars for
materials to eliminate methyl bromide
use on the country's tobacco
plantations, which provide a livelihood
for nearly 144,000 families.
Based on a technique of floating trays
in shallow pools, tobacco is seeded
using steam-sterilized soil, enriched
with fertilizers, explained Kampf.
This approach costs 15 to 20 percent
more than the methyl bromide technique,
but farmers are compensated by producing
higher quality tobacco plants.
But methyl bromide has also
traditionally been used on vegetable,
flower and strawberry crops -- plants
that require the soil to be sterilised.
A case-by-case study is needed, adapting
alternative techniques like steam and
heat, said Fernando Vasconcelos de
Araujo, an official with the Brazilian
Environment Ministry.
Progress will be slower than it was for
tobacco, but Brazil hopes to eliminate
methyl bromide use for these crops as
well by 2006, he told Tierramérica.
Cuba, with the support of the Montreal
Protocol fund, is drafting a project to
put an end to all remaining usage of
methyl bromide.
Neither Brazil nor Cuba produces methyl
bromide. Only a handful of companies
manufacture the gas. Because it is
condemned to extinction, there is no
interest in trafficking in the substance
or in storing large quantities, noted
Kampf.
* Patricia Grogg in Cuba and Pilar
Franco in Mexico contributed to this
report.
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