Product: BENLATE
Active ingredient: BENOMYL 50%
Other Ingredients: 50% Withheld as trade secrets by the manufacturer.
Type: Carbonate FUNGICIDE
Mode of action: Interferes with cellular respiration.
Of the benomyl used in California in 1994, 6% was used on wine grapes. Resistence of fungus to the pesticidal effects of benomyl is an increasing problem. It is a restricted use chemical and can only be applied by a licensed applicator.
TOXICOLOGY
Benomyl is considered by the U.S. EPA as a, possible human carcinogen, based on studies in which test animals developed lung and liver cancers (USFS 1996).
It is listed as a developmental toxicant [birth defects] and male reproductive toxicant by California's Office of Environmental Health Assessment under Proposition 65. During developmental toxicity tests, abnormally small eyes, decreased body weight and increased fetal mortality were experienced by the offspring of animals exposed to benomyl; another study reported development of abnormal bones. In reproductive tests, benomyl caused the degeneration of sperm forming tissues and lack of sperm formation in male test animals at the lowest tested dose (ibid).
Benomyl is reported to disrupt the endocrine system which regulates and produces hormones (Colborn 1993).
In studies with benomyl, adverse effects were demonstrated for mutations, including chromosomal abnormalities in mammalian bone marrow, embryonic cells, and ovarian cells. In one study, offspring were found to be infertile. EPA believes that the mutagenic potential of benomyl is due to some interference with the cellular apparatus that facilitates movement and separation of chromosomes during cell division (USFS 1996).
In a study using test animals, cirrhosis of the liver and weight loss were observed at the lowest level dose (Ibid).
Benlate irritates eyes, nose, throat and skin and causes allergic skin reactions (Product label).
ENVIRONMENTAL FATE AND EFFECTS
Benomyl is a high priority candidate for evaluation as a toxic air contaminant (DPR 1994).
Benomyl is highly persistent in soil, with observations of residues present for up to twelve months. In an EPA survey of 45 farms using benomyl, 64% of the samples tested positive for benomyl residues (Federal Register 1977).
Benomyl has been detected in well water in California (Pease 1996).
It is acutely toxic to birds (Shafer 1972), exhibits high to very high acute toxicity to fish (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 1980) and is acutely toxic to earthworms (Extoxnet 1989; Product label).
FRAUD AND PROFIT
In 1990, over a thousand Florida farmers lost not only crops but the use of thousands of acres of their land for an indefinate period due to the deadly effects of DuPont's benomyl formuation, Benlate DF. Four years later, Florida agriculture officials proved that DuPont had mixed an extremely toxic sulfonyl urea herbicide with the Benlate. But it was too late for farmers who suffered economic loss and health damage in forty states, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica-and settled for lower economic compensation because DuPont withheld information from the farmers.
A benlate case in Hawaii which went to the Hawaiian Supreme Court resulted in a $101 million fine and a blistering opinion from the court which said, "Put in layman's terms, DuPont cheated. And it cheated consciously, deliberately and with purpose. DuPont has committed a fraud in this court (NCAMP 1994, JPR 1995)." |
