THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 17, 1995 TAG: 9504170051
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DURHAM LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
An insecticide that Duke University researchers believe is linked to Gulf War Syndrome is commonly used in homes and is the focus of a safety review by federal officials.
The insecticide, chlorpyrifos, is sold under the trade name Dursban and was used in about 14 million American households in 1990.
It is the most widely used insecticide in North Carolina for home pest control, a state health official said.
Chlorpyrifos also was one of several pesticides U.S. troops used during the Gulf War, The Herald-Sun of Durham reported.
Duke researchers have found that laboratory animals suffered nervous-system damage when exposed to combinations of the pesticides and an anti-nerve gas chemical the troops also used.
The team, led by Duke toxicologist Mohamed Abou-Donia, observed the same toxic effects when they left out the anti-nerve gas chemical and exposed lab animals only to combinations of pesticides.
Herald-Sun reports last week on the team's research attracted the attention of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is in the middle of a review of chlorpyrifos.
While Abou-Donia's research indicated that lab animals suffered neurological damage when exposed to multiple chemicals, the EPA is concerned that chlorpyrifos may pose a threat on its own.
The agency recently received a batch of reports indicating that some people may suffer nerve-system damage as a result of exposure to chlorpyrifos alone, an EPA official said.
About 20 of the 200 reports include strong indications that exposure to chlorpyrifos may have led to ``peripheral neuropathy,'' a neurological disease caused by damage to nerves in the arms and legs that results in numbness and tingling as well as weakness and motor difficulty.
``Where we are concerned is this recent data with the chronic effects where you see peripheral neuropathy,'' said Jerome Blondell, a health statistician in the EPA's health effects division. ``They're just people who happened to be exposed. We're very concerned.''
A spokesman for DowElanco, the company that manufactures Dursban, said the chemical has been on the market for 20 years and has a good safety record.
``As a compound registered by the EPA, there's about 250 tests we've had to conduct,'' said Garry Hamlin, a spokesman for Dow-Elanco, a joint venture of Dow Chemical and Eli Lilly.
Two other pesticides used by Gulf War troops are also common weapons in Americans' war on pests.
Permethrin, another insecticide, and N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET), an insect repellent, also were studied by Abou-Donia in Duke's labs. He said the three pesticides - chlorpyrifos, DEET and permethrin - ``showed very strong effects'' when used in combination.
The fact that these are pesticides used by millions of Americans - sometimes in combination - hasn't escaped EPA officials' attention.
``We need to know about that, too,'' Blondell said. ``It's certainly conceivable people use DEET and chlorpyrifos at the same time.''
The reports on chlorpyrifos recently received by the EPA covered old incidents that DowElanco had failed to report as required by federal law. The incidents covered a 10-year span.
The company contended the 200 incident reports mistakenly were not sent to the EPA because the cases were involved in legal action. This week, the agency is to announce what type of enforcement action it is taking against DowElanco for failing to report the incidents.
The EPA has received about 23,000 reports of possible chlorpyrifos poisonings between 1985 and 1992, Blondell said.
The largest number involved children, who accounted for 11,000 of the reports. Of the 23,000 reports, about 26 percent required medical care, he said. And 46 percent reported developing symptoms that relate to chlorpyrifos exposure.
Chlorpyrifos is the insecticide that North Carolina health officials receive the most calls on regarding health effects, said Carl Falco, assistant director for the state's structural pest division.
But he noted that it is also, by far, the most widely used insecticide in the state.
Falco estimated that the state receives about a dozen calls a year about it.
``Based on the percentage of total applications, I don't believe it's any higher than any other pesticide,'' he said.
Under a 1972 amendment to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, the EPA is mandated to re-evaluate or re-register pesticides already in use when the safety testing requirement was added to law.
If federal officials determine there are safety problems with the insecticide, they could ban it or restrict its use, Blondell said.
The fact that nervous system problems are being linked to pesticides should come as no surprise, said Allen Spalt, director of the Agricultural Resources Center in Carrboro, a pesticide watchdog group.
``Poison is the product in pesticides,'' he noted.
KEYWORDS: CHEMICALS GULF WAR SYNDROME ILLNESS INSECTICIDES
PESTICIDES POISON by CNB