EPA Seeking Agricultural Products Tainted With Toxic Metal

New York Times 23may00

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency is scouring the country for fertilizer and animal feed made from imported raw materials contaminated with cadmium, a toxic metal.

Officials involved in the search said they were not sure how the contamination occurred. The agency's enforcement officials are considering two possibilities: that the cadmium was accidentally included because of poor quality control in China, or that somewhere in the production process industrial wastes containing cadmium were deliberately added to agricultural products bound for export.

The contamination has raised two concerns: that workers might be exposed to the cadmium while producing agricultural products, and that the poison might find its way into food for human or animal consumption.

Agency toxicologists are examining both possibilities, officials said, although workplace exposure is probably the greater risk. Exposure can cause flu-like symptoms, weakness and coughing, and has been linked to lung cancer and kidney disease.

In March, a fertilizer manufacturer in Washington State detected high concentrations of cadmium during checks of its product that are required by a new state law. The company alerted state officials, and the contamination was traced to zinc sulfate imported from China.

The importer, Ag-Chem Commission Company, in Cornelius, Ore., then identified two additional purchasers of contaminated zinc sulfate, in California and Idaho.

According to internal EPA. memorandums, regional directors for the agency have been working with customs agents to notify other importers and to test their shipments of zinc sulfate from China. The documents were provided to The New York Times by the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization in Washington that focuses on pesticides, fertilizers and other agricultural products.

"Preliminary results of those inquiries reveals that as much as 1.3 million pounds entered the U.S. at 10 different ports since the first contaminated shipment was detected in November of 1999," one memorandum said. "With customs information we have identified 14 importers that have received shipments of suspect zinc sulfate."

The importers are located throughout the country, the memorandum said.

The agency is working to check both the imported raw materials and products made from them, a process that should be completed within two weeks.

Ag-Chem imported the raw material from China in February and distributed hundreds of tons to companies in California, Washington and Idaho, said the company's lawyer, Ted A. Troutman.

In addition, 132 tons of the chemicals have been quarantined by Ag-Chem at the Port of Seattle, Mr. Troutman said, and 44 tons at the Port of San Francisco.

"Ever since we found out about the situation, we have been trying to put pressure on China to take the stuff back," Mr. Troutman said.

He said the company was cooperating with the environmental agency's effort to contain the imported substance, and has asked the State Department for assistance in urging China to take back the material.

Mr. Troutman said the material originated at two factories in the Hunan province of China, China Hunan Changnin Songbai Chemical Factory and the China Hunan Hengnan Fuli Chemical Factory.

This is not the first time zinc sulfate contaminated with cadmium has come from China. Renee Dagseth, an EPA. official in Seattle, said that in 1998 an importer in Mississippi detected cadmium in zinc sulfate that was to be used in animal feed. The company has been unable to send the material back to China.

And zinc sulfate from China continues to arrive at ports on the Pacific coast. Ms. Dagseth said that in addition to the Ag-Chem containers being held, an importer from Minnesota has about 40 tons of zinc sulfate in quarantine.

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