Du Pont, EPA Investigate Possible Role Of Fungicide in Crop Deaths

Abstract

It may remain one of the greatest mysteries of modern agriculture. Just over a year ago, some greenhouse plant growers noticed it. Then larger scale farmers of fruits and vegetables noticed it. Their crops were shriveling, twisting, and dying. The only factor they had in common was treatment by Du Pont fungicide Benlate— not a new product but one used for 20 years with few problems. Although the fungicide is strongly implicated in the crop deaths, after a year of frustrating investigations, no one has been able to find out why the crops died or how the fungicide may have caused it. But Du Pont, meanwhile, has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in claims settlements. Benlate is Du Ponts tradename for a broad-acting, systemic fungicide the company has made since 1969. The compound, methyl l-(butylcarbamoyl)-2- benzimidazolecarbamate, is known generically as benomyl. It is the best known of several fungicides of a group called ...