The European rapid alert system for food and feed (RASFF) has issued a health alert for “the detection at border control of a batch of watermelons from Morocco in which a high level of methomyl, an unauthorized pesticide, was found”. according to Facua collects. The watermelons contained traces of this chemical in proportions that exceeded the limits established in Europe.
Methomyl “is an insecticide with very limited use in the EU. It has some very specific types of application and it can only be used for forage plants, long before the plant is harvested”, José Miguel Mulet, doctor in biochemistry and molecular biology, professor at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, ??explains to Rac1.cat. Valencia and author of books such as Medicine without deceit and ¿Qué se la vida saludable? (Destination).
It is not known where the affected watermelons have been distributed, but the RASFF considers that it is a “serious incident”, since methomyl is a chemical substance that can cause symptoms of intoxication, such as headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, excessive sweating, tremors, muscle weakness, and blurred vision.
In addition, according to Facua, “the mixture of methomyl with alcohol consumption can impact the central and peripheral nervous system, and can also cause kidney failure.”
For Mulet, the population should not be excessively alerted, since “the chemical product toxicity law is very guaranteeing. Methomyl, like any insecticide, is applied to the surface of the fruit. You have to eat a lot of kilos to have any problems, and there have been no cases of methomyl poisoning. The specialist in molecular biology asks a question. “Of all the food alerts in the last ten years, how many poisonings have there been by chemicals that reach the food chain, and how many by natural microbiological origin, such as those from potato tortillas that had botulinum toxin?” According to Mulet, the fact that tortillas have been withdrawn from the market before there has been any poisoning shows that the controls work.
Following the case of watermelons, Mulet reflects on the phytosanitary legislation, which is very strict about which pesticides and insecticides can be used, in what quantities, and at what times during the crop (long before the harvest). “In most cases, a maximum time for the product to be used is established, three weeks or a month before harvesting, so that there are no residues in the fruit.” Specifically, methomyl cannot be used for food products in the EU.
“The problem we have in agriculture is that European legislation is so restrictive that sometimes it prohibits phytosanitary products out of precaution, rather than evidence. In this way, when the farmer has a plague and cannot put anything, he loses the crop. That is why more and more vegetables have to be imported from abroad. EU phytosanitary legislation does not apply in Morocco. There they use what is prohibited here, they only have to comply with the maximum limit allowed, the LMA, and that when they cross the border there is no residue. The same agricultural entrepreneurs who don’t let them produce here, will produce there, and it is one of the problems of agriculture in Europe”, comments Mulet.
“In Alcarràs, the problem is more the phytosanitary legislation than the solar panel companies,” he concludes.
