Pesticides for health

EPA Wades Into Battle Over Hospital Disinfectant

U.S. EPA is interceding in a New Jersey public-health flap that could have national implications, ordering a hospital services company to stop disinfecting its ambulances with finely misted pesticides after a local union complained of workers falling ill.


In an order last Tuesday to Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Services Corp., or MONOC, EPA's Region 2 office in New York forbade the emergency-medicine company from using a "micro-mist" system that sprays "a sub-micron fog" of antimicrobial chemicals inside its ambulances. The EPA action validated complaints from a local union that as many as 100 MONOC paramedics it represents were sickened by on-the-job exposure to the misted pesticides.


"EPA has reason to believe that in distributing the antimicrobial pesticides Sporicidin and Zimek QD to MONOC" -- the company used both chemicals to sanitize vehicles in its 100-strong fleet -- "Zimek and/or its representatives made claims for a use not accepted in connection with the registration of either product," the Region 2 order states.

With names like Sporicidin and Zimek, do I really want to be near those "mists?" Hope I never need an ambulance when I'm down at the shore.