Aldicarb is an insecticide and member of the carbamate class of chemicals. Although used on a variety of insects, aldicarb is particularly effective as an acaricide, which kills spiders, mites and ticks, as well as a nematicide, which kills nematodes. It has a number of crop applications, including cotton, peanuts, soy and citrus.
Aldicarb grew popular as the active ingredient in the Union Carbide product Temik. This chemical compound is particularly toxic and must be used in a granular mixture at levels as low as 10 or 15 percent of a pesticide. Despite its effectiveness on common pests, aldicarb also has many critics and several controversies over the years.
How it works
Written as C7H14N2O2S or 2-Methyl-2-(methylthio)propanal O-(N-methylcarbamoyl)oxime, aldicarb has been manufactured since 1965 and was registered a few years later. This chemical compound works against insects, mammals, arachnids and other types of life by inhibiting the function of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, the Journal of Pesticide Reform explained. This enzyme is critical to the function of the nervous system. Without it, insects cannot create choline from acetychloline. With the enzyme inhibited, nerve and muscle functions are damaged, convulsions occur and pests eventually die.
Why it is considered dangerous
Although designed and primarily used against farm pests, it is one of the most toxic substances ever registered with the Environmental Protection Agency. Humans can be poisoned with aldicarb by breathing the chemical or absorbing it through their skin.
Those who are applying this pesticide are most at risk of exposure. This includes farmers, agriculture workers, chemists, chemical engineers and many others throughout the world where chemicals are not well regulated. In the Caribbean, for example, this chemical is used as an illegal rodenticide in people's homes.
Dizziness, drooling, vomiting, diarrhea, partial blindness, cramps, nausea, muscle spasm, small pupils and breathing trouble are human side effects of overexpose to aldicarb.
In the 1980s, this chemical rose to prominence because it tainted many California watermelons in the U.S., poisoning more than 2,000 individuals. It was banned on watermelon and cucumbers thereafter, but was still in use on other fruits and vegetables such as citrus and potatoes in the U.S. In 2010, the EPA and Bayer CropScience, which now makes the chemical, announced that they would fade out production.
"EPA and Bayer CropScience, the manufacturer, have reached an agreement to end use of the pesticide aldicarb in the U.S. A new risk assessment conducted by [the] EPA based on recently submitted toxicity data indicates that aldicarb no longer meets our rigorous food safety standards and may pose unacceptable dietary risks, especially to infants and young children," the EPA announced in 2010.
There are staggered deadlines for varied uses of the chemical. For example, use on potatoes was scheduled to end in 2011, but distribution for the chemical overall could continue until the end of 2016.
Aldicarb may still be used in many other areas of the globe where certain pests make farming near impossible, such as nematodes in northern Africa.
