ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 7, 2000 (PRIMEZONE) -- During Mike Espy's tenure as Secretary of Agriculture, the USDA championed the need to delay the phase out of methyl bromide production until a replacement soil treatment could be found.
"This issue was so important to the interests of U.S. growers and consumers alike, that I studied it with the same intensity as when I prepared for my bar exams," said Espy, at the 6th Annual International Research Conference on Methyl Bromide Alternatives, in Orlando, Fla. "We didn't want growers to lose their livelihood."
Espy is once again at the center of the methyl bromide phase out issue, as a Director of Champon Millennium Chemicals, the only company that has developed, patented, and registered a methyl bromide replacement product for use as a soil treatment.
Due to provisions of the U.S. Clean Air Act and the 160-nation Montreal Protocol, production of this widely used fumigant in agriculture and forestry is being phased out because the gas depletes the ozone. The phase out began on January 1, 1999, reaches 50% on January 1, 2001, and becomes a 100% ban of soil treatment usage in 2005.
"The economic hardship facing U.S. growers is staggering," said Espy, "Because of this, Congress funded an intensive research effort to find a replacement. At Champon Millennium Chemicals -- a self-funded, entrepreneurial company -- several years of field and laboratory testing followed more than a decade of research and development. Based on test results, we can now announce that Champon's DAZITOL is the replacement for methyl bromide. The availability of DAZITOL in quantities sufficient for the entire U.S. market is great news."
Ninety percent of methyl bromide preplant usage is on tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, nursery, grapes, seedbeds, tobacco, watermelons, plum and prune, and almonds.
DAZITOL is a soil treatment used to kill and repel nematodes, fungus, and pre-emergent weeds. Active ingredients are allyl isothiocyanate, from essential oil of mustard, and capsaicin and related capsaicinoids from chili peppers.
Louis Champon, the inventor of DAZITOL and founder of Champon Millennium Chemicals, Inc., is considered the world's leading expert on the use of essential oils and plant extracts for application as pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
About Champon Millennium Chemicals, Inc.
Champon Millennium Chemicals was established to reduce or eliminate the economic hardship to growers due to restrictions and phase-outs of existing chemicals by introducing non-toxic Natural Chemical products. We are committed to protecting the interests of growers, farm workers, and consumers alike. Champon provides growers with commercially sound solutions to improve competitiveness by enhancing their roles as food providers and environmental guardians. Champon products are natural, non-toxic, meet the requirements of the Food Quality Protection Act, and enrich the environment as they biodegrade into organic matter.
For more information, please visit the web site at www.champon.com.
Certain information included in this news release, as well as information included in oral statements or other written statements made or to be made by Champon Millennium Chemicals, contain statements that are forward-looking. Such statements relate to plans for future expansion, various business development activities, planned capital expenditures, anticipated sales growth and potential contracts. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual operations or results to differ materially from those anticipated.