Captan – toxicity, side effects, diseases and environmental impacts

Captan, which is known by its trade names that include Vancide 89, Agrox, Clomitane, Merpan, and Orthocide, is a non-systemic dicarboxymide fungicide that is used to inhibit the growth of fungi that cause diseases to many fruit, ornamental, and vegetable crops.

Captan can be used by commercial agricultural companies and by the small-scale home gardener. It is mainly used in the manufacture of apple, with one million tons of apple receiving captan after harvest, according to estimates by federal officials.

Other plants that are afforded the captan’s protection are fruits such as blueberries, plums, apricots, blackberries, cherries, grapes, nectarines, peaches, and raspberries; almonds; grasses; and roses.

Captan is usually sprayed inside and around packing and shipping boxes for fruits and vegetables. It controls pests of the spur blight, bunch rot, berry rot, brown rot, damping-off, downy mildew, gray mold, leaf spot, scab and seed rot varieties.

Captan has low toxicity levels and usually carries the label CAUTION. However, products that contain captan may carry the word DANGER if it is packaged in a concentrated form, often as dust or powder. It is usually dirty white in color. It can also be applied as a spray.

List of known side effects

Exposure to captan is said to cause major irritation to the eyes, skin and the respiratory tract. Captan is also said to have cancer-causing elements. It has moderate toxicity levels to aquatic and terrestrial species.

Body systems affected by captan

Captan is bad for the respiratory system. It is said to exacerbate the symptoms of asthma.

Captan is bad for the digestive system. It takes a toll on body weight, making it drop drastically. It also makes one lose their appetite.

Captan is bad for the endocrine system. It messes with the activities of the thyroid and adrenal glands.

Items that can contain captan

Although mainly used as a fungicide for fruit and vegetable crop use, it is also utilized as a preservative for awnings, draperies and leather and as a root dip and seed treatment that is assimilated into paints, wallpaper pastes, plastic and leather goods.

Captan is contained in products such as Aacaptan, Alpha Captan, Hexacap, Malvin, and Pillarcap. San Ramon, California-based oil giant Chevron Corp. is among the most known companies that dabble in using captan to manufacture their products.

How to avoid captan

People who are going to handle captan are advised to wear any self-contained breathing apparatus that has a full facepiece.

Where to learn more

• Lab analysis shows strawberries are contaminated with 20 different pesticides, majority of which cause cancer in humans
• Denmark discovers an alarmingly high concentration of pesticide poisoning in their population – school children are especially vulnerable
• ‘Natural’ breakfast cereals loaded with pesticides and GMOs – explosive new scorecard from Cornucopia reveals all
• Stop the USDA from approving Agent Orange GMO corn by commenting in the Federal Register
• Do you wash your produce? Old fashioned baking soda found to be the most effective at removing pesticide residue

Summary

Captan is usually sprayed inside and around packing and shipping boxes for fruits and vegetables.

Exposure to captan is said to cause major irritation to the eyes, skin, and the respiratory tract.

Captan is contained in products such as Aacaptan, Alpha Captan, Hexacap, Malvin, and Pillarcap.

Sources include:

PesticideInfo.org

PMEP.CCE.Cornell.edu

Sitem.Herts.AC.uk

CDC.gov