Volume 2
ARKANSAS
PESTICIDE NEWS
Volume 2
The Agricultural Experiment Station
276 Altheimer Drive, Fayetteville, AR 72703
Telephone: (501) 575-3955 Fax: 575-3975
Cooperative Extension Service
P.O. Box 391, Little Rock, AR 72203
Telephone: (501) 671-2000 Fax: 671-2251
University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture and USDA Cooperating
ARKANSAS PESTICIDE NEWS EDITORS
Robert Frans and Diana Horton, Department of Agronomy, Fayetteville and Ples Spradley, Coop. Extension Service, Little Rock
Volume 2, February 1994
News From All Over
Regional Distributors Move Slowly on Safety Notice Labels
Therese Murtagh, Chief, Occupational Safety Branch, Field Operations Division, OPP, EPA, said regional distributor companies have been slow getting their worker protection safety notices in for EPA approval. She said rumors that the agency might reopen the rulemaking on worker protection are true. "It is likely we will reopen the rule to reconsider the 15-day grace period to provide worker training," Murtagh said.
John Haberern, Rodale Institute, said a growing public demand for safer foods has driven research into integrated pest management and conservation.
"We in agriculture have to be concerned about what consumers want," Haberern said, adding that the future trend in agriculture appears to be soil health. "We're treating our soil like dirt," he said. "My guess is that sustainable agriculture will become a dominant imperative of land use policy," he said.
Ralph Grossi, American Farmland Trust, said he can see the beginnings of an alliance between farmers and environmentalists because of the sprawling urban and suburban areas, which tend to have a much greater impact on the environment than agriculture. He said lawmakers in many urbanized areas have taken a keen interest in protecting their open space. Pesticide and Toxic Chemical News, November 3, 1993
Reduced Pesticide Use Priority Stated Again by EPA's Browner
The Administration's emphasis on reducing
pesticide use was noted again by EPA Adminis
trator Browner in a speech last week where she
inquired, "Instead of applying countless numbers of
chemicals to our food and then trying to study the
effects on human health, doesn't it make more
sense to grow our food safely in the first place?" In
her October 27 talk to the American Public Health
Association meeting in San Francisco, the Administrator said:
"The U.S. is a major exporter of pes
ticides. Right now, if the U.S. bans a
pesticide, the law allows the manufacturer to turn around and export it to another country.
We're proposing to prohibit the export of any pesticide that has been banned in the U.S. for health reasons. We also want to supply developing nations with the information they need to make wise choices about pesticides."
Browner discussed the need for the North Ameri
can Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), noting her
visit to the U.S.-Mexico border where, she said, "I
talked to mothers about their concerns over the
possible link between pollution and birth defects.
And I became convinced -- first, that NAFTA was
needed to solve the public health problems at the
border, and second, that NAFTA could serve as an
important vehicle for environmental protection
throughout the continents".
She concluded, "Most national environmental
groups support NAFTA".
Pesticide and Toxic
Chemical News, November 3, 1993
EPA Lead Fishing Sinker Proposal May be Delayed
A lead fishing sinker proposed rule package originally due to be proposed in January 1994 is still being drafted at EPA, and OPPT's Nancy Laurson, who has been working on the draft,said Nov. 1 she "can't hazard a guess on when it will be done." The draft has yet to be reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget, a process that usually takes 60 days, and it has not even reached the so-called red border review stage, when EPA officials from the offices affected by the proposal read the draft, Laurson remarked.
The draft regulation would place restrictions on the use of, or ban lead in fishing sinkers because of concerns that they have been responsible for the deaths of some waterfowl and other wildlife. No Threat to Human Health Seen
While Laurson did not want to give details on what the final proposal would contain, she did indicate that lead fishing sinkers do not pose a threat to human health, but are being targeted because of a threat to wildlife.
Minutes from a meeting held between the
American Fishing Tackle Manufacturers Association (AFTMA) and EPA this summer clarified that:
Only commercial, not recreational, uses
of lead sinkers would be covered by the
rule; import of lead sinkers would be
covered; the rule would be federally
enforced, and substitutes for lead in
fishing sinkers such as zinc, copper and
brass may be just as toxic to waterfowl,
and so may also be restricted in the
proposed rule.
Pesticide and Toxic Chemical News, November 3,
1993
Pesticide Reduction Targets for Commodities Being Developed
Within one year, EPA expects to be ready to
release a plan with numerical commodity-specific
goals for reducing pesticide use, the agency's
Victor Kimm said Nov. 1. Kimm, Deputy Administrator of OPPTS, said that under the reduced use
initiative, "EPA and USDA will develop target
reduction thresholds for a given commodity".
In his remarks, made before the National
Pesticide Conference, Richmond, VA, Kimm said
that under the reduced use initiative EPA and
USDA will "promote sustainable agricultural and
IPM practices. In addition to our goal of increasing
IPM practice on farms, we plan to encourage the
application of IPM in non-agricultural settings."
"One of a number of promising EPA activi
ties," he said, "is the 'IPM in Schools' project".
Funds permitting, EPA is hoping to publish a guide
to the implementation of IPM techniques for
schools in the coming year."
EPA has made a "good start at responding to
the NAS (National Academy of Sciences)
recommendations," Kimm observed. EPA is "close
to issuing guidelines for new types of toxicity testing
that were recommended in the NAS report," he
said, "including immunotoxicity and visual system
testing. Also, the agency will soon propose to
make neuro-toxicity testing -- another endpoint that
NAS said deserves greater attention -- a standard
requirement for all food-use pesticides." He
continued:
"These new testing guidelines, and the
proposal regarding neuro-toxicity testing,
will be presented to the agency's SAP
next year, and made final following SAP
review. We are working closely with the
FDA and USDA to help us in our
response to the NAS recom
mendations."
Pesticide and Toxic Chemical News, November 3,
1993
EPA Implementation of Delaney Decision Stressed at Hearing
Implementation of the appeals court's Delaney clause decision is getting a lot of imme diate attention from EPA, Lynn Goldman, Assistant Administrator for Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, noted at a House Subcommittee hearing Oct. 29.
She said the agency would rule soon on hearing requests filed on the revocation of certain tolerances for benomyl, mancozeb, phosmet and trifluralin. Goldman said she has signed the final revocation notice for DDVP and that the final dicofol revocation notice would be issued as soon as possible.
Goldman's prepared statement noted that the
agency will shortly issue a policy providing that it
will "immediately discontinue processing
applications for experimental use permits, product
registrations, and petitions for tolerances and for
chemicals that are potentially affected by the
Delaney clause. It makes little sense to expend
agency resources to process applications for the
same sorts of uses which we are in the process of
revoking." Her statement continued:
"Finally, the clear, legal interpretation of
the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court's decision
plainly applied to a number of other
chemicals and their tolerances.
Although there are a number of legal
and policy issues which EPA has not yet
settled, I have decided that we can
quickly begin to make some policy
changes and initiate actions on a num
ber of existing tolerances. Accordingly,
I expect that additional notices to revoke
Section 409 tolerances will be proposed
within a matter of months."
Pesticide and Toxic Chemical News, November 13,
1993
EPA Urged to Encourage Use of Insect Pheromone Products
Ecogen Inc. proposed that EPA take "im- mediate steps to make it easier for companies to obtain approval to market insect pheromones" in a letter to EPA Assistant Administrator for OPPTS Lynn Goldman. The company called on EPA to recognize that "pheromones are inherently different from conventional pesticide products."
There is "no overall EPA strategy in place for
handling these types of products," John Davies,
Chairman and CEO of Ecogen, said. "As a result,"
he said, "it is not uncommon for the registration of
pheromone products to take up to two years. We
hope you will agree with us that this is
unacceptable and must be changed to be
consistent with EPA's recent emphasis on reduced
risk pesticides."
Ecogen's proposal requested EPA
to:
"Officially recognize the low-risk character
istics of pheromones and create a presump
tion that these products are entitled to be
registered; assign a high priority to the review
of registration applications, and simplify and
rationalize the data requirements."
"Issue class tolerance exemptions for cate
gories of active ingredients and inert ingredi
ents of similar types; allow efficacy testing of
a pheromone without an experimental use
permit for total areas up to 250 acres per
crop, and ease restrictions that now prohibit
truthful statements on advertising and labeling
discussing the low toxicity of pheromones or
comparing risks of pheromones and
conventional pesticides."
"Establish a program with USDA, the Coop
erative Extension Service, and grower organizations to recommend pheromone use to
growers and to obtain information from
growers on efficacy and product needs, and
designate EPA staff members who will have
primary responsibility for helping registrants
obtain pheromone product registrations
promptly and economically."
Ecogen said EPA should adopt policies and procedures that recognize the critical differences between pheromones and conventional pesticides, saying, "Synthetic pheromones are precise copies of naturally produced compounds that control pests by behavior modification rather than by toxic effect. Accordingly, there is no need to think of pheromones as similar to conventional pesticides in risk potential, or as needing the same degree of premarketing scrutiny."
Under this new approach, Ecogen said, "EPA
would presume that manmade pheromones are as
safe as naturally occurring pheromones and that
their use, even at concentrations that produce
higher levels of airborne pheromones that would be
produced by the insects, will decrease risks to
humans (by replacing riskier pesticides) or at worst
leave the risks unchanged, unless there is a
convincing reason to think otherwise."
Pesticide
and Toxic Chemical News, November 3, 1993
Top Ten Worst Weeds in the U.S.
Each year a consultant's trade magazine
compiles a list of the most troublesome weeds in
the U.S. The Ag Consultant provided this list of
weeds in an issue earlier this year. The purpose of
the list is to aid consultants by identifying the most
troublesome offenders, and hopefully implement
appropriate weed control programs. The
magazine compiles the list by surveying weed
control specialists in each state. The ranking is
considered a "guesstimate" but is valuable
because it focuses attention on the most difficult
weed control problems and besides, it is just simply
interesting.
Last Votes
Rank Year Weed Awarded
1 1 Nutsedge species 176
2 7 Pigweed species 174
3 2 Foxtail species 144
4 3 Morningglory species 136
5 4 Field bindweed 126
6 6 Velvetleaf 110
7 10 Lambsquarter 107
8 8 Canada thistle 103
9 5 Johnsongrass 99
10 10 Cocklebur 94
In the Northeast, Pigweed species replaces Quackgrass as the biggest weed control problem. Foxtail species remained the worst problem in the North Central region. Nutsedge species and Morningglory species continue to cause Southern growers the most headaches. It probably comes as no surprise to Washington growers, that Field Bindweed and Knapweed species were the two worst weeds in the West. Pesticide Report, October 1993
Bone Oil Reregistration
The J C Ehrlich Company plans to allow the registration of their product, Magic Circle Deer Repellent (bone oil), to be cancelled as of November 23, 1993. This product is registered on grain crops, vegetable crops, fruit trees, forage crops, and ornamentals. According to the J C Ehrlich Co., the cost of reregistration does not justify continued registration of this product. The registrant will be allowed to sell and distribute this product for 1 year following its cancellation; existing stocks in the hands of users and retailers may be used and sold until exhausted.
For additional information contact:
Ms. Donna
Zerbe,
J C Ehrlich Company,
Phone (215) 372-4500, FAX (215) 378-9744. USDA/NAPIAP
Reregistration Notification Network
Reregistration of Oxycemeton-methyl (Metasystox-R)
Miles Inc. has requested, as of October 1, 1993, the voluntary cancellation of all uses of its insecticide-miticide, Metasystox-R. Following the USEPA acceptance of this action, it is unlikely there will be any registrations left for oxycemeton-methyl. USDA/NAPIAP Reregistra-tion Notification Network
Toxicity Category I Pesticides Targeted For Market Removal
All Toxicity Category I pesticides have been targeted for market removal by the Farm Worker Justice Fund, which plans to open the campaign by getting rid of azinphos methyl, according to minutes of a meeting among EPA officials and representatives of the fund and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. EPA suggested that when the farm worker fund "receives reports of pesticide poisonings, these reports should be brought to the attention of the respective pesticide producer, if possible," the minutes of the meeting held last month said. The minutes continued, "EPA also stated that it would be willing to review or suggest a set of standard questions to obtain useful data on the poisoning incident. EPA is interested in statistically significant information and information which documents the danger of an organophosphate pesticide (such as azinphos-methyl)."
The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund "stated
that it would provide the names of individuals or
organizations which would be interested in providing input on any regulatory action on azinphos-methyl," the minutes said.
Pesticide & Toxic
Chemical News, November 10, 1993
Granular Carbofuran Use On Rice May Be Allowed By EPA
Granular carbofuran use on rice may be allowed by EPA because there are no alternatives, an agency official predicted this week.
In a meeting held last month on this use among officials of EPA and representatives of the registrant, FMC Corporation, the agency was told that the conservative estimate of yield losses if the pesticide were not available was 11% per year, or an aggregate impact of $28 million a year. The registrant stressed the lack of chemical or cultural alternatives for use of the pesticide against the rice water weevil.
"Bird kills have been eliminated through prior mitigation programs," FMC told EPA, according to the meeting minutes. The company also stressed that granular carbofuran use not only helps in pest control, but allows flooding of fields after harvest, which helps build wildlife habitats, the minutes noted. FMC Corporation's consultants, The EOP Group, Inc., told agency officials that habitat loss would be most severe in California if rice use were not allowed, according to meeting minutes.
In California, duck kills have been eliminated since 1988 through a mitigation program, the FMC consultants said.
In response to a question from an EPA-er at the meeting about duck kills, FMC Corporation's Ed Cherry, according to the minutes, said that "there have been no incidents reported at planting time in California, due to label revisions allowing only one preplant application that must be incorporated." He added that there had been accidents (e.g., spillage on a runway) and also some fall bird kill incidents in Colusa County (California).
Asked about the quality of bird kill monitoring by states, FMC replied that it varied and that "California monitors for dead birds, but they don't look at each field," the minutes said.
They concluded by noting an inquiry from
Douglas Campt, OPP Director, about the development of alternatives, specifically, why there were
not any. The minutes said that Cherry answered
that "rice was generally perceived to be a minor
use, not a prime market. He added that the costs
of developing data for an aquatic use were also a
deterrent."
Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News,
November 10, 1993
Pesticide Use On Vegetables Widespread, New USDA Data Show
Pesticide use is widespread in vegetable production, according to new data from USDA's Pesticide Data Program, which found that growers use herbicides on 76% of acreage, insecticides on 78% and fungicides on 56%.
The results were discussed Dec. 1 at USDA's Annual Agriculture Outlook conference and published in its November 1993 Vegetables and Specialties Situation and Outlook Report.
The data show that herbicide use is highest for processing vegetables and lowest for melons. Nitrogen and phosphorous were applied to nearly all vegetable acreage (96% and 89%, respectively), while growth regulators and soil fumigants were used less extensively than pesticides or fertilizers, with growers reporting application to 17% of vegetable acreage.
In a session on the fruit and vegetables outlook and minor use chemical issues, John M. Love, an agricultural economist with USDA's Economic Research Service, explained that pesticide use varies depending on many factors, including the intended market for the crop. Processing tomato production uses more herbi- cides and fewer insecticides than fresh-market tomato production, he said. Also, methyl bromide is used on 61% of Florida's fresh-market tomato production, while none is used on California's processing of tomato acreage.
Stating that chemical pesticides "have been an important input to production," Love cautioned that "estimates of the impact on vegetable yields from a substantial reduction in pesticide use are likely to contain a high degree of uncertainty. He called for more research in this area as "policies to change vegetable production practices are debated."
Love stressed that the vegetable industry's future productivity hinges on continued access to chemical pest control or alternatives.
Copies of the Vegetables and Specialties
Situation and Outlook (TVS-261) can be ordered by
calling (800) 999-6779 or (703) 834-0125.
Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, December 8,
1993
School Lunch Should Be 4% Organic By 1998, USDA Told
By 1998, 4% of the food in USDA's national school lunch program (NSLP) should be organic, the Department was told last week by Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet.
The statement by the group's Wendy Gordon,
Program Director, argued that shifting to organic
food would respond to concerns raised in a report
on pesticide residues in the diets of infants and
children by the committee of the National Academy
of Sciences (NAS), and "it would make available
food grown without pesticides to those whoe need
it most." According to her statement:
"Organic production is currently a niche
within the industry, but it is growing
rapidly. Sales overall were almost $1.5
billion in 1992 and are anticipated to
reach $2.2 billion by 1997. Certain
crops are reaching an enviable pro-
duction level and are quite competitive
on the open market. Both grapes,
grapes products (juices, raisins) and
baby lettuces (many varieties of different
color and taste) are available in large
volume and require very little food
preparation. Indeed, the largest table
grape producer in the country produces
an entirely organic crop.
"There is enough volume in all
fresh fruits and vegetables, fruit juices,
nuts, dried fruits and tomatoes, as well
as frozen fruits and vegetables, to
establish pilot school lunch programs
serving organically produced products in
a number of schools. Well-stocked
salad bars including grain products,
legumes, fruit and dairy products would
offer an introduction to organic food with
limited labor requirements. Cleaned,
sized, fresh organic produce can be
provided to meet culinary requirements."
Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, December 15,
1993
USER MUST ENFORCE REENTRY RE STRICTIONS, EPA SAYS
Label statements restricting reentry to public areas after application of substances that lack exposure data should be enforced by the party that authorized the application, EPA told the Vermont Department of Agriculture.
The Vermont agency requested EPA's
guidance after state officials became concerned
about residents using golf courses before a turf
application is dry. Stephen Johnson, Acting
Director, Registration Division, OPP, EPA, said in a
December 7 letter:
Any labeling statements which
are phrased in a mandatory manner (such as "Do
not allow adults, children or pets on treated areas
until spray has dried") are enforceable and that
precedent exists for enforcing them.
"Minimizing exposure can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including managing the timing of applications and restricting or prohibiting access to a treated area," Johnson said. "However exposure is limited, it is clearly the responsibility of the party that authorized the application to ensure that the label instructions are followed," he said.
The problem arising from golf course appli- cations is that many courses in the Northeast will have wet playing conditions until late in the morning on most days because of dew and irrigation, said the Vermont agency, adding that an application at 6:00 a.m. may not dry until noon or later. Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, December 15, 1993
MYTHS HELP DRIVE REGULATION, AGRICULTURAL POLICY, RESEARCHER SAYS
Pesticide regulation is based partly on myth, said Leonard Gianessi, senior research associate in the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, at the December 15 meeting of the Entomological Society of America.
"The first myth is that pesticide benefits are regularly overstated when regulatory agencies consider bans on their use, and the proof is that serious economic effects have not followed when bans have occurred," said Gianessi.
He cited several examples of economic effects of a ban. "A study by the Stanford Research Institute estimates that the economic impact in California of 1,3-D's unavailability in 1991 was $100 million," said Gianessi. He said lettuce growers have lost about $20 million in crop damage since the only herbicide registered for weed control in lettuce was withdrawn from the marketplace.
Gianessi cited other crops like tart cherry orchards in Michigan, the ban on Alar for apples, the ban on soil fumigant EDB for soybeans in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, all of which created economic losses either through more costly alternatives, or crop loss and damage.
"Why can't numerous examples be cited of significant economic effects of EPA bans of pesticides?" asked Gianessi, who explained that EPA has provided growers with new registrations to replace many of the banned chemicals.
"When EPA banned the herbicide dinoseb in 1986, the agency predicted there would be no equally effective herbicide to control weeds at the early stages of peanut plant growth in the Southeast," said Gianessi, who added that the agency registered paraquat around the time of the ban and growers were able to head off losses.
"EPA is in an awkward situation," he said. "The agency has to perform the economic analysis on the basis of alternatives that then become available for growers to use." Gianessi said this leads to a situation where the agency creates an emergency situation for which emergency registrations are provided when it bans some chemicals.
Gianessi said in other cases, alternatives become available during the lag time between when a ban is first proposed and when it is finally put into place. One example of this regulatory dovetailing came with the proposed ban on aldrin for corn in 1971. "There were no serious economic effects because effective replacements (carbofuran and phorate) had been registered and were being widely used before aldrin was finally banned (in 1975)," he said.
Synthetic Chemicals Improve Yield, Gianessi Says "A second myth regarding the lack of benefits of pesticides is based on the notion that yield losses to pests remain the same as they were before the widespread use of synthetic chemicals," said Gianessi who disputed the findings by Cornell entomologist David Pimentel which suggest that crop losses due to insects, disease and weeds have not decreased much since the 1940s.
"Pimentel offers one measure: yield losses," said Gianessi. "Another way to look at the value of new crop protection is to look at what it replaced and decide whether society is better off with the new technology than before." Gianessi said farmers in the 1940s reduced their pest losses using harsh and very toxic methods that would not be accepted today.
"Weeds were removed by hand hoeing and hand weeding the fields; millions of people, including school children, spent the summer hand weeding the fields," said Gianessi. "Before there were synthetic chemical insecticides and fungi- cides, there were natural products such as arsenic and lime sulfur," said Gianessi, who added that yields have increased with synthetic chemicals because such chemicals were less harsh on plants than arsenic and lime sulfur.
"If policymakers truly believe the myths that pesticide use does not result in significant benefits, they may be more inclined to further restrict and remove pesticides from the marketplace," said Gainessi, adding that the unanticipated negatives often escape notice because U.S. agriculture is so extensive. Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, December 15, 1993
WPS WILL BE IMPLEMENTED ON SCHEDULE, GOLDMAN SAYS
The farmworker protection standards will be implemented on schedule, according to Lynn Goldman, EPA's Assistant Administrator for OPPTS. In a Dec. 23 interview with Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, Goldman said she had heard nothing different from the White House, and emphasized, "We will stick with the schedule."
"The agency will be in a lot of trouble if it reacts to one set of concerns," Goldman declared. "Industry invested a lot in label changes," she noted.
Asked about the issues raised by the Farmworker Justice Fund, the EPA official said there is a need to reopen the 15-day grace period for worker training, and that the skull and crossbones warning might be used if the sign required by the regulation is found not to be effective after it is tried.
"NASDA (National Association of State Departments of Agriculture) is a little out of touch," the EPA Assisant Administrator declared. "The states were not stonewalled in the process," Goldman said. "States were in all steps of the game in the last three years, and the last ten years as the (farmworker) rule was under development," she emphasized.
The rule "is not news to state regulators,"
Goldman observed. Educational materials were
reviewed by the states, she said.
"I wish we could have done" the farmworker
protection standard "20 years ago," the EPA official
said. But, because this was not done, some states
put in their own programs, each different, and now
states have to change, she said.
Discussing the 15-day grace period during
which workers would not have to be trained,
Goldman said
"We know: residue levels are higher
in the initial phase of harvest, many workers work
for a very short time at each location, and can fall
through the cracks and never get training. It is hard
to enforce a standard using a number of days."
"The majority of farmers want to provide instruction," the EPA Assistant Administrator said, continuing that farmers do not want workers who are sick, tired, or listless from exposure to organophosphates, for example.
"Decontamination water needs to be potable,"
Goldman said, noting that there "could be safe
brackish water."
On the use of the skull and crossbones, she
noted that some farmers feel that it is "too negative
to their crops."
"In California, the skull and crossbones was
used and I never thought is was connected to food
in the fields," the EPA-er said. "It is an emotional
political issue,...but it would be disruptive to
immediately recall" the up-raised hand sign
required by the rule and "put out the skull and
crossbones sign," Goldman maintained.
She noted that in early January, EPA will host a meeting with state representatives from NASDA, State FIFRA Issues Research and Evaluation Group (SFIREG), National Agricultural Chemicals Association (NACA), Farm Worker Justice Fund, USDA, Farm Bureau and others, to discuss speeding up the outreach efforts, specifically, educational materials.
More help from industry in outreach is needed, Goldman said, adding, however, that "NACA did nice work" with a four-page pamphlet and reproducing EPA's manual.
She predicted that USDA's extension service would be active in outreach in the next few months.
At the meeting, EPA will say what it can do to increase outreach and education, Goldman said. NASDA's issue is valid, she said, adding that more effort and more money are needed.
Phosdrin regulatory action is being considered, she said. The options for dealing with this pesticide and other acutely toxic organophosphates and carbamates include cancellation, suspension and negotiation to reduce uses, the Assistant Administrator said.
If negotiation are used, "I want to involve the farmers and the public interest group community," she stated.
"Parathion may have been a good decision, but it should have been made with involvement of public interest groups," she stated.
Goldman said, "It was a good idea to go from special reviews to negotiations and to take actions," but the public, specifically farmers, need to be involved. Farmer involvement is needed because of minor uses, she said. "Registrants are not as concerned about the farmer's alternatives," the EPA official observed. When farmers are "cut out" to reduce exposure, minor uses will be reduced, she said. "This is not good for many farmers," the EPA official said.
Asked about the seeming shift in empasis from reduced risk to reduced use, Goldman replied, "There is a lot of inadvertent use by farmers." She listed application equipment not properly calibrated, spillage, applying pesticides where they were not needed (row ends), and an application rate higher than needed to get a result. Goldman said, "100% kill is not always needed to control pests."
Pest levels "need to be suppressed to a level to keep economic damage below a certain point," she said. Pesticides are a large dollar input for farmers, Goldman noted. Maximum kill does not mean maximum profits for the farmer, the EPA-er said. Timing of applications to the proper phase of the pest's life cycle "can achieve large reductions in pesticide use and maximize efficacy," according to Goldman.
A use reduction strategy is needed as much for manufacturing, consumption of raw materials and creation of hazardous wastes as it is to reduce exposure and risk connected with pesticide use, the Assistant Administrator indicated.
The objective is to reduce use, reduce risk and encourage use of less harmful pesticides, Goldman said.
Information needs to be provided on labels so
consumers can make these choices, the agency
official said. "Green or eco-labeling is needed,"
she stated, adding that "a strategy on eco-labeling
is needed."
Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News,
December 29, 1993
Worker Standards Will Inflate Prices
The farmworker protection standard will cause consumer food prices to climb significantly, according to a report titled "Economic Impacts of the Federal Worker Protection Standard on Production Agriculture in California," which was released in October by the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
A House Subcommittee on Department Operations and Nutrition hearing November 10 focused on the report, which looks at the effects of the standard on lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and celery grown in California, finding that prices for these crops could rise by $232 million annually.
The report stated: "Using single herbicides on each of four crops as examples of impacts resulting from the new Restricted Entry Intervals (REIs) limitations, consumer price increases were estimated for a 5% yield reduction due to uneven seed germination, less efficacious weed control and less timely field operations. The results show price increases to the consumer of $165 million for lettuce, $50 million for broccoli and cauliflower, and $17 million for celery."
REI Restrictions Seen Causing Greatest Impact - The report concluded that the REI restrictions will have the most serious economic impact on growers. Under current California regulations, irrigators wearing protective clothing can enter fields after pesticide spray has dried. The production practice for a number of California vegetable crops is to plant and spray preemergence herbicide at the same time. Once the spray has dried, irrigation worker enter the field to lay the pipe and prepare the field for irrigation, which generally follows immediately, the report said.
It said the new federal guidelines define drying time as a minimum of four hours, then limit early-entry workers, such as irrigators, to working only one hour in a 24-hour period. The report said this new standard will "force changes in these cultural practices that could result in yield losses for growers and higher food prices for consumers."
Liability Shift Will Hurt Small Growers, Report Says
- The federal standard shifts liability for violations
from pesticide applicators or farm labor contractors
to the grower, which will likely force small farmers
to cut back on or stop using category 1 and 2
pesticides, the report stated.
"The loss of some highly effective and
economical pesticides by small growers only is an
unanticipated, inefficient and inequitable
consequence of the WPS," the report stated.
Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, Vol. 22, No. 1
Cyanazine (Bladex) Label Amendments
Cyanazine (Bladex) label amendments proposed by DuPont Corp. to reduce groundwater contamination have been accepted by EPA, the agency noted recently. The amendments include: reducing the application rate from 7.2 to 6.5 pounds of active ingredient per acre per year; maximum of three pounds per acre on highly erodible land; 50-foot buffer zone around all wells; 66-foot setbacks from points where field surface water runoff enters streams, rivers, and 50-foot mixing and loading area setback. Pesticide and Toxic Chemical News, Vol. 22, No. 2
WHAT'S GREEN
A challenging and complicated new issue is moving front and center - What is a "green" product? There are many terms-of-art in current use: "environmentally friendly", "natural", "biodegradable", "non-toxic", "non-hazardous". A term soon to hit the streets is "environmentally preferable", which is in draft language of a federal executive order on procurement to be released this fall.
There is no consensus on the meaning of these terms. Neither EPA nor the Federal Trade Commission have spoken on these issues; yet lists of green products have been developed by government, environmental groups, and even manufacturers and retailers.
Neither EPA nor the Federal Trade Commision have spoken on these issues: yet lists of green products have been developed by government, environmental groups, and even by manufacturers and retailers. Is it the presence or absence of something? Do we start by defining what's good or what's bad? Is the "something bad" allowed to be there in any concentration, i.e. a deminimus level, or not at all? What about the current debate over the Delany Clause and whether there can be any detectable levels of a known pesticide or carcinogen on food crops?
When we finally sit down to define what "green" is, there are many questions to answer: Which list of toxic chemicals will we use? EPA's Toxic Release Inventory, Priority Air and Water Pollutants, or their 33/50 Program's 17 Toxic Chemicals? How about carcinogens from the Na- tional Toxicology Program, or category 1 or 2 carcinogens from the International Agency for Research on Cancer? Are carcinogens more important than acute toxics? Do mutagens pose a greater long term risk? If a compound finds its way onto one list, but not others, how shall we respond?
Will selection criteria be developed on the
basis of the actual risk of using the product or the
presence of chemicals of concern in the product?
What about the duration and degree of exposure,
or an exposure pathway remote to humans? Will
decisions be based on a life cycle analysis? Will
they take into account the primary and secondary
derivatives of product constituents? How can we
evaluate the synergistic effects of two constituents?
Will a pollution prevention, a toxic use reduction or
a pollution control approach prevail? The General
Services Administration (GSA) recently asked
EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics to
develop a list of cleaning supplies that should be
used to clean federal Buildings. EPA is trying to
establish criteria for such choices. And many of the
same questions we pose will be asked by EPA
scientists and policymakers. Household
Hazardous Waste Management News would like to
know your views. Their address is:
The Waste
Watch Center,
16 Haverhill Street,
Andover, MA
01810.
HHW, Vol. IV, No. 18.
INSECTICDES
AGREE (B.t. var aizawai strain GC-91) --Ciba-- EPA has approved the application to conditionally register this new active ingredient for the control of lepidopterous pests in fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, tobacco, corn, and cotton. (FR Vol. 58, 9-30-93).
BIDRIN 8 (dicrotophos)--DuPont-- The company has signed a letter of intent to sell the tradename, remaining inventory and marketing rights of this product to Amvac Chemical Corp. It is registered for use on cotton.
BOLL WEEVIL ATTRACT & CONTROL TUBE (grandlure/malathion) --Plato Industries-- EPA has received an application to register this new product to attract the boll weevil (the pheromone portion) and control it (malathion). Comments must be received by 10-29-93. (FR Vol. 58, 9-30-93).
MALATHION -- Due to the high cost of re-regis- tration the usage on melons, pumpkins, and watermelons is not expected to be supported.
TRIUMPH (isazofos) --Ciba-- Received a 24(c)
label in TN, AR, IA, SC, NC, NJ, MS, MO and LA to
control insects on tees, greens and aprons of golf
courses and on sod farms.
Agricultural Chemical News. November 15, 1993
SCIENTISTS SAY PESTICIDES ESTROGENIC
Scientists presenting testimony before the House Health and Environment Subcommittee, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Oct. 21, said that certain pesticides are estrogenic and could be contributing to rising breast cancer rates in women. Other testified that pesticides could be linked to the dramatic worldwide decline in male sperm counts and reproductive failures in wildlife species.
Mary Wolff of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine noted that certain "persistent organochlorines" in the environment, including DDT, chlordane, hexachlorobenzene, benzene hexachloride (lindane), as well as halogenated biphenyls like PCBs, "are biologically persistent and carcinogenic in animals." She added that their persistence in the body and continuing presence in the environment have made it possible to detect them in American women despite their being banned in 1970.
One group which testified, Greenpeace, released a report last week asserting a growing evi- dence linking organochlorine pollution with the breast cancer epidemic.
Lynn Goldman OPPTS Assistant administrator at EPA was working to upgrade its test guidelines for pesticides to include estrogenic effects. Dr. Goldman testified that she was aware of Dr. Wolff's and the other scientists' work in the area being considered by the panel, and had found it of interest and of concern to the agency. She also noted that while the studies presented could alert the agency to a possible correlation between pesticides and breast cancer, no cause and effect had been found at this time. Pesticide and Toxic Chemical News, October 27, 1993
2,4-D CARCINOGENICITY FOUND INCONCLUSIVE
A special joint committee of EPA's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) found no conclusive evidence of a cause and effect relationship between 2,4-D exposure and non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) in a draft report approved unnanimously at an SAB executive committee meeting.
The joint committee chair, Dr. Genevieve Matanoski, Johns Hopkins University epidemiol- ogist, said not enough evidence exists to establish a cause and effect relationship which must be established before the chemical can be removed from the market.
The special group downplayed findings from a single epidemiological study of dogs exposed to the herbicide. "Although this an interesting study, the importance of the observation, because of a variety of factors, is unknown and would have to be substantiated in another study," the final draft commented.
The special joint committee concluded that
the risk to farmers from 2,4-D "did not seem to be
much higher than the risk from farming as a
general work exposure, and the risk increased
primarily due to the number of days of use per year
but not from duration of use. This is not what one
would expect if 2,4-D were the agent causing the
excess of NHL in farmers." Because researchers
did not control for exposure to other agricultural
chemicals, "the studies cannot distinguish whether
observed risks...are due to the use of 2,4-D or
some other aspect of farming as an occupation,"
the report said. The report concluded with several
steps to help resolve the 2, 4-D controversy.
Pesticide and Toxic Chemical News, October 27,
1993