9.6 Section 18's

Section 18 of FIFRA permits the application, with appropriate safeguards, of unregistered pesticides for certain emergency conditions, if authorized by EPA. Substantial crop losses nationwide are prevented every year by treatments authorized under the emergency exemption provisions. This provision of FIFRA is necessary and valuable to American agriculture and we support its continuation.

An example of recent section 18s with great value to agriculture are the exemptions which allowed the use of several fungicides to control Soybean rust on soybeans and possibly other related crops. The failure to control strains of such diseases as Soybean rust could result in the destruction of entire crops within the United States. Such emergencies demand a quick response.

There is a need for the development of criteria for wildlife monitoring in connection with section 18 exemptions to be included in guidance documents to the states, so that states can better anticipate when wildlife monitoring may be a requirement and the potential costs of monitoring which might accompany a section 18 approval. EPA needs to clearly communicate their data needs to address endangered species protection for Section 18s.

Allowing emergency exemptions for the purpose of resistance management or based on reduced risk is desirable. Resistance management is increasingly important to preserve existing pest control options. Many integrated pest management (IPM) programs require multiple strategies for effective pest control which may include the use of several pesticides at different stages of plant development and pest life cycles. The loss of registered pesticides jeopardizes successful IPM programs by limiting options. Emergency exemptions based on reduced risks would allow states to provide an alternative, to a registered use, when unusual conditions exist under which the registered use would pose unacceptable risks on a temporary basis. It is anticipated that reduced risk emergency exemptions would be rare and would result from conditions difficult, if not impossible, to anticipate in the usual registration review procedures and likely be temporary and localized in nature.

A common sense approach in determining whether to grant section 18 emergency exemptions and tolerances is desirable. In the absence of available information, it is recommended that the EPA not rush to establish default assumptions not required by FQPA. EPA should not deny valid section 18 applications for use of pesticides that have resulted in no detectable residues and pose no additional risk.