9.14 Pesticide Spray Drift
Added: September 2011
Off-target pesticide spray drift is a complex and difficult to solve regulatory issue that has vexed federal and state regulators, applicators, and registrants for years. Minimizing off-target spray drift is an important policy goal. Currently a number of pesticide products feature label language for drift that is often unclear, difficult to enforce, or unrealistic. In some cases labels even feature “do not drift” instructions. Federal policy related to spray drift should:
- Provide flexibility for state regulators to enforce state laws and regulations
- Encourage state and federal regulators, registrants, and applicators to collaborate on label improvements to ensure pesticide labels include clear, consistent and enforceable instructions and expectations
- Preserve the integrity of FIFRA’s risk-based “no unreasonable adverse effects” standard
- Encourage adoption of best management practices, effective training and certification, the development of new technologies, and other drift reduction strategies
- Recognize that a small amount of de minimis drift often occurs and that a “zero drift” standard is impractical, if not impossible
- Recognize that there may be situations when off-target drift occurs, but not a violation of federal law. In situations where there is economic harm to others (for example, drift onto organic crops where no tolerance violation has occurred and the crop can still enter the chain of commerce), tort law, negligence and other common law concepts can often be used to appropriately address the issue.