NASDA TELLS EPA TO TRY AGAIN ON SPRAY DRIFT RULES

News Date March 09, 2010

In comments submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week, NASDA urged the agency to revisit provisions of its recently released draft guidance for spray drift.  For a number of years state regulators have worked with EPA to improve labeling statements to address off-target pesticide drift.  State regulators have emphasized their need and desire for clear and enforceable labels.  NASDA and a wide range of other agricultural organizations, however, have expressed serious concerns with the proposal from EPA. 

NASDA’s comments to EPA emphasized that the agency’s proposal would require vague language on pesticide labels such as “could cause harm.”  Instead of providing clarity, EPA’s directives in the draft guidance could further muddle the waters and lead to significant litigation against state regulators and pesticide users. 

NASDA’s comments also centered on the concerns state departments of agriculture have on the impacts the draft guidance would have on the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).  Specifically, the guidance would erode the well established risk-benefit standard EPA uses to evaluate pesticide products, and replace it with a standard by which pesticides would be regulated on the basis of whether the products could cause harm.     

“We are very concerned that EPA’s guidance represents a radical policy shift on pesticide regulation and could pose significant problems for state regulators and pesticide applicators,” said NASDA Executive Director Stephen Haterius.  “EPA should go back to the drawing board and work closely with state regulators, pesticide users, and the registrant community to develop a proposal that provides clarity and enforceability without undermining FIFRA.”     

NASDA members in nearly every state are the state lead agencies with primacy for administering, implementing and enforcing the laws regulating the production, labeling, distribution, sale, use and disposal of pesticides under FIFRA.  (Contact: Nathan Bowen)