Pesticide Briefs
January 23, 2008

THE NATIONAL SCENE

 

PRODUCT CANCELLATIONS

• Disulfoton (Di- Syston 15G) -- on beans, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cotton, peanuts, peppers, radish grown for seed, and clover grown for seed.  
• Amitraz – Flea and Tick Collar for Dogs and Puppies #1
• Methyl Parathion -- on cabbage, dried beans, dried peas, hops, lentils, pecans, and sugar beets
• Chloroneb -- Certain uses as a seed treatment
• Chloroneb –  on residential lawns and turf, as well as on lawns and turf at parks and schools
• Denatonium Benzoate -- in or on conifers and deciduous, non-bearing trees, shrubs, flowers, and other ornamental plants
• Pyridate -- all uses
• Chlorpyrifos-methyl -- Gustafson Reldan 4E Insecticide and Reldan 4E product registrations
• Sodium Metasilicate -- in or on floors, walls, counter tops in homes, schools, restaurants, hospitals, nursing homes, public rooms, food processing plants, and in other places where efficient cleaning and antimicrobial action is desired
• Sulfluramid -- on termites, the last remaining use of sulfluramid in the United States
• Nicotine (in or on lawns and outdoor ornamentals), 4-Aminopyridine (formulated as powder), and Fenoxycarb (indoor residential):  These requests would not cancel the last uses registered for use in the United States

RISK ASSESSMENT

It is important for you to know that EPA is conducting a risk assessment on a particular pesticide, because this means that there may be label restrictions in the future for this product. During the risk assessment period, you may make comments to EPA if you think label restrictions will impose a hardship on production of a commodity

• Prometon

• Diiodomethyl p-tolyl sulfone (Amical 48)
• Endosulfan
• Siduron

REREGISTRATION ELIGIBILITY DECISIONS
It is important for you to know that EPA is conducting a Re-registration study on a particular pesticide, because this means that there may be label restrictions in the future for this product. During the Reregistration period, you may make comments to EPA if you think label restrictions will impose a hardship on production of a commodity.

• Aldicarb

• Carbaryl

• Dichlorprop-p

• Mecoprop-p
• 4-Aminopyridine
• Chlormequat Chloride

• Mefluidide

• Naphthalene Acetic Acid, its Salts, Ester, and Acetamide 
• Para-dichlorobenzene
• Polypropylene Glycol
   

NEWS BRIEFS

• Pesticides – availability of Updated Schedule for Registration Review

• EPA Denies NRDC Petition to Revoke All DDVP Tolerances and Cancel All Registrations; Concludes DDVP Special Review

• Easing Regulatory Burdens and Expanding Opportunities for Minor Crop Producers: Crop Grouping Final Rule

• National Organic Program (NOP); Amendments to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (Crops and Livestock)

• Notice of Hearing Concerning a Request to Reduce Pre-Harvest Interval for EBDC Fungicides on Potatoes; Amendment to Statement of Issues 

• EPA Authorizes Critical Uses of Methyl Bromide for 2008

• Predator Control Pesticide Cancellation Petition Comment Period Extended
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  Pesticides – availability of Updated Schedule for Registration Review
  http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-PEST/2007/November/Day-21/p22382.htm
  Purpose: EPA is announcing the availability of an updated schedule for the pesticide registration review program, the periodic review of all registered pesticides mandated by section 3(g) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). This program began in fiscal year (FY) 2007 after the registration review rule became effective. Twenty-five pesticides have since entered the registration review process. This updated schedule provides the timetable for opening dockets for the next four years of the registration review program--FY 2008 to 2011--and includes information on the FY 2007 registration review cases.
  Contact: Kennan Garvey, Special Review and Reregistration Division (7508P), Office of Pesticide Programs, telephone number: (703) 305-7106; fax number: (703) 308-8090; e-mail address: garvey.kennan@epa.gov.
  

  EPA Denies NRDC Petition to Revoke All DDVP Tolerances and Cancel All Registrations; Concludes DDVP Special Review
  
  In response to a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), EPA has concluded that"consistent with the Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED)"certain DDVP (dichlorvos) pesticide products still can be used safely around the home if directions on product labeling are followed. No further safety improvements are needed beyond the use deletions and label amendments that are being implemented as a result of the Agency's 2006 DDVP RED.
  
  NRDC's June 2006 petition asked the Agency to conclude Special Review, reregistration, and tolerance reassessment processes and to revoke all tolerances and cancel all product registrations for DDVP. Based on the decisions reflected in the DDVP RED, EPA is denying the NRDC petition.
  
  The Agency has also determined that the risk concerns that were the basis for initiating the DDVP Special Review were eliminated or mitigated during reregistration, and that Special Review is no longer necessary. The DDVP Special Review will be formally concluded later in December.
  
  The two Federal Register notices announcing these actions are available on EPA's Web site at:

  http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-PEST/2007/December/Day-05/p23566.htm

  http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-PEST/2007/December/Day-05/p23571.htm

  More information on DDVP is available at: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/reregistration/ddvp/.
  

  Easing Regulatory Burdens and Expanding Opportunities for Minor Crop Producers: Crop Grouping Final Rule
  
  Minor crop producers and consumers will be the primary beneficiaries of EPA finalizing the revision to its pesticide tolerance crop grouping regulations, which allow the establishment of tolerances (maximum residue levels) for multiple, related crops based upon data from a representative set of crops. The revision, published in a December 7, 2007, Federal Register notice, creates a new crop group for edible fungi (mushrooms), expands existing crop groups by adding new commodities, establishes new crop subgroups, and revises the representative crops in some groups. These changes reflect the global competition for new or ethnic commodities. EPA expects these revisions to promote greater use of crop groupings for tolerance-setting purposes and, in particular, to assist in retaining or making available pesticides for minor crop uses. This is the first in a series of regulatory crop group updates.
  
  The revised crop group rule is based upon petitions submitted to EPA by the U.S. Department of Agriculture?s Inter-regional Research Project No. 4 (IR-4). The petitions were developed by the International Crop Groupings Consulting Committee (ICGCC), which is currently composed of over 180 crop, agrichemical and regulatory experts representing more that 40 countries and organizations, including U.S., Canada and European Union (EU) members. These petitions and the monographs supporting them are included in the docket for the rule, which can be found under docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2006-0766 at:  www.regulations.gov.  This final rule is a burden-reducing regulation. The Federal Register notice announcing the final rule can be found at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-PEST/2007/December/Day-07/p23659.htm.
  
  

• EPA Authorizes Critical Uses of Methyl Bromide for 2008 (News Release)
  Contact: Margot Perez-Sullivan, (202) 564-4355 / perezsullivan.margot@epa.gov
  In accordance with the Clean Air Act and Montreal Protocol, EPA has issued final methyl bromide production and import critical use exemptions for 2008. EPA also authorized uses that qualify for the 2008 critical use exemption. The exemptions for continued production and import of methyl bromide will honor the U.S. commitment to obtain methyl bromide for American farmers, in a manner consistent with the Montreal Protocol, while protecting the ozone layer.
  
  This action is authorizing 4,813,452 kilograms (4,813.5 metric tonnes) of methyl bromide for approved critical uses in 2008, with 3,083,769 kilograms supplied from new production or import. Approved critical uses include strawberry and tomato production, as well as commodity fumigation. In 2008, production or import of methyl bromide in the United States will be almost 88 percent less than 1991 levels. After an October 2006 meeting of the Montreal Protocol parties, which authorized the use of 5,355,946 kilograms, EPA adjusted the authorized amount to account for the increased use of alternatives among methyl bromide users, and unused methyl bromide from previous years, effectively reducing more than 500,000 kilograms of potential methyl bromide releases.
  
  Critical use exemptions are permitted under the Montreal Protocol for circumstances where there are no technically and economically feasible alternatives to methyl bromide. Further, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 direct the EPA to issue regulations to implement the provisions of the Montreal Protocol within the United States.
  
  Allowance decisions for 2009 were made at 19th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in Montreal, Canada in September. The agency is beginning the notice-and-comment rulemaking process for the 2009 calendar year.
  
  More information on the final rule: http://www.epa.gov/ozone/mbr
  

  Predator Control Pesticide Cancellation Petition Comment Period Extended
  To allow additional time for interested parties to provide substantive input, EPA has extended to March 5, 2008, the public comment period on a petition from a coalition of environmental groups that requested the Agency to cancel the registrations of two predator control pesticides, M-44 sodium cyanide capsules and sodium fluoroacetate, known as "compound 1080." EPA's Questions for Commenters on topics including incident data, alternatives, usage, and economic benefits, available in document number EPA-HQ-OPP-2007-0944-0331 at

  http://www.regulations.gov

  are designed to provide information that would be most useful to the Agency in considering this petition. The January 16, 2008, Federal Register notice provides further information about this comment period extension.
  
  On November 16, 2007, EPA announced in the Federal Register that earlier in 2007, the Agency received the predator control pesticides petition and subsequent addendums from environmental groups including Sinapu, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Beyond Pesticides, Forest Guardians, Predator Defense, Western Wildlife Conservancy, Sierra Club, The Rewilding Institute, Animal Defense League of Arizona, and Animal Welfare Institute. The petitioners claim that M-44 sodium cyanide capsules and sodium fluoroacetate cannot perform their intended functions without causing unreasonable adverse effects on the environment and posing an imminent hazard. EPA has not yet reached a decision on the petition and has extended the comment period through March 5 to obtain additional public input.
  
  Sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate are toxicants used by livestock owners and managers, mainly in the western United States, to control predators. Sodium cyanide is used in the M-44, a device that sprays sodium cyanide powder into the mouth of the predator, while sodium fluoroacetate is injected into rubber reservoirs of the livestock protection collar. In the mid-1990s, EPA did a thorough assessment of these pesticides and found that both were eligible for reregistration. The resulting Reregistration Eligibility Decisions (REDs) are available on the Agency's Web page at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/reregistration/status.htm.