Chem-News October 1989
DATE: October 2, 1989
TO: Those Interested in Pesticide Information
FROM: William G. Smith, Extension Associate
EMERGENCY EXEMPTIONS (SECTION 18) REQUESTS DUE
Cornell University specialists planning to request an
Emergency Exemption, Section 18, for the 1990 growing season
should complete their justification package and submit it to the
Chemicals-Pesticides Program as soon as possible but no later than
November 30, 1989. It normally takes the Department of
Environmental Conservation three to four months to respond to our
request(s) and another month for EPA review and congressional
interaction. Specialists should contact our program if you need
assistance in completing or developing a request.
W. Smith, Chemicals-Pesticides Program
VOLUNTARY EBDC ACTIONS NOTED; EPA FUTURE ACTIONS LIKELY TO BE MORE
STRINGENT
The voluntary suspension of about 80 uses of EBDC fungicide
products by Rohm and Haas, Pennwalt and duPont is believed by the
ETU Task Force to eliminate over 97% of EPA's estimated ETU (a
metabolite of EBDC fungicides) oncogenic risk. The voluntary
action includes proposals from the companies, due this month, to
reduce tolerances by possibly as much as 50%, to relabel to drop
suspended uses by Jan. 2, cancellation of tolerances for suspended
uses, and longer preharvest intervals (in some cases, 66 day PHI
for grapes, for example.) The voluntary action retained 13 uses.
Mancozeb (Dithane) uses to be retained, according to the
Alliance for Food and Fiber: asparagus, bananas, cranberries,
grapes, onions, peanuts, potatoes, sugarbeets, sweet corn,
tomatoes and wheat . The voluntarily suspended uses of the
product, noted by the alliance: apples, barley, cantaloupes,
carrots, celery, corn, crabapples, cucumbers, fennel, melons,
muskmelons, oats, papaya, pears, pineapples, quince, rye, squash
and watermelons .
The retained maneb uses listed by the alliance: almonds,
bananas, corn, potatoes, sugar beets and wheat. Voluntarily
suspended uses of the pesticide listed by the alliance: beans
(dry, snap, lima), cabbage, cantaloupe, cucumbers, lettuce,
pineapple, squash and tomatoes.
The registrants intend to reinstate the suspended uses if the
results of a market basket survey indicate that this can be done
without increasing the oncogenic risk above "negligible." The
suspension would last until completion of the market basket
survey. Preliminary results of the market basket survey are due
at the end of this year, final results by the end of 1990,
according to the three registrants.
EPA's proposed regulatory decision, due in late October or
November, might include cancellation of different uses than those
voluntarily suspended because the agency wants to protect minor
uses, an official said last week. The agency's proposal "will be
tougher" than the voluntary action, one EPA official said. EPA's
major EBDCs risk concern is to sensitive subpopulations,
specifically, infants. Another concern is residues of EBDCs on
imports. The voluntary action will allow use of the pesticides in
the U.S. on winter vegetables for at least another use season.
Based on the ETU Task Force's plan last month to retain 15
uses of EBDCs, EPA calculated a one year incremental dietary
oncogenic risk to non-nursing infants of 1.3 x 10-6, according to
minutes of an Aug. 30 meeting among task force representatives and
EPA officials.
The National Food Processors Association said that its
scientists and those of the registrants expect that the survey
"will demonstrate that the actual levels (of EBDCs and ETU) are 10
to 100 times less than the levels used by the EPA in its risk
assessment. . . . The results of the survey, when used to
recalculate risks, will probably result in several of the
voluntarily dropped uses being restored."
Commenting on the voluntary suspension actions, J. Lawrence
Wilson, Chairman, Rohm and Haas Company said, "We have taken this
action to spare the American consumer further trauma caused by the
continuing debate over the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables."
He said, "We will work vigorously to resolve the questions raised
by the EPA in order to keep Dithane in the arsenal of crop
protection products."
Linda Fisher, EPA's Assistant Administrator for Pesticides
and Toxic Substances, said the voluntary action was a "positive
step." She added that EPA might take "additional steps to reduce
risk to an acceptable level."
The Alliance for Food and Fiber, in a note to California
retailers, said, "It is our observation that the chemical
companies have sought to take the initiative away from the
consumer activists and improve their public image in the process.
This may be accomplished to a certain extent but the suspension
likely will be seen and labeled by those groups as being insincere
and inadequate because foreign imports will not be subjected to
the same regulations as domestic production. Thus food is not
being made as safe as they insist it must become. We expect
activists to call for total elimination of EBDCs despite their
lack of authoritative science to support such a call."
Table 1
PRELIMINARY
EBDC Individual Crop Risk Estimates
(ETU Dietary Oncogenic)
CROP ONCOGENIC ETU RISKa CROP NCOGENIC ETU RISKa
PINEAPPLE Can't be estimated WATERMELON .0 X 10-6
CRENSHAWS <10 -10 STRAWBERRIES 1.0 X 10-6
HOPS <10 -10 CUCUMBERS 1.3 X 10-6
FENNEL 9.6 X 10-10 MUSHROOMS 1.3 X 10-6
KUMQUAT 1.1 X 10-9 SUGAR BEETS 1.4 X 10-6
ASPARAGUS 2.4 X 10-9 LEMON 1.4 X 10-6
RYE 3.5 X 10-9 CABBAGE 1.5 X 10-6
PECANS 4.0 X 10-9 BRUSSELS
ALMONDS 7.3 X 10-9 SPROUTS 2.4 X 10-6
CASABA 1.1 X 10-8 GRAPEFRUIT 2.4 X 10-6
FIGS 1.5 x 10-8 NECTARINES 2.5 X 10-6
CRABAPPLES 2.4 X 10-8 CHERRIES 3.0 X 10-6
PUMPKIN 3.3 X 10-8 BANANA 3.4 X 10-6
CURRANT/ PEAS 3.4 X 10-6
GOOSEBERRIES 3.5 X 10-8 POTATOES 3.8 X 10-6
TANGELO 4.3 X 10-8 GARDEN BEETS 4.4 X 10-6
OATS 5.8 X 10-8 PEPPERS 4.5 X 10-6
LIMES 6.2 X 10-8 LETTUCE 7.6 X 10-6
KOHLRABI 6.3 X 10-8 PEARS 8.7 X 10-6
COTTON 6.4 X 10-8 PLUMS/PRUNES 1.1 X 10-5
EGGPLANT 7.3 X 10-8 APRICOTS 1.5 X 10-5
RADISHES 7.8 X 10-8 ONIONS 1.5 X 10-5
ENDIVE 1.3 X 10-7 BROCCOLI 1.7 X 10-5
FIELD CORN 1.4 X 10-7 COLLARDS 1.8 X 10-5
TANGERINE 1.4 X 10-7 BEANS 1.9 X 10-5
PEANUTS 1.6 X 10-7 MUSTARD GREENS 2.2 X 10-5
PAPAYAS 1.8 X 10-7 ORANGE 2.2 X 10-5
CANEBERRIES 2.1 X 10-7 TURNIPS 2.3 X 10-5
WHEAT 2.2 X 10-7 SPINACH 2.5 X 10-5
HONEYDEW 2.6 X 10-7 CARROTS 3.3 X 10-5
CAULIFLOWER 2.9 X 10-7 GRAPES 4.3 X 10-5
BARLEY 3.3 X 10-7 TOMATOES 6.3 X 10-5
LIMA BEANS 6.6 X 10-7 CELERY 6.7 X 10-5
CRANBERRIES 4.0 X 10-7 PEACHES 8.0 X 10-5
SWISS CHARD 4.1 X 10-7 APPLES 1.5 X 10-4
SQUASH 5.0 X 10-7
SWEET CORN 5.3 X 10-7 MEAT 1.8 X 10-6
MILK (Local) 6.4 X 10-4
RHUBARB 6.5 X 10-7 (National) 3.0 X 10-6
CANTALOUPE 7.2 X 10-7
KALE 9.4 X 10-7
TOTAL 6.9 X 10-4
_____
a Estimates of ETU from use of nabam on agricultural crops has
not been included because all agricultural uses have been
suspended for several years and there is no known use; registrants
have requested voluntary cancellation of all agricultural uses.
Estimates of ETU from use of zineb on agricultural crops are
included in these risk estimates. Since tabulation of this table,
zineb registrants have requested voluntary cancellation of all
agricultural uses.
Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 9/13/89
EPA ISSUES STOP SALES, ASKS RECALLS OF BENOMYL (BENLATE), TERSAN
BATCHES
EPA last week issued stop sale orders and requested duPont to
recall several batches of Benlate 50DF and Tersan l991DF after
finding that the fungicides had been contaminated with atrazine at
a contract formulator's plant.
The stop sales also were issued to Platte Chemical, Fremont,
Neb., described as the final packager and initial distributor of
the products, and to Lesco, Inc., Rocky River, Ohio, the only non-
duPont primary distributor. The agency said the initial
contamination occurred at Terra Chemicals International,
Blytheville, Ark,
Labels of Benlate affected bear the EPA registration number
352-447 and of Tersan, 352-507. Both list the establishment
number 34704-NB-02, EPA said.
The agency said the problem came to its attention through
"numerous incidents of plant injury reported nationwide."
Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 9/13/89
CARBOFURAN RISK REDUCTION PLAN OFFERED TO EPA BY FMC
A carbofuran risk reduction plan, featuring cancellation of
some uses and the use of a new $100 cut-off valve for planter
boxes, has been proposed by FMC Corporation to EPA. The EPA
responded that exposure data based on use of the device would have
to be examined before the agency could decide whether to delay a
final decision on the pesticide and to allow for a 1990 FMC study
of the effectiveness of the valve.
The company's proposal included cancellation of these 12
uses: tobacco, peanuts, soybeans, peppers, grapes, sugarcane,
cotton, pineseedlings, cottonwood, pineseed orchards and Siberian
elm.
The proposal's retained uses would have a maximum application
rate of one pound per acre: cranberries, corn, sorghum,
sugarbeets, rice, sunflowers, cucurbits, alfalfa, cannola, garlic
and seed spinach. The minutes said, "Application would use the
following methods: in-furrow incorporation, deep disk and T-band
only (for corn)."
The cut-off device would contain spillage of granular
carbofuran at the ends of rows, the minutes said. They noted,
"Preliminary indications show that approximately 90-98% of what
had previously been spilled (6-15 lbs./100 acres), was saved by
this new device. Testing also indicated that the device will work
in both sand and clay type soils, as well as on different models
of planters."
Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 9/13/89
EPA PROPOSES TOLERANCES FOR GLYPHOSATE (ROUNDUP) ON LEAFY
VEGETABLES
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published a
proposed notice that would establish tolerances for the herbicide
glyphosate (Roundup) and its metabolite in or on the raw
agricultural commodity crop group Brassica (cole) leafy vegetables
at 0.2 parts per million. The Brassica (cole) leafy vegetable
group consists of the raw agricultural commodities, broccoli,
Chinese broccoli, broccoli raab, Brussels sprouts, cabbage,
Chinese cabbage, Chinese mustard cabbage, cauliflower, collards,
kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, and rape greens.
The proposed petition was submitted to EPA by the IR-4
Program.
Federal Register, 9/6/89
TOLERANCE PROPOSED FOR OXAMYL (VYDATE) ON NON-BELL PEPPERS
The IR-4 Program has submitted a petition to EPA proposing
that a pesticide tolerance be established for the insecticide
oxamyl (Vydate) and its metabolite in or on non-bell peppers at
5.0 parts per million.
Federal Register, 9/1/89
PESTICIDE TOLERANCES ESTABLISHED FOR SETHOXYDIM (POAST)
The EPA has established pesticide tolerances for the
herbicide sethoxydim (Poast) and its metabolites in or on bulb
vegetables at 1.0 part per million (ppm), pome fruits at 2.0 ppm,
and the animal feed commodity apple pomace (wet and dry) at 0.8
ppm. The BASF Wyandotte Corp. requested these regulations.
Federal Register, 9/1/89
EPA PROPOSES REVOCATION OF FEED ADDITIVE REGULATION FOR CAPTAN
The EPA has proposed to revoke the feed additive tolerance
for residues of the fungicide captan on corn seed remaining after
detreatment to reduce residues resulting from the intended use of
captan as a seed protectant. Written comments will be accepted by
the EPA until October 30, 1989.
Federal Register, 10/30/89
EPA APPROVES NEW FUNGICIDE
The EPA has granted pesticide registrations to Binab USA,
Inc. for the pesticide products Binab T Pellets Biorational
Fungicide and Binab T Wettable Powder Biorational Fungicide
containing active ingredients not included in any previously
registered products. Both products contain the same active
ingredients Trichoderma harzianum and Trichoderma polysporum.
The applications were approved for general use . Binab T
Pellets Biorational Fungicide is labelled for use on wooden
utility poles, playground structures, and fence posts to control
internal decay; Binab T Wettable Powder Biorational Fungicide is
labelled for use to control decay on pruning wounds of trees.
NOTE: Don't be surprised if you can't purchase the above
products in New York State. It takes the New York State
Department of Environmental Conservation two years or more to
process new registrations, unless they find "something," then
they will delay registration for a longer period of time).
PESTICIDE WASTE AND CONTAINER DISPOSAL
Pesticide waste and container disposal is regulated by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and by individual state
agencies such as the New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC).
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 was
the first comprehensive federal legislation to deal with the
hazardous chemical/waste issue. Under RCRA's "imminent hazard"
provision, the EPA may file suit against a company to force it to
change the way it handles, shares, treats, and disposes of certain
chemical wastes.
Also, the EPA, through the 1988 amended Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), plans to establish
requirements for storage, transportation and disposal of
pesticides. By December 1991, the EPA must promulgate final
regulations for the design of pesticide containers that will
promote safe storage and disposal. The regulations must ensure
that the container designs facilitate (1) residue removal; (2)
safe use (e.g. no "splash back" or leakage); (3) disposal of
containers; and (4) safe refill and reuse of containers.
Pesticide use and disposal in New York State are regulated
through Title 6 of the Official Compilation of Codes, Rules, and
Regulations of the State of New York (6NYCRR). Specifically,
Parts 325.4, 325.5, 360, 364 and 370 through 374 of these
regulations pertain to pesticide and container disposal. Copies
of these rules and regulations can be obtained from a regional DEC
office. The best way to dispose of any pesticide is to use it
legally. Agricultural producers, including home gardeners, should
only buy enough to use for one growing season. Homeowners should
take advantage of community-sponsored hazardous waste collection
programs to dispose of unwanted chemicals. Commercial pesticide
applicators should dispose of large quantities of pesticide wastes
in a secure, DEC permitted landfill.
The following summary relating to pesticide waste and
container disposal for pesticide applicators has been adapted from
DEC Circular 865, Part 325, Rules and Regulations Relating to the
Application of Pesticides (revised March 1986).
Pesticide Containers
(a)(1) Empty noncombustible pesticide containers shall be
cleansed before disposal using the three-rinse technique as
defined in these regulations, except that containers of ready-to-
use pesticides that do not require dilution must be drained only
for one 30-second period.
(b) After rinsing in accordance with the techniques
described in these regulations, empty noncombustible containers
shall be disposed of as follows:
(1) nonreturnable containers may be disposed of on the
property of the applicator in such a manner as to prevent
contamination or in a sanitary landfill operating in accordance
with DEC; and
(2) returnable containers shall be tightly closed to prevent
leakage, the exterior cleaned and the containers returned to the
supplier.
(c) Empty combustible containers of pesticides shall be
disposed of as follows:
(1) in a sanitary landfill operating in accordance with DEC
regulations;
(2) in a high temperature incinerator approved for such use
by the department; or
(3) at the site of application, (except for containers of
volatile hormone-type herbicides), and if these containers are so
destroyed by the end of the day on which they are emptied.
Burning shall be done in accordance with the Public Health and
Environmental Conservation Laws and the rules and regulations
existing for those laws. Empty containers of volatile hormone-
type herbicides shall be disposed of either in a sanitary landfill
operating in accordance with DEC regulations or on the property of
the applicator in such manner as to prevent contamination.
Pesticide Waste
(d)(1) Unwanted or unusable pesticides in total quantities
per calendar year of 10 pounds or less of dry material (active
ingredient) or five gallons or less of total liquid may be
disposed of by burial with at least 18 inches of compacted cover
in a manner and at a location such that ground or surface water
will not be contaminated. However, no more than 1 kg
(approximately 2.2 pounds or one quart) total quantity, per
calendar year, of pesticides listed as acute hazardous waste in
section 371.4(d)(5) of Title 6 (6NYCRR) may be buried, and no
pesticide wastes shall be buried if the label prohibits such
burial.
(2) Unwanted or unusable pesticides in total quantities
per calendar year greater than 10 pounds active ingredient of dry
material or five gallons of total liquid, or greater than 1 kg
(approximately 2.2 pounds or one quart) of pesticides listed in
section 371.4(d)(5) of this Title, and any quantity of waste
pesticide whose label prohibits burial, shall be disposed of by:
(i) returning to the supplier; or
(ii) by disposal at a hazardous waste facility approved for
this use by the DEC and the United States Environmental Protection
Agency, or for an out-of-state facility, by USEPA and the
appropriate State agency; or
(iii) by consignment to a pesticide clean-up day approved
pursuant to section 360.1(f)(1)(xii) or 373-1.1(d)(1)(xviii) of
this Title, provided that requirements of sections
364.1(e)(2)(xviii) and 372.1(e)(3)(iv) are also met.
WGS: 9/89
Disclaimer: Please read
the pesticide label prior to use. The information contained at this web
site is not a substitute for a pesticide label. Trade names used herein
are for convenience only; no endorsement of products is intended, nor is
criticism of unnamed products implied. Most of this information is historical
in nature and may no longer be applicable.
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