Chem-News May 1991
DATE: May 1991
TO: Those Interested in Pesticide Information
FROM: William G. Smith, Senior Extension Associate
INDEX
Page
Special Local Need, 24(c), Registrations in Effect for New York State 1
Emergency Exemption, Section 18, Update for New York State 2
FIFRA Preemption of Local Ordinances Asserted in Amicus Brief 2
Accent Label Change Agreed to by DuPont, American Cyanamid 3
Guthion Minor Crop Use 3
Interim Clofentezine (Apollo) Tolerances Extended 4
Parathion 4
Herbicide Residues Found in Rainfall Samples from 23 States 4
Pesticide Export Control Bill being Introduced by Sen. Leahy 5
Campt Launches New Pesticide Initiative 5
Warning on Pesticide Claims Given to Lawn Care Firms 5
Pesticides in House Dust Hazard Described 6
Bt Altered to Kill Both Moths and Mosquitoes, Beetles Next 6
NYS Dept. of Agr. & Mkts. Food Lab. March/April Report 7
Pesticides Briefs 7
EPA Regulatory Agenda 9
************
SPECIAL LOCAL NEED, 24(c), REGISTRATIONS IN EFFECT FOR NEW YORK STATE
The following SLNs are currently registered with the NYS Department of
Environmental Conservation:
Number Name Expiration Date
90-0001 Dual 8E (EPA Reg. No. 100-597)
on Transplanted Cabbage 06-30-92
90-0002 Bayluscide 5% Granular Sea
Lamprey Larvicide (EPA Reg.
No. 3125-219) 06-30-92
86-0002 Larvin 3.2 (Armyworms, European Corn
Borers, Earworms on Sweet Corn) 09-30-91
91-0001 Pro-Gro Dust Seed Protectant 04-15-91
The SLN for Furadan 4 Flowable (79-0015 and 81-0009) for control of
root weevils on strawberries expires on December 31, 1991 .
-- Marilyn M. Dubois, NYSDEC, 4/16/91
EMERGENCY EXEMPTION, SECTION 18, UPDATE FOR NEW YORK STATE
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted New York State
an emergency exemption for the use of avermectin B1 (Agri-Mek) on pears to
control pear psylla. One application (ground) can be made at a maximum
rate of 20 fluid ounces per acre A 100 yard buffer from all bodies of
water containing aquatic life has been established along with a 7 day
preharvest interval. A complete copy of the EPA use directions can be
accessed from the CHEM-NEWS program on CENET or obtained from the
Chemicals-Pesticides Program.
The emergency exemption request for the use of cyromazine (Trigard) on
onions to control onion maggot has been denied by EPA. The EPA concluded
that significant economic losses would not occur without the use of
cyromazine. A copy of the EPA letter denying our request can be accessed
from the CHEM-NEWS program on CENET.
Our 1991 emergency exemption request for the use of oxyfluorfen (Goal)
to control weeds grown under clear plastic in cucumbers, melons, and summer
squash. has been withdrawn from consideration for the following reasons:
1. The projected economic analysis (yield loss) for 1991 did not
appear to be significantly different from that submitted in our
original request for the years 1986 through 1990.
2. Residue data for oxyfluorfen was supplied to EPA by Craven
Laboratories.Recently this Laboratory has been suspected of
submitting fraudulent residue data in support of crop tolerances.
-- William G. Smith, Chemicals-Pesticides Program
FIFRA PREEMPTION OF LOCAL ORDINANCES ASSERTED IN AMICUS BRIEF
FIFRA preemption of regulation of pesticides by local governments was
supported in an amicus curiae brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court March
28 in the case, Wisconsin Public Intervener and Town of Casey (Petitioners)
v. Ralph Mortier and Wisconsin Forestry/Rights-of-Way/Turf Coalition
(Respondents). The Amici: National Pest Control Association, National
Agricultural Chemicals Association, Agricultural Commodity Coalition,
Edison Electric Institute and Chemical Manufacturers Association.
The brief, filed by Amici Curiae Counsel, Lawrence S. Ebner of the
Washington, D.C., law firm of McKenna & Cuneo, argued: "Allowing each
local government in the U.S. to concoct its own scheme for regulating
pesticides would make it impossible to maintain the comprehensive system of
coordinated federal and supplementary state regulation which Congress
sought to achieve through enactment of FIFRA. Equally important, local
regulation would interfere with Congress' goal of providing the public,
agriculture and industry with cost-effective pest control. Thus, to the
extent, if any, congressional intent to preclude local regulation is
unclear from FIFRA'S language or legislative history, local regulation
nevertheless is preempted because it would thwart Congress' objectives."
The brief, urging affirmation of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's holding that
FIFRA preempts any and all local regulation of pesticides, concluded:
"The amici curiae in no way underestimate the creativity that local
governments would display in devising their own burdensome pesticide
regulatory schemes, especially when their actions are dictated by anti-
pesticide groups, which for the most part have been unsuccessful in
influencing the regulatory decisions of the professionals employed by EPA
and state pesticide agencies. Thus, unless FIFRA's preemption of local
regulation is affirmed Congress' efforts to centralize, standardize and
modernize pesticide regulation, and to make it more scientific, better
balanced, and less political and emotional, will be set back at least 20
years."
The brief discussed two basic reasons for FIFRA preemption: (l) The
statute is comprehensive, giving EPA authority to regulate pesticide
registration, labeling and use, leaving no room for regulation by local
governments, and (2) local regulation would undermine "EPA's and state
pesticide agencies' carefully considered scientific and regulatory
decisions, superseding them with a myriad of unnecessary, uncoordinated,
politically motivated requirements and restrictions adopted by local
governments which lack the requisite scientific expertise, financial
resources and objectivity to regulate pesticides competently.
--Pesticide & Chemical News, 4/3/91
ACCENT LABEL CHANGE AGREED TO BY DU PONT, AMERICAN CYANAMID
Du Pont Ag Products and American Cyanamid agreed to the following new
label statement on Du Pont's Accent herbicide:
"Applications of ACCENT to crops previously treated with Counter
20CR applied in a band at planting may cause crop injury.
Du Pont has not conducted a sufficient number of field trials
with this combination to be sure of crop safety. Therefore,
du Pont will not be held responsible for losses or damage
resulting from such use."
Phytotoxicity is the crop injury referenced. American Cyanamid is the
registrant of Counter.
The Accent labeling previously prohibited use of Accent on corn if
Counter was previously applied, according to an EPA official. American
Cyanamid now has an encapsulated Counter that ends the crop damage problem.
The new label is advisory and is to warn users, some of whom will contact
extension agents about use. The previous prohibitive labeling resulted in
a misuse on corn if Counter was applied.
EPA accepted the new Accent label statement March 29.
-- Pesticide & Chemical News, 4/3/91
GUTHION MINOR CROP USE
In the reregistration process, Mobay Marketing and R&D worked together
to estimate expenditures needed for this process and to determine which
crops should be retained on our labels. For Guthion this meant that 22
minor use crops were recommended for deletion because of low potential
return. This crop deletion was approved by management and revised labels
were submitted to EPA to reflect these changes.
Other companies who sell azinphosmethyl have not yet changed their
labels to remove any crops but will need to do so when EPA reviews the
status of data submissions on this active ingredient. In addition, other
"azinphosmethyl" labels will need to be revised to reflect the dosage and
use pattern directions that are now supported by residue data supplied by
Mobay. Again, however, these other "azinphosmethyl" labels will probably
not be changed until EPA reviews the status of data submissions on this
active ingredient.
As a result of this loss of minor crop use from our Guthion label and
a similar situation occurring with other pesticide labels, the EPA has
focused some attention and effort toward solving this problem. At the
moment IR-4 is attempting to bridge this gap and has specifically committed
to action in the case of Guthion.
Minor crop uses of azinphosmethyl were evaluated at EPA-funded
workshops in 1989 and 1990 and 11 of the 22 were identified as being
extremely important in the production of the respective crops.
IR-4 has requested of EPA that the registrations for azinphosmethyl be
maintained and have committed to develop residue data on the following
crops:
Apricots Broccoli Celery
Blackberry Brussels Sprouts Loganberry
Boysenberry Cabbage Raspberry
Cauliflower Rye
Furthermore IR-4 has indicated an interest in developing residue data
for application of azinphosmethyl on the following additional crops if
funding becomes available:
Barley Oats Spinach
Beans Peas (Blackeye) Wheat
Clover Soybeans
Because this reinstatement of minor crops requires no expense to Mobay
except to apply for reinstatement of the crops on our Guthion labels, Mobay
supports the IR-4 effort. The results of this IR-4 effort will be available
to other registrants of azinphosmethyl for these minor crops.
-- A. D. Cohick, Biological Development, Task Force Update 1/14/91
INTERIM CLOFENTEZINE (APOLLO) TOLERANCES EXTENDED
EPA has extended, from Sept. 1, 1991, to Sept. 30, 1994, tolerances
for residues of clofentezine of 1.0 p.p.m. in or on nectarines and peaches.
Based on a petition filed by Nor-Am Chemical, EPA established the
interim tolerances. The insecticide is 3,6-bis(2-chlorophenyl)-1,2,4,5-
tetrazine, which is trade-named Apollo.
The agency made the tolerances temporary because of the need for avian
reproduction studies, but EPA said these "have been received, reviewed, and
found to be deficient." New avian studies are to be submitted.
-- Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 4/24/91
PARATHION
A regulatory option is expected to be selected in about two weeks by
Linda Fisher, EPA's Assistant Administrator for Pesticides and Toxic
Substances. The three main options are: emergency suspension, cancellation
without completion of the special review and a proposed regulatory
decision, PD1/2/3, according to agency officials.
Also, a decision is expected to be reached by EPA to determine whether
the numbers of deaths and hospitalizations over the past 15 years are high
enough to warrant action.
-- Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 5/1/91
HERBICIDE RESIDUES FOUND IN RAINFALL SAMPLES FROM 23 STATES
Residues of atrazine, alachlor, metolachlor and an atrazine
degradation product have been found at levels as high as several p.p.b. in
rainfall samples taken at 81 sites in 23 states, according to results of a
1990 study done by USDI'S U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Study results
were presented last week to the American Chemical Society meeting in
Atlanta. USGS's Donald A. Goolsby said that the highest concentrations of
the herbicides were found in rain in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas and
Nebraska, where they "are used extensively in production of corn and
soybeans."
Goolsby noted, "When samples collected from April to July of 1990 at
individual stations were averaged out, however, none of the averages
exceeded 1 part per billion."
He stated, "The majority of the herbicide vaporization into the
atmosphere appears to occur during a one-to-two-month period after
application of herbicides to farm lands in late spring."
-- Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 4/24/91
PESTICIDE EXPORT CONTROL BILL BEING INTRODUCED BY SEN. LEAHY
A pesticide export control bill is expected to be introduced this week
by Sen. Leahy (D-Vt.). Provisions of the measure, called the Pesticide
Export Reform Act of 1991, are summarized below.
Pesticides which could not be exported include those cancelled or
never registered by EPA or covered by a tolerance, or those determined not
to be eligible for reregistration. Pesticides could not be exported if all
or "nearly all" of the tolerances had been revoked.
Tolerances would be revoked when uses were cancelled. There is a
provision to delay this until legally-treated food is through the channels
of trade.
--Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 4/24/91
CAMPT LAUNCHES NEW PESTICIDE INITIATIVE
Douglas D. Campt, OPP Director, told NACA members of a new initiative
to address the subject of innovative, nontraditional approaches to reducing
environmental risk.
"I have asked the top managers in my program to put their creative
minds to work on this issue -- first, to identify pesticide issues that
have eluded traditional methods of regulatory control, and second, to
propose new strategies for resolving them," Campt said.
"Basically we are thinking about more emphasis on incentives, and new
ways to provide them, or problems that can best be handled by some
nonregulatory approach," Campt said. Examples include education and
outreach efforts as a way to achieve risk reduction with lawn care and
other home-use pesticides. "We would also be looking at the Section 18
process for opportunities to reduce risk by using innovative ways to deal
with pest emergencies," he added
Campt sent a message to the agricultural chemical industry that the
l990s will be a decade of change for those involved with pesticides -- "as
the impacts of reregistration are felt, as we give more attention to
ecological risks, and as the philosophy of pollution prevention
increasingly guides EPA's policies and programs."
-- Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 4/24/91
WARNING ON PESTICIDE CLAIMS GIVEN TO LAWN CARE FIRMS
Commercial lawn and garden pesticide users were warned last week by an
EPA official against making unwarranted claims for the products they use.
John Neylan III of the OPTS Office of Compliance Monitoring said the
problem formerly existed with Extension Services and university experts but
is largely a thing of the past now. "Not so with false or misleading
advertising by your lawn care companies and pest control operators," he
said.
Noting in his April 22 San Francisco talk from a recent General
Accounting Office report, he added that Congress was "not thrilled with the
job we were doing to enforce against these advertising claims." Neylan
continued:
"The point is our regulations clearly say that you cannot
make statements such as non-toxic, safe, harmless; you
cannot make comparative claims, and so forth. We are
pursuing action against the registrants making these claims,
and we are working with the Federal Trade Commission on the
claims made by the lawn care companies and pest control
operators."
-- Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 5/1/91
PESTICIDES IN HOUSE DUST HAZARD DESCRIBED
Ingestion of house dust by small children may be of greater importance
than their respiratory exposure to pesticides, according to a paper by an
EPA official presented to the American Chemical Society (ACS) last month.
In fact, pesticides in house dust may be a "major route" of exposure for
infants and toddlers, the paper concluded.
"Preliminary Results of the EPA House Dust/Infant Pesticides Exposure
Study," by R.G. Lewis, Chief, Methods Research Branch, EPA, Research
Triangle Park, N.C., checked for residues of 30 common household pesticides
in house dust and yard soil of nine middle-income homes with children aged
six months to five years. The paper, an elaboration of an abstract
available earlier, noted that 106 samples were checked.
The 30 pesticides: Aldrin, atrazine, bendiocarb, a-BHC, y-BHC, captan,
carbaryl, chlordane, oxychlordane, chlorothalonil, chlorpyrifos, dacthal,
4,4'-DDT, 4,4'-DDD, 4,4'-DDE, diazinon, dichlorvos (DDVP), dicofol,
dieldrin, folpet, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, malathion, methoxychlor,
pentachlorophenol (PCP), cis-permethrin, trans-permethrin, o-phenylphenol,
propoxur and resmethrin.
PCP was found in all nine homes; other frequently-found pesticides
were chlorpyrifos, chlordane, heptachlor and dieldrin, the paper said.
He said, "In general, this study identified pesticides that were known
to be recently applied or used in the home. However, the study also showed
that residues of many pesticides are found in and around the home even when
there has been no known use of them on the premises."
The study found that "levels of many of the targeted pesticides in
soil outside the home were lower than those found in house dust. Since
only one of the study homes utilized a professional lawn-care service,
these findings may not be indicative of all middle income U.S. households.
While lawn and garden chemicals may have relatively short lifetimes in the
outdoor environment, residues tracked into the house would be assumed to
remain unaltered for years."
It said, "Most surprising was the absence or near-absence of o-
phenylphenol, propoxur and diazinon (except in one case in which it was
applied the day before sampling) and dichlorvos. These four pesticides
were among the seven most prevalent compounds found in both Jacksonville,
Fla., and Springfield, Mass., during the 1986-88 NOPES program."
-- Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 5/1/91
Bt ALTERED TO KILL BOTH MOTHS AND MOSQUITOES, BEETLES NEXT
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has been genetically engineered to kill
moths and mosquitoes at the same time, scientists from the University of
Wyoming noted last week at the 75th annual meeting of the Federation of
American Societies for Experimental Biology in Atlanta.
Further, the scientists said, the strain can be altered to include
beetle-killing ability. Bt that separately kills either beetles or moths
now represents about 2% of the world-wide use of insecticides, according to
Lee A. Bulla, Jr., of the Wyoming school.
Thus far, no resistance has developed to Bt, Bulla said, and he
expressed confidence that any resistance that does develop can be overcome
by further altering the gene. He also said that it may be possible to
incorporate the gene into plants to make them immune without the necessity
of spraying.
-- Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 5/1/91
NYS DEPT. OF AGR. & MKTS. FOOD LAB. MARCH/APRIL REPORT
The number of food and beverage samples analyzed in March, 1991 for
different agencies is given below:
Number of
Samples Agency
3 New York State Liquor Authority
Department of Agr & Markets
599 Food Inspection Services
Kosher Inspection
1,726 Milk Control
______
Total 2,329
Results of testing 168 milk and food samples for pesticide residues
indicated that approximately 86 percent (milk 100%, food 70%) did not
contain detectable residues. None of the positive samples exceeded official
tolerances.
The following number of food and beverage samples were tested in the
Food Laboratory during April, 1991:
Number of
Samples Agency
6 New York State Liquor Authority
Department of Agr & Markets
840 Food Inspection Services
Kosher Inspection
1,641 Milk Control
______
Total 2,487
Approximately 83 percent (milk 99% and food 74%) of the samples were
found to be free of detectable residues. None of the samples exceeded
official tolerances.
-- NYS Dept. of Agr & Mkts
PESTICIDES BRIEFS
CARBOFURAN settlement negotiations between FMC and EPA are in
progress at the instigation of FMC, which offered a proposal that EPA has
countered, an agency official noted this week. Other EPA-ers said the
negotiations were expected to be concluded quickly, that they were
constructive, and a settlement, if any, would probably be issued for public
comment. Both parties want to avoid hearings, EPA officials said last week.
DIAZINON briefing schedule has been delayed 60 days by the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in order to allow time for negotiations
proposed by Ciba-Geigy, an EPA official said this week, noting that the
agency is awaiting a settlement proposal from the registrant .
-- Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News 4/3/91
A new office of Environmental Education has been created at EPA under
the direction of Lewis Crampton, Associate Administrator for Communications
and Public Affairs. The goal of the office is to increase environmental
literacy and awareness among students and educators from elementary to
post-graduate levels.
The EPA has officially eliminated their "56 Gallon Policy" and no
longer prohibits retail agrichemical dealers from repackaging less than 56
gallons of pesticides into mini-bulk containers. The new policy allows the
refilling of approved pesticide containers that are greater than 55 gallons
in size with any quantity of pesticide product. With new regulations
forthcoming, EPA will likely allow the use of smaller size containers for
refilling while imposing new requirements on all containers and bulk sites.
-- IPM & Pesticide News (Wendy Wintersteen), 5/91
EPA has granted a registration to ICI for the use of Ambush to
control the cutworm complex and asparagus beetle on asparagus.
-- Steve Cosky, ICI
A new metaldehyde formulation for controlling slugs, called Deadline
Bullets, is now registered for use in vegetable, field, and fruit crops.
The product is manufactured by Pace National and marketed by Valent USA.
-- Scott Anderson, Valent
WGS/5/91
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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