FIFRAblog®

On March 17, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP), announced in an open letter to stakeholders, that it has developed new tools to “enhance the quality of its risk assessments and risk management decisions and better ensure protection of human health and the environment from pesticide use.”  These tools have been developed as part of EPA’s efforts to implement OPP’s Strategic Vision for Adopting 21st Century Science...

On March 8, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a notice in the Federal Register stating that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) will hold a three-day meeting scheduled for April 19-21, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (EDT) to consider and review Chlorpyrifos:  Analysis of Biomonitoring Data.  The meeting will be held at EPA’s Conference Center, Lobby Level, One...

On May 11, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an unpublished memorandum decision in an environmental justice case, Garcia v. McCarthy, Case No. 14-15494, that many have been watching closely.  The Ninth Circuit affirmed a decision by the U.S. District Court dismissing the Plaintiffs’ Complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.  The District Court case involved an effort by the original complainants (parents of Latino school children) to obtain...

On February 29, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a prepublication copy of a notice of intent to cancel all Bayer CropScience, LP and Nichino America, Inc. (BCS/NAI) flubendiamide products.  The affected products are: The cancellation notice was issued by EPA, pursuant to Section 6(e) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and announces EPA’s intent to cancel the registration of these four products based on the registrants’...

On February 2, 2016, the Executive Board of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Technical Working Group on Pesticides (TWG) released details of its proposed strategic framework the next five years.  The environmental regulatory authorities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico comprise the TWG and developed the strategy.  They are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), and Mexico’s Secretaría de...

On February 10, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was initiating an external peer review of the updated draft protocol for testing the antimicrobial efficacy of copper-containing surface products.  The products in question are hard surface copper-containing surface products such as door handles, light switch panels, and bed rails, which are utilized for their antimicrobial characteristics.  EPA states that “the testing described in this draft...

Significant issues concerning the scope of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to cancel conditional registrations are raised by recent events concerning flubendiamide products sold in the U.S. by BayerCrop Science LP (Bayer) under the trade name Belt.  Bayer announced on February 5, 2016, that it will not comply with EPA’s request that Bayer “voluntarily” cancel its registered flubendiamide products.  In a January 29, 2016, letter, EPA stated that...

On January 26, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit for Discharges from the Application of Pesticides in the Federal Register, which applies to discharges of pesticides to waters of the United States.  EPA is requesting comments on the draft permit by March 11, 2016.  This draft 2016 pesticide general permit (PGP) is largely an updated version of the 2011 PGP,...

On February 1, 2016, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced the dates and locations for the second and third public engagement sessions that will discuss the July 2, 2015, memorandum entitled “Modernizing the Regulatory System for Biotechnology Products.”  The second public meeting will be held on March 9, 2016, at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Region 6 office at 1445 Ross Avenue in Dallas, Texas.  The third public...

On January 28, 2016, in docket EPA–HQ–OPP–2015–0302, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted its revised Antimicrobial Pesticides Use Site Index (USI).  In the USI, EPA states that it “has developed [the USI] to provide guidance about the antimicrobial pesticide use sites associated with these antimicrobial pesticide use patterns,” and it “is a guidance document to assist applicants in identifying the data that are necessary to support registration of...