FIFRAblog®

On December 11, 2015, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) issued California Notice 2015-13 that will require each person/company with products made from pesticide impregnated material that are sold into or within California under their own company name to register their product(s) as a pesticide.  Examples of pesticide impregnated materials affected by this Notice include apparel (e.g., jackets, shirts, hats, socks, pants, shorts) and non-apparel (e.g.,...

On December 7, 2015, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Case Nos. 14-73353, et al. (consolidated) Intervenor Dow AgroSciences, LLC (DowAgro) filed a response, and Petitioner the Center for Food Safety, et al. (CFS, et al.) filed joinder in and response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) motion for voluntary vacatur and remand of EPA’s registration of DowAgro’s Enlist Duo herbicide under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and...

On December 7, 2015, in Case Nos. 14-1036 and 15-5168, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order denying the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) motion for summary affirmance of an order issued by the D.C. District Court dismissing a complaint filed by Plaintiffs-Appellants Center for Biological Diversity, et al. (the Center) for lack of jurisdiction.  The Center’s complaint alleged that EPA violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Administrative...

On November 19, 2015, the USDA published Notice of the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture (AC21) Meeting in the Federal Register. The meeting will review the purpose, history, operational process, and member responsibilities of the AC21; update committee members on relevant regulatory developments, initiatives, and USDA activities; and to outline new tasks for the committee to address. There will also be an opportunity for members of the public to make...

On November 24, 2015, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Case No. 14-73353, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Respondent; EPA) filed a motion for voluntary vacatur and remand of EPA’s registration, as amended, of Dow AgroSciences LLC’s (Dow) Enlist Duo herbicide under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).  The motion for vacatur is unusual and noteworthy to all pesticide registrants. This case commenced in October 2014 when the...

In a press release issued on November 22, 2015, the Canadian province of Québec (Quebec) announced its release of Québec Pesticide Strategy 2015-2018.  Although the Strategy itself is available only in French, Québec has provided a summary of the Strategy in English, which is available here. Québec’s press release states that the Strategy “sets out the major directions and goals that will guide government action to protect public health, pollinators, and the environment in...

On November 12, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final cancellation order for all previously registered pesticide products containing the active ingredient sulfoxaflor, pursuant to Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Section 6(a)(1).  The registrations for the sulfoxaflor products in question were cancelled effective on November 12, 2015, by an order issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that vacated the original...

On November 6, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it has a new webpage that compiles information about secondary containers and service containers for pesticides.  Secondary and service containers are containers that are used by the pesticide industry as part of the process of applying pesticides, not for further sale or distribution.  EPA states that the website combines and replaces information previously found on the Labeling Questions and...

On November 3-5, 2015, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Technical Working Group (TWG) on Pesticides, established in 1997 to streamline certain pesticide shipments between Canada (CN), Mexico (MX), and the United States (U.S.), held a meeting hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Durham, North Carolina.  NAFTA TWG states that its primary objective “is to develop relevant and cost-effective pesticide regulation and trade among the three countries and meet...

In a November 2, 2015, Federal Register notice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  issued the final rule revising the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Worker Protection Standard (WPS).  EPA previously announced these revisions on September 28, 2015, and stated that it would issue the final rule in the Federal Register within 60 days.  The following are important dates: EPA also states that it is “committed to a...