Tag: pesticide

Pesticide safety

Pesticide Registration Bill Signed into Law

On March 8, 2019, President Donald Trump signed legislation to extend the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) through September 2023. An amendment to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the original PRIA, or PRIA 1, became law in 2004.

Pesticide label

Pesticide Labels: OSHA Outlines Differences between FIFRA and HazCom

Employers must comply with several sets of federal environment, safety and health laws and regulations. OSHA has outlined where federal pesticide labeling requirements end and where hazard communication requirements begin and where the two overlap.

Pesticide safety

Emergency Exemptions Under FIFRA

In a 2018 report, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said it found flaws in how the Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) managed the pesticide emergency exemption process authorized by Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Specifically, the OIG said the OPP does not use emergency exemption data […]

Water discharge

Finalization of NPDES Proposal on the Horizon

In its Fall 2018 Regulatory Agenda, the EPA announced that it plans to finalize by December 2018 a May 2016 proposal intended to update regulations governing the Clean Water Act’s (CWA) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).

Pesticide worker

Is This Ruling on Chlorpyrifos the Last Word?

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ran out of patience with the EPA’s conflicting positions on the pesticide chlorpyrifos and ordered the Agency to revoke all food tolerances and cancel all registrations for the chemical within 60 days of the court’s August 9, 2018, opinion (League of United Latin American Citizens, et […]

Pesticide safety

Pesticide WPS: What’s the Story with the AEZ?

In its revisions to the Worker Protection Standard ((WPS), November 2, 2015, Federal Register (FR)), the EPA introduced a new term—application exclusion zone (AEZ). AEZ replaced entry restricted area, a phrase included in the Agency’s proposal under which people other than approved pesticide handlers were prohibited from entering both outdoor areas treated with pesticides and […]

Pesticide Rules in Oregon More Protective than EPA’s

Beginning January 1, 2019, employers with employees who apply pesticides by spray to agricultural fields in Oregon will be subject to state rules to protect agricultural workers, the pesticide applicators, and others, including the families of these workers. The rules parallel those in EPA’s Worker Protection Standard (WPS) but, according to Oregon OSHA, are more […]

Pesticide safety

EPA Changes Position on Pesticide Training Materials

After being hit with two lawsuits that claimed it was unlawfully delaying a key training requirement in its 2015 revisions to the Worker Protection Standard ((WPS), November 2, 2015, Federal Register (FR)), the EPA announced that it intends to change its position, thereby—and tentatively, at least—conceding to the demands of the plaintiffs.

EPA Faces Lawsuits Over Agricultural Worker Rule Delay

The EPA is facing double-barrel lawsuits—one barrel from the attorneys general of three states, the second from five farmworker advocacy groups—over the Agency’s delay in making it mandatory for farmworker employers to train their employees about the contents of the Agency’s 2015 revisions to the Worker Protection Standard ((WPS), November 2, 2015, Federal Register (FR)). […]

Pesticide label

Do You Understand Placement of Pesticide First-Aid Statements?

Inclusion of first-aid statements on pesticide labels is governed by regulations at 40 CFR 156.68. The fundamental requirement is that all pesticides that have “systemic effects in Category I, II, or III, or skin or eye irritation effects in Category I or II” must bear a first-aid statement. (Category I pesticides have high toxicity; Category […]