Tribal Pesticide Program Council

Focus Meetings Offer New Early Opportunities for Stakeholder Involvement in Pesticide Registration Review
In an ongoing effort to enhance transparency and involvement, the EPA has instituted Focus Meetings as a new step for certain pesticides going through registration review, the agency's periodic reevaluation of all pesticides to make sure that as the ability to assess risks to human health and the environment evolves and as policies and practices change, all pesticide products in the marketplace can still be used safely. Focus Meetings provide an additional opportunity for stakeholder engagement early in the registration review process. This early involvement can help ensure that the EPA has important information prior to developing risk assessments for registration review.
The meetings, which typically involve registrants and others, are intended to address areas of uncertainty such as unclear labels or missing studies that could affect the EPA's pesticide risk assessment and risk management decisions. By obtaining better information early in the process, the EPA can narrow the scope of pesticide reevaluations to areas that pose real concerns, based on current data and use patterns. Better understanding of use patterns, for example, could reduce or eliminate the need for additional studies, or eliminate overly conservative assumptions that would lead to rework later in the process. Designed to improve efficiency, Focus Meetings will help ensure that the EPA has the best available data and information early in the process for making informed registration review decisions.
To ensure transparency, materials associated with Focus Meetings will be available in the pesticide-specific registration review dockets. For cases where a Focus Meeting is held prior to the opening of a chemical-specific docket, OPP has opened a special Focus Meetings docket, EPA-HQ-OPP-2012-0778, at www.regulations.gov.
Further information about Focus Meetings is available on the EPA's registration review Web page, http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/registration_review/focus-meetings.html.

Federal Register linik:  http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0049-0006

SUMMARY: This final rule will reduce burden to restricted use pesticide applicators and simplify federal certification expiration dates. Restricted use pesticides (RUPs) are those which may generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment without additional restrictions. RUPs may only be applied by or under the direct supervision of an applicator certified as competent by a certifying agency. A State, tribe, or Federal agency becomes a certifying agency by receiving approval from EPA on their certification plan. In areas not covered by a certifying agency, EPA may establish a Federal certification plan and issue Federal certificates directly. One way EPA may issue a Federal certificate is based on an existing valid certificate from a certifying agency, and this final rule will synchronize the expiration dates on the Federal certificate with that of the certifying agency certificate on which the Federal certificate is based.

Two House Republican chairmen are pushing for U.S. EPA to slow its phaseout of a pesticide limited by international treaty for its damage to the ozone layer, citing its value to the agriculture sector and the dwindling availability of alternatives.

Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) on Friday pressed EPA to explain its 93 percent dropoff in exemption requests since 2005 for U.S. use of methyl bromide, despite global reduction targets agreed to in the 25-year-old Montreal Protocol.

Agriculture industry alarm over use of the pesticide deepened earlier this year when the producer of a leading alternative chemical linked to neurological and hormonal damage removed its product, methyl iodide, from U.S. shelves (E&ENews PM, March 21). Another alternative, sulfuryl fluoride, is undergoing a regulatory phaseout by EPA as part of a broader government limit on fluoride tolerance.

"We are concerned that shortages of methyl bromide and viable methyl bromide alternatives will have a potentially devastating impact on growers in California, Florida, the southeastern United States, and other parts of the country," Upton and Lucas, alongside Reps. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) and Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.), wrote to EPA chief Lisa Jackson.

"If this issue is not addressed, it will result in the offshoring of significant crop production to other countries, resulting in economic and job losses in the United States."

Methyl bromide and methyl iodide are particularly controversial in Bilbray's home state, where environmentalists and farm-worker advocates called for protests following the latter pesticide's approval in the waning days of ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) administration. EPA last year settled a civil rights case stemming from charges that Latino children were more vulnerable to methyl bromide exposure due to their schools' proximity to fields where the highly regulated chemical were applied (E&ENews PM, Aug. 25, 2011).

Bilbray is facing a difficult re-election battle this fall against Democrat Scott Peters in a newly redrawn district that has fewer GOP base voters than his previous stronghold.

To provide additional tools to control bed bugs, recently EPA issued registrations for two new products. TER-TRU1, containing 5.5% Cold Pressed Neem Oil, is a ready-to-use formulation for spot treatment by residential and commercial users. TER-CX1, containing 22.0% Cold Pressed Neem Oil, is a concentrate formulation for commercial use in the treatment of whole rooms. Cold Pressed Neem Oil has a non-toxic mode of action, is naturally occurring in the environment, and has a long history of safe use for other applications.

Cold Pressed Neem Oil is pressed directly from seeds of the Neem tree, a tropical evergreen tree found in Southeast Asia and Africa. The oil contains various compounds that have insecticidal and medicinal properties. It is also used in making products including shampoos, toothpaste, soaps, and cosmetics. Based on the data submitted to the EPA, these new products meet the required standards for safety and effectiveness. Performance trials conducted at the approved label rates show both products control bed bug adults, nymphs, and eggs.