Subject: PANUPS: Pesticide Labeling Problems Found in EPA Audit

From: Pesticide Action Network North America Reg Ctr <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 15:52:58 PST

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PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK NORTH AMERICA UPDATES SERVICE
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U.S. PESTICIDE LABELING AUDIT REVEALS MAJOR PROBLEMS

December 22, 1992

	A recent audit by the U.S. EPA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) 
revealed serious and frequent problems with pesticide labeling in the 
U.S.  According to the audit report:

-- Nearly one-half of pesticide labels reviewed did not have accurate 
precautionary statements, and required restricted use statements were 
not always in place.

-- "OPP [Office of Pesticide Policy] personnel were unable to locate the 
toxicity studies, or other review of the toxicity studies, for over one-
third of the labels reviewed.... Without toxicity studies, we are unable to 
verify the accuracy of the precautionary statements on the pesticide 
labels."

-- Complete sets of toxicity studies will not be available on all pesticides 
until reregistration is completed in 2002 (toxicity studies were 
unavailable for 58 of  95 pesticides reviewed).

-- "Toxicity studies for some registered products are older than EPA. 
According to OPP officials, many of the older studies have become 
obsolete. Others are in EPA files, but not organized in such a way that 
they can be easily matched to the products they support."

-- Final printed labels were not on file for 24 of 95 pesticides reviewed.  
"Without the registrants submitting final printed labels, OPP has little 
assurance that registrants make requested changes to labels."

-- EPA did not use incident reports to identify problems and address 
them with additional label restrictions.  For example, "it was only after 
200 incidents in one year, including 26 animal deaths, that OPP required 
the registrant to make label changes to a flea and tick pesticide."

	Responding to the report, Linda Fisher, EPA's Assistant 
Administrator for Prevention, Ofice of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, 
noted in part that federal law made it difficult to enforce labeling 
regulations. According to Fisher, "the report focused on incidents 
reported voluntarily and not those registrants are required to report 
under 
FIFRA Section 6(a)(2).  The type of information obtained from 
voluntarily  reported incidents is unlikely to sustain a regulatory 
decision."
	Fisher said that OPP would take measures to address the 
situation, including reinstituting its selective audit of final printed 
labels and requiring registrants to submit final labels for those products 
that did not have them on file. 
	The OIG audit concluded that OPP needs to use "the information 
it  collects to identify problem pesticides, and to protect the public and 
environment from unreasonable adverse effects of these pesticides."

The audit report, "Labeling of Pesticides," is available free of charge 
from EPA's Office of Inspector General, 77 West Jackson (IA-13J), 
Chicago, IL 60604.

Source: Pesticide and Toxic Chemical News, 21 October, 1992

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This information is provided by the Pesticide Action Network North 
America Updates Service (PANUPS), a pesticide-related news service from 
the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North American Regional Center. 
Updates are posted weekly on EcoNet in the "en.pesticides," 
"en.agriculture" and other appropriate electronic conferences, and 
distributed worldwide across the APC computer network. PANUPS is also 
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PESTICIDES-BBS bulletin board, on FidoNet in The Ecology Network, on 
the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SANET) on BitNet, and on PENpages 
agriculture information service at Penn State Univ. Hard-copy compilations 
of these updates are also available. For more information about PAN 
activities and publications, contact: PAN NA RC, 965 Mission Street #514, 
San Francisco, CA 94103. Tel: (415) 541-9140. Fax: (415) 541-9253. Telex: 
156283472 PANNA. E-mail address on EcoNet: [email-masked]
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