Inerts
identity revealed in US
A US federal district court ruled in October that
pesticide companies must disclose information about inert ingredients in six
pesticide products. The case brought by the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives
to Pesticides (NCAP) and the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides
(NCAMP) charged that the US Environmental Protection Agency must disclose the
name of the inert ingredients under the Freedom of Information Act. The products
involved are Aatrex 80W (atrazine), Weedone LV4 (2,4-D), Roundup (glyphosate),
Velpar (hexazinone), Garlon 3A (triclopyr) and Tordon 101 (picloram and 2,4-D).
Manufacturers in the US already have to provide the EPA with
names of all pesticide ingredients, including inerts. However, the EPA routinely
withholds this information from the public because of industry claims that it is
subject to trade secrecy laws. In this case the District Judge over-turned this
opinion and ruled that the names of inert ingredients are not trade secrets.
Although the name 'inert' implies these chemicals do not
have significant impacts, inert ingredients may cause a range of environmental
and toxicological problems, according to NCAP and NCAMP.
PANUPS, US court rules inert ingredients must be disclosed, 28 October 1996.
Prosecution
over bee incident
Honey bee deaths as a result of crop spraying in the
Fakenham area of Norfolk have cost a UK company £7,645. The defendants pleaded
guilty at King's Lynn Magistrates court on 10 April to using the
organophosphate insecticide dimethoate whilst the crop was in flower. The
company was fined £2,000, ordered to pay £2,080 compensation to the
bee-keeper, and £3,065 prosecution costs. The managing director of the company
was also fined £500.
Environment Matters, No 19, October 1996.
Settlement
in US mis-labelling case
UCB Chemical Corporation has agreed to pay penalties
to the California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US EPA of
US$152,362 each for selling an incorrectly labelled pesticide. Between 1993 and
1995, the company shipped thousands of boxes of Ziram Granuflo pesticide from a
manufacturing plant in Belgium to warehouses in North Carolina and California,
without EPA approved labelling. Ziram is a fungicide used on nuts, fruits and
vegetables in the US. It is considered a highly toxic eye and skin irritant. The
lack of proper labelling was discovered by officials during a routine inspection
in March 1995.
Cal/EPA Department of Pesticide Regulation, 1 October 1996.
Illegal
use of vinclozolin
A vegetable grower from Humberside in the UK was
prosecuted in July for illegally using the fungicide vinclozolin on winter
lettuce crops. Mr Colin Shores of Colmar Growers, Cottingham, was fined £100
and ordered to pay costs of £300 after it was established in court that a
sample of lettuce contained 0.37 mg/kg of vinclozolin. Approved uses of
vinclozolin have been restricted in recent years because of concerns about
operator exposure. It is now only licensed for application with filtration
systems to protect the driver.
ENDS, 260, September 1996.
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 34, December 1996, page19]