During 1993, the US EPA brought a record
number (2,110) of enforcement actions, including two criminal cases involving
pesticides.
An indictment was issued against an Arizona pesticide
applicator and company for illegal transport, storage and disposal of hazardous
waste and a Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
violation. The indictment included one count of ‘knowing endangerment’. The
illegal waste disposal caused serious injury to two local officials carrying out
a routine inspection.
A Mississippi business owner, Robert Hayes, pleaded guilty to
charges of mail fraud and selling diluted and misbranded pesticides in violation
of FIFRA. The pesticides were sold to Mississippi towns, cities and schools for
use in vector control, especially diseases-carrying mosquitoes. Hayes was
sentenced to a jail term, supervised probation and ordered to pay restitution to
affected municipalities.
EPA press release, 9 December 1993.
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 23, March 1994, page 21]