Great Plains Gardening

By Edith Koeller

July 23, 2004

This week I would like to continue with more facts concerning pesticides. I think most of us are aware that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the primary federal regulatory responsibility concerning the usage and application of pesticides. The Colorado Dept. of Agriculture is responsible for regulation within the state.

Other agencies also have control over pesticide use that you may not know about. The Federal Aviation Administration oversees aerial applications while the EPA is responsible for governing levels of residue left on crops. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration carry out the enforcement of the laws concerning residue.

The Department of Transportation is in charge of enforcement of laws concerning the shipment of pesticides while the Occupational Safety & Health Administration is in charge of worker protection.

One matter of great concern is the disposal of containers and unused pesticides. Many of the problems related to pesticides come from the disregard by the consumer in following regulations concerning the proper way of disposal. Again the EPA is the federal "watchdog" in this particular area while within the state the Colorado Dept. of Agriculture regulates production agriculture products and the Local Household Hazardous Waste Programs handle home garden products.

Did you know that any use of a pesticide outside of label directions is a violation of federal and state laws? Civil penalties camber up to $5,000 per mis-application and the criminal penalty can by up to $25,000 and/or 1 year in prison per mis-application?

Pesticides are classified as "Restricted Use" and "General Use". The restricted pesticides are for use by persons that have had training and are licensed to purchase and apply them, since these have a high potential for health or environmental risks. These definitely are not for use by home gardeners. The general use pesticides can be bought and used by anyone.

Back in 1996, the EPA de-regulated many common household products such as alcohol, soaps, oils and herbal treatments as pesticides for home garden use. This allows home gardeners to use these products legally for pest control. This de-regulation does not extend to commercial applications however.

Some interesting numbers about pesticides: There are 690 active ingredients that make up over 20,000 different products and only 50 products account for over 75% of pesticide use. Chlorine/hypochlorite products to disinfect and sanitize pools, spas, water treatments, etc. make up 53% of usage while only 27% "Conventional" pesticides are used in agriculture and landscapes maintenance. Of the "conventional" pesticides, 77% is used by production agriculture, 12% by home gardening and 11% by industry, government and commerce. It is said that 74% of all households use some type of pesticide. Over half use insecticides. The next most used are the disinfectants, followed by fungicides, repellents and lastly the herbicides.

Special interest groups try to sway the public into their way of thinking by claiming that pesticides are not tested satisfactorily. This is not true. The pesticide industry is the most highly regulated industry in the world. Chemical companies spend $100 million or more per product in development and then usually 1 out of 10,000 compounds are cleared for use. To insure safety in use, acceptable residue levels are typically 100 to 1,000 times safer than the NOEL (no observed effect level). This is the point at which pesticide residues have no effect on body organs and tissues. This is a clearly defined point, based on extensive research. So, you can see that if label directions are followed exactly, these products are safe to use.

According to my Pesticide Safety handbook "pesticides are protected under patent laws for 17 years. As a patent runs out, the potential profits for a product drop significantly. Thus the financial interests of the pesticide industry are found in new, not older products".

"Under federal registration procedures, pesticides are frequently called in for review. The re-evaluation may be simply that the product has been out for a long time and our increased knowledge base may warrant a re-evaluation. Sometimes it is because the pesticide has heavy use or because flags have been raised about common misapplications. Currently, all pesticides used on food commodities are under review as tolerance levels are being redefined."

"When a pesticide is called in for review, chemical companies generally elect to cancel the registration rather than invest in the costly scientific re-evaluation process. In the past few years, several products used in the home garden trade have been canceled. Its expected that more will be dropped since sales don’t economically justify the investment"

"When a pesticide is canceled (removed from the market) it typically goes through a phase out period. This allows the product to be used according to label direction until the product is used up. Using the pesticide according to label directions is the best disposal method."

"Occasionally, a pesticide will be banned, which means that existing supplies cannot be legally used. Examples of banned products include DDT, Dieldrin, Endrin, and Silvex."

Until next time…