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Calif. Proposes Eliminating Efficacy Data for Ag. Pesticides
Below is a press release from the California Department of Pesticide
Regulation. For further informaiton, please contact the person listed at
the end of the press release.
[Media Contact: Veda Federighi (916) 445-3974]
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Kathy Brunetti, Agriculture Program Supervisor
California Department of Pesticide Regulation
1020 N Street Room 161, Sacramento, California, USA 95814-5624
voice (916) 324-4100, FAX (916) 324-4088, brunetti@empm.cdpr.ca.gov
Our Web site: http://www.cdpr.ca.gov
Date: August 15, 1997
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DPR Proposes Eliminating Efficacy Data for Agricultural Pesticides
SACRAMENTO -- Cal/EPA's Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) has
proposed eliminating the requirement for data on the effectiveness of
agricultural pesticides. All requirements for health, safety, and
environmental data will remain the same.
Under the regulations proposed last week, DPR will no longer
require registrants to submit efficacy data on agricultural products as
part of the registration process. However, applicants would still have to
develop efficacy data before registering an agricultural product, and DPR
could still require data submissions on such products, if necessary.
In workshops held around the state in 1996, farmers asked for the
changes to help speed approval of new products. "They told us that they
and the professionals who advise them on pest control don't depend on
DPR's review of efficacy data, because experience in the field tells them
if a product lives up to its promise," said DPR Director James W. Wells.
The proposed changes relieve a regulatory burden without
compromising protection for people and the environment, Wells emphasized.
"Our intensive review of health and safety data will continue as always,"
he said. "At the same time, under Cal/EPA's Regulatory Improvement
Initiative, we listened to people in the business of agriculture who wanted
access to new products as quickly as possible."
The regulatory changes will apply only to specific types of
pesticides used by production farmers. DPR will continue to require
efficacy data if the pesticide is intended:
* for use as a postharvest fruit wash to control organisms that may
affect human health or safety;
* to control vertebrate pests, such as rodents and birds, that could
directly or indirectly transmit disease to humans; or
* to address an emergency pest problem while a federally-registered
product completes the California registration process.
DPR will also continue to require efficacy data for agricultural
pesticides used on or in production of livestock, poultry, or fish, as well
as pesticides used in wood preservation and structural pest control.
DPR's proposed regulatory changes will bring California closer in
line with federal data requirements for pesticide products. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency requires applicants to assure product
efficacy through testing. However, U.S. EPA does not review efficacy data
unless a product targets pests that pose a potential risk to human health
and safety.
Copies of the regulation are available on DPR's Web site
(www.cdpr.ca.gov), or by calling Ann Prichard at (916) 324-3931. Comments
may be submitted until 5 p.m. on September 29, 1997. E-mail comments may be
sent to <dpr97008@cdpr.ca.gov>. Address written comments to: Ann Prichard,
Department of Pesticide Regulation, 1020 N St., Room 332, Sacramento
95814-5624.
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Kathy Brunetti