Preliminary decision to allow pesticide chlormequat use pits EPA against EWG

A choice earlier this week by the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA) to permit using the pesticide chlormequat has introduced a powerful rebuke from the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

The nonprofit EWG, a non-governmental group, stated EPA’s determination permits using “a extremely poisonous agricultural chemical to be used on crops like oats, wheat, and barley grown within the U.S.” If the choice goes ultimate, EWG stated it “would mark the first-ever approval for utilizing the damaging pesticide chlormequat chloride on U.S. meals.”

EPA is accepting feedback on the choice for the following month, till Might 26.

EPA launched the proposed determination for public remark for the primary meals makes use of of the pesticide chlormequat chloride to supply farmers with an extra device to assist improve crop yield. Earlier than registering these makes use of, EPA stated it should set up tolerances in or on barley, oat, triticale, and wheat.

“The EPA proposal to permit chlormequat to be sprayed on crops that finally develop into the primary substances in meals we eat, like cereals, is a critical mistake that places the well being and security of the American public, particularly youngsters, in danger,” stated EWG VicePresident for science Investigations Olga Naidenko. Ph.D.

“Animal research present chlormequat can disrupt fetal progress and injury the reproductive system, elevating critical issues about how this chemical might hurt human well being, particularly youngsters,” stated Alexis Temkin, Ph.D., EWG senior toxicologist.

“The EPA ought to put the well being and well-being of the general public over the slender, profit-fueled pursuits of the pesticide trade and large agribusiness operations,” Naidenko added. 

Beforehand, chlormequat was solely allowed to be used on decorative vegetation within the U.S., however, in keeping with EWG, it nonetheless reveals up within the U.S. meals provide as a consequence of chlormequat use on imported grains.

Chlormequat chloride is presently registered to be used as a plant progress regulator (PGR) in ornamentals grown in greenhouses and nurseries. This pesticide works to manage plant dimension by blocking the hormones that stimulate progress previous to bloom.

EPA studies that in small grains like wheat, barley, oats, and triticale, lodging (the bending over or breakage of small grain stems) is a significant manufacturing challenge.

In response to the company, lodging can severely restrict grain yield and harvestability and have detrimental results on grain high quality. As a PGR, chlormequat chloride utility decreases the peak of the grain plant stem, leading to diminished lodging and probably elevated grain yield. In comparison with different PGRs with comparable use patterns, chlormequat permits for extra flexibility in utility timing, leading to better ease of use for small grain producers.

Earlier than issuing this proposed registration determination, EPA assessed whether or not exposures to this product would trigger unreasonable adversarial results on human well being and the setting, as required by the Federal Insecticide, Rodenticide, and Fungicide Act (FIFRA).

Primarily based on EPA’s human well being danger evaluation, no dietary, residential, or mixture (i.e., mixed dietary and residential exposures) dangers are of concern. EPA’s ecological danger evaluation recognized no dangers of concern to non-target, non-listed aquatic vertebrates which might be listed below the Endangered Species Act, aquatic invertebrates, and aquatic and terrestrial vegetation.

The company is proposing mitigation measures to handle potential dangers of concern to occupational employees in addition to birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and terrestrial invertebrates:

• Requiring private protecting gear reminiscent of long-sleeve shirt, lengthy pants, socks, footwear, and waterproof or chemical-resistant gloves to handle occupational dangers of concern;
• Requiring 24-hour restricted entry intervals, together with posting indicators in any respect fairly anticipated factors of employee entry to the handled space to handle occupational dangers of concern; and
• Requiring a compulsory and advisory spray drift administration assertion to handle ecological dangers of concern.

The proposal is now out there for public remark in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2021-0290 at www.laws.gov for 30 days and it does shut on Might 26.

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