EPA To Announce Dursban Risk Assessment, Dow Responds

Dursban, which is produced by U.S. manufacturer Dow AgroSciences, is a popular pesticide used for many applications on lawns and around homes.

The Washington Post reported that EPA is expected to announce that chlorpyrifos is "unsafe" and that all uses around homes, gardens and commercial properties, such as restaurants, should be discontinued. The Post also reported that the product’s agricultural use would be significantly reduced.

According to a report from the Scripps Howard News Service, EPA has stated that people who use granular and powdered forms of chlorpyrifos – primarily in lawn car products – risk inhaling or absorbing through their skin as much as 100 time the safe amount.

If a decision is announced to discontinue chlorpyrifos’ use in lawns, gardens and homes, the big question is whether Dow will decide to voluntarily comply with the discontinuation or challenge the EPA's assessment. Dow cited more than 3,500 studies since 1965, the year the insecticide entered the market, stating that chlorpyrifos is safe.

The reassessment is part of implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), which requires EPA to review the safety of many currently registered pesticides. EPA released an initial assessment of chlorpyrifos last October and made it available for public comment. However, at that time the agency made no recommendations for action, something they will do on June 8. During the public comment period, Dow reported that more than 4,000 individuals lobbied in favor of chlorpyrifos as being essential to their businesses.

Dow AgroSciences Responds to Coverage
INDIANAPOLIS – In a press release dated today at 1:44 p.m., Dow AgroSciences responds to recent news coverage on chlorpyrifos (Dursban) products:

Source: Dow AgroSciences – "Recent news stories have suggested that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will announce new restrictions on chlorpyrifos products at a June 8 technical briefing to be held in Washington, D.C. At that technical briefing, the Agency is expected to announce its revised risk assessment for chlorpyrifos products under the U.S. Food Quality Protection Act of 1996.

Our understanding at Dow AgroSciences is that the EPA risk assessment is not yet final. The EPA has not yet shared its risk assessment with us, and we do not expect the Agency to release its risk assessment until its June 8 briefing. Having said that, it is a stated goal of the Clinton Administration to reduce potential exposures to pesticides in the U.S., especially potential exposures to children.

The Food Quality Protection Act has fundamentally changed the way in which pesticides are regulated in the U.S. The rules have changed, but the safety of chlorpyrifos products hasn't. We stand behind the safety of these products for all of their labeled uses.

In its ongoing implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act, the EPA has demonstrated that it intends to apply standards far more restrictive than those historically established by the scientific community and accepted by the EPA and other regulatory organizations around the world. We recognize that the Food Quality Act has given the Agency the right to make those determinations.

It is unclear what the EPA will say on June 8, but we believe that the additional restrictions that the Agency will require will be manageable for our business.

Chlorpyrifos products have been on the market for more than 30 years. No pest control product has been more thoroughly studied.

More than 3,600 studies and reports have been conducted examining critical aspects of chlorpyrifos products as they relate to health and safety. Taken together, these reports and studies show that currently labeled uses of chlorpyrifos products provide wide margins of safety for both adults and children.

Chlorpyrifos is used to protect virtually every major crop grown in the U.S. from insect damage. It has been used in and around millions of homes each year to safeguard families and pets from dangerous pests like cockroaches, ticks, fleas, termites, spiders and fire ants."