• January 24, 2008. Arizona Department of Agriculture (ADA) announces plan to consolidate the Structural Pest Control Commission. ADA will be holding two public hearings to take comment on issues and ideas from the pest control industry and the public in order to guide the consolidation. The public hearings will be held on February 7th at 10:00 a.m. at the State Land Department conference room at 1616 W. Adams St. in Phoenix and on February 8th at 10:00 a.m. at the Pima county Board of Supervisors hearing room at 130 W. Congress Street in Tucson. Read the Press Release.
• January 21, 2008. National Pesticide Information Center provides objective, science-based information about pesticides and pesticide-related topics to enable people to make informed decisions about pesticides and their use. NPIC is a cooperative agreement between Oregon State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A new agreement with Language Line Services connects NPIC with interpreters trained in medical and scientific terminology for real-time interpretation in more than 170 languages. For more information, visit their website at http://www.npic.orst.edu/ or call 1-800-858-7378.
• December 21, 2007. Update on Department of Homeland Security Chemical Facility Anit-Terrorism Standards. DHS Assistant Secretary Robert B. Stephan announces that a time extension will be applied for certain facilities until further notice, or unless otherwise specifically notified in writing by DHS. The extension applies to facilities such as farms (e.g., crop, fruit, nut, and vegetable); ranches and rangeland; poultry; dairy, and equine facilities; turfgrass growers, golf courses; nurseries; floricultural operations and public and private parks. Please read the details.
• December 19, 2007. EPA is extending the endosulfan comment period by 30 days. The new deadline will be Tuesday, Febuary 19. Notice of the extension will be published in the January 9 Federal Register. If you would like to provide comment to EPA on this issue, see the guidance document (PDF, 56KB) for a list of questions that EPA is seeking more information on as part of their assessment process.
• December 5, 2007 The Arizona Department of Agriculture provides information to growers and others regaurding their Unusable Pesticide Disposal Program (PDF, 120KB). For more information, contact Jack Peterson at 602-542-3575 or jpeterson@azda.gov.
• December 5, 2007: Farmers and Ranchers May be Affected by New Department of Homeland Security Chemical Security Restrictions. In 2005 and 2006, the Secretary of Homeland Security identified the need for legislation authorizing DHS to develop and implement a framework to regulate the security of high-risk chemical facilities in the United States. In October 2006, Congress passed and the President signed the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007, which in Section 550 authorizes DHS to require high-risk chemical facilities to complete security vulnerability assessments, develop site security plans, and implement risk-based measures designed to satisfy DHS-defined risk-based performance standards. The Act also authorizes DHS to enforce compliance with the security regulations, including conducting audits and inspections of high-risk facilities, imposing civil penalties of up to $25,000 per day, and shutting down facilities that fail to comply with regulations. For more information on DHS's Chemical Facility Anit-Terrorism Standards at: www.dhs.gov/chemicalsecurity. The Extension Disaster Education Network will post more educational materials on DHS's Chemical Facility Anit-Terrorism Standards at: www.EDEN.lsu.edu/agrosecurity/DHSChemical. Also available from the Federal Register: Appendix to Chemical Facility Anit-Terrorism Standards; Final Rule.
• November 7, 2007. FYI. We have recently learned that there is a plan to discontinue USDA National Agriculture Statistical Service crop pesticide use surveys. These surveys collect data on chemical use that is valuable to the agriculture industry, growers, researchers and regulatory agencies. A number of commodity organizations have sent a letter to Acting Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner explaining the value of the surveys and urging their continuation. More information on the NASS Environmental Data Program is available on the USDA website.
• October 6, 2006 EPA has published the Final Schedule for Registration Review of Conventional Pesticides (PDF file, 92 KB). For more information, please visit the EPA’s Registration Review Schedule web page.
• "U.S. Gets Exemption On Methyl Bromide
  A comprise to allow the United States and 10 other countries to continue use of limited quantities of the popular pesticide methyl bromide for agricultural applications was reached by signatories to the Montreal Protocol. The ban of Methyl Bromide under the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer would have affected 11 countries, which were facing a year-end deadline to phase out their uses of methyl bromide. By adopting a "double-cap" concept that distinguishes exemption levels according to uses of old and new production of methyl bromide, more than 180 parties agreed the United States and the 10 other nations combined could be exempted for use of 13,438 metric tons of methyl bromide because of the lack of technically and economically feasible alternatives. The U.S. allowance averaged out to about 67 percent of the total exemption allocation. The United States succeeded in getting approval for its 2005 critical-use request, which amounted to 8,942 metric tons, or 35% of its 1991 baseline use of methyl bromide. " ASA-CSSA-SSSA Societies’ Science Policy Report , May 5, 2004.
• April 14, 2004 Valent has announced receiving registration of Chateau SW Herbicide for use in cotton (specimen label, PDF file 128KB). Chateau can be used post directed at layby timings as well as early season in a hooded or shielded sprayer.
• March 31, 2004 Gamma Cyhalothrin -Dow AgroSciences granted a US registration for gamma cyhalothrin, also known as DE-225. This product will be commercially sold through Pytech Chemicals, a joint venture between Dow AgroSciences and Cheminova, under the trade names Proaxis and Prolex. This newest generation pyrethroid will have the lowest overall rate range of any current US registered pyrethroid. It is labeled on a wide variety of field, vegetable, and tree & vine crops.
• March 23, 2004 EPA Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) of 2003 goes into effect.
• February 2004 progress report (PDF file, 27KB ) from the USDA's Pesticide Data Program - this document tells you who they are, what they are doing and how they are doing it.
• August 2003 IR4 New Products/Transitional Solution List - August 2003 PDF file, 180 KB (The mission of Interregional Research Project #4 is to provide pest management solutions to growers of fruits, vegetables and other minor crops.)
• April 16, 2003 Pest Resistance to Genetically Modified Crops Decoded
• May 21, 2003 Christie Whitman resigns as Administrator of EPA
• May 10, 2003 Methyl Bromide - EPA is soliciting applications for the Critical Use Exemption from the phaseout of methyl bromide. This application process offers users of methyl bromide the opportunity to provide technical and economic information to support a ``critical use'' claim. Methyl bromide is a chemical pesticide that has been identified under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and the Clean Air Act, as an ozone-depleting substance. It is scheduled for complete phaseout by January 1, 2005. The Critical Use Exemption is designed to allow continued production and import of methyl bromide after the phaseout for those uses that have no technically and economically feasible alternatives. Because Critical Use Exemptions are exemptions from the January 1, 2005 methyl bromide phaseout, they will become effective after that date.
  
  Applicants for the exemption are requested to submit technical and economic information to EPA for U.S. review. The U.S. will then create a national nomination for review by the Parties to the Montreal Protocol. EPA encourages users with similar circumstances of use to submit a single application. Please contact your state regulatory agency to receive information about their involvement in the process.

  Applications for the Critical Use Exemption must be postmarked
  on or before September 9, 2002. For more information see the EPA register document at: http://www.epa.gov/EPA-AIR/2002/May/Day-10/a11738.htm

• May 9, 2003 Screening New Herbicides (Vegetables Newsletter)
• April 11, 2003 Sandea® Herbicide for Nutsedge Control (Vegetables Newsletter)
• April 2, 2003 Carbaryl; Availability of Revised Risk Assessments (EPA Federal Register) - This notice announces the availability of the revised risk assessments and related documents for the carbamate pesticide, carbaryl. In addition, this notice starts a 60-day public participation period during which the public is encouraged to submit risk management ideas or proposals. The public comment period for the revised risk assessment closes June 2, 2003. For more information and to submit comments go to http://www.epa.gov/EPA-PEST/2003/April/Day-02/p7982.htm
• March 11, 2003 EPA Reopens Public Comment Period for Endangered Species and Pesticide Regulation Federal Register Notice
• February 26, 2003 The growing budget crisis may soon threaten the on-line availability of the pesticide use (1080) data currently being made possible through the Arizona agricultural statistics office. While there is funding to continue through the end of this June, that may well not be true beyond. This information has provided useful data to assist university researchers in identifying priority areas needing attention. It has also proved of great value in supporting Arizona's emergency exemption program to allow use of unregistered pesticides to deal with novel pest control problems. The system has made it unnecessary for growers to report separately their uses of soil applied pesticides that are on the groundwater protection list to the Department of Environmental Quality. All of these pluses would be lost if the system was shut down. We would go back to the days when anyone wishing to utilize this data would need to go to the Arizona Department of Agriculture and manually dig through the reports stored in boxes.
• Bt Cotton: Yields up in India; pests low in Arizona - article from Science News online (February 8, 2003)
• Transgenic cotton a winner in India - article from Nature ( February 7, 2003)
• DuPont-Pioneer will be selling Intruder insecticide for use in Arizona cotton for 2003. Primary species controlled by this neonicotinoid are aphids, whiteflies, fleahoppers with some activity on plantbugs. Intruder is a 70% active WP formulation (dispersible granules). Intruder will be sold in 1 gallon poly containers with 32 oz of dry dispersible granules in each. 4-1 gallon poly containers ship per case with 18 cases per pallet (317 lbs.) Read and follow the label.
• January 24, 2003 Government Seeks to Improve the Endangered Species Consultation Process for Pesticides
  
• On January 9, 2002 Five 24c registrations were renewed. You can find these changes on the Table of Special Local Needs Pesticide (SLN, 24c) Registrations page (renewals are in red, bold text)
  
  
  
• You can find more regulatory news on the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs web site.
• Pesticide safety training dates (from the Arizona Department of Agriculture)

Old pesticide news can be found on the Pesticide Archives page

 

Resistant Pest Management Newsletter - Michigan State University