Posted March 11, 2014
Three environmental and public health groups filed a
lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week, pressing
the agency to move forward with rules that would require public disclosure of
inert pesticide ingredients, according to a Reuters article available here.
The Center for Environmental Health, Beyond Pesticides,
and Physicians for Social Responsibility, filed the lawsuit in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of California in Center for Environmental Health et al v. McCarthy. The complaint is available here.
The groups argue that there has been an “unreasonable
delay” by EPA in finalizing rules to require manufacturers to disclose
hazardous inert ingredients in their pesticide products.
Law
360 reports that, according to the plaintiffs, “inert ingredients can be
just as dangerous as active ingredients and can comprise 50 to 90 percent of a
pesticide’s composition.” The groups
argue that over 370 of the inert ingredients found in pesticides are either
“hazardous or suspected toxins.”
In 2006, health and environmental groups, and several
attorneys general, petitioned EPA to force companies to disclose these
ingredients. In December, 2009, the EPA
solicited comments on an advanced notice of a proposed rule, but the EPA has
not taken further action since the comment period closed in April 2010.
“Consumers and users of pesticide products have a right
to know all the ingredients that are in the products they purchase so that they
can make more informed choices in the marketplace,” said Jay Feldman, Executive
Director of Beyond Pesticides. A press
release from Beyond Pesticides is available here.
A representative for the EPA said it will review and
respond to the lawsuit.
For more information on pesticides, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
