Hi All,

The Environmental Protection Agency is announcing the availability of and
seeking public
comment  on Pesticide Drift Labeling.

Here are some excerpts from the Interpretation:

"The Association of American Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO), which
represents SLAs [State Lead Agencies], has conducted and shared results from
State drift incident investigations and nationwide surveys of drift related
enforcement actions taken by SLAs. These surveys suggest that drift is a
national issue and that responding to drift incidents has constituted a
significant portion of many States’ pesticide complaint investigation
activities every year. Survey results indicate that drift complaints and
violations occur not from just one type of application method, but from
ground, aerial, and other types of applications. Additionally, the surveys
suggest that unacceptable illegal drift occurs as often in urban/suburban
settings as in rural locations.

Of particular note is a survey (http://aapco.ceris.purdue.edu/htm/survey.htm)
finding that SLAs take pesticide enforcement actions in only about one-third
of the total SLA investigation cases, and that states have increasingly been
adopting state-specific drift regulations and prohibitions over the 10 years
of the survey period. The SLAs have pointed to a lack of clear and
enforceable pesticide product labeling as a primary reason for being unable
or unwilling to take an enforcement action even when drift is
well-documented. States also cite the inadequacy or lack of drift
prohibition labeling on some labels as a reason for passage of state drift
regulations."

This is good news for beekeepers.  The EPA generally only receives negative
comments about such actions from the pesticide industry.  It would send a
positive message to the EPA if they heard a massive outpouring of support
from beekeeping organizations throughout the country.  Here are the links.
The first links to PDF's of related documents--I suggest reading the third
link--the Interpretation.

Link for reading the PR notice supporting documents, and  submitted comments
http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#docketDetail?R=EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0628

The comments link is designed for comments from organizations.  Make sure
that your local organization lets the EPA know that we support their looking
into this issue, and how damaging pesticide drift is to our colonies.

Link for submitting comments,
http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480a568c2

Randy Oliver

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