The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the EPA approved the
insecticide, sulfoxaflor, based on "flawed and limited information".
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bees-insecticide-20150910-story.
html
http://tinyurl.com/pdtb36q
This revokes the registration, which may seem a good thing, but it actually
means that all "existing stocks" can be used without any regard to the label
instructions, including any bee-protective language. The NRDC learned this
the hard way with spirotetramat. FIFRA may prohibit sales but not USE.
When are beekeepers going to learn that "revoking registrations" is not the
way to go? The registration needs to instead be reworded to outlaw the
specific USES and applications that put bees at risk, leaving the
registration in place.
As I noted at the time here on Bee-L, the implications of "revoking" a
registration was made clear by the EPA back when the NRDC sued over the EPAs
inability to sort through and deliver truckloads of documents about
spirotetramat promptly:
(citations removed, and emphasis added to the spirotetramat revocation
order):
"[The Court] vacated all registrations issued by EPA for pesticide products
containing the active ingredient
spirotetramat. There is no corresponding provision of FIFRA that prohibits
USE (as opposed to distribution or sale) of unregistered pesticides.
Furthermore, section 12(a)(2)(G) only makes it a violation of FIFRA for any
person to "use any REGISTERED pesticide in a manner inconsistent with its
labeling"; there is no provision that requires that unregistered pesticides
(including formerly-registered pesticides) be used according to their
labels. Thus, in the absence of EPA action, users of unregistered pesticides
are NOT OBLIGATED TO FOLLOW THE LABELING (which, for registered pesticides,
prescribes enforceable conditions for using the particular pesticide, among
other things) accompanying the product. Therefore, once the registrations
are terminated, unless EPA takes action, persons holding stocks of
spirotetramat will not be legally precluded from using those stocks without
following label directions, INCLUDING THE RESTRICTIONS on timing of
applications that EPA required in order TO PROTECT BEES."
It is simply breathtaking in its self-inflicted-gunshot-wound way, isn't it?
Full ruling here:
http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2015/09/10/13-72346.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/qxwc3zm
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