It seemed like Al's post and Lloyd's subsequent post on Coumaphos were worth
checking out.  In checking the Federal register for the years 1997-2000,
many hits relating to coumaphos were returned.  The matter on its use on
beehives comes up numerous times in Federal Register: January 24, 2000
(Volume 65, Number 15), Notices, Pages 2699-3709.
The contact person repeatedly cited is Barbara Madden.

Some surprising things concerning coumaphos came up, like this one in FR VOL
64, No 147, Monday August 2, 1999.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
[OPP–36194; FRL–6097–3]
Organophosphate Pesticide
Tolerances-No Finite Residues
Considered to be Reassessed By EPA
AGENCY: Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
SUMMARY: This notice announces that
EPA is considering as reassessed 80
meat, milk, poultry, and egg (MMPE)
tolerances. These MMPE tolerances are
for residues of azinphos-methyl,
coumaphos, fenthion, isofenphos,
methidathion, naled, phorate, and
profenophos. The Agency has evaluated
105 MMPE tolerances listed in the table
in this Notice and has concluded that
there are no reasonable expectations of
finite pesticide residues in or on meat,
milk, poultry, or eggs for the listed
organophosphate pesticides. Since 25 of
these tolerances were previously
reassessed by final rule revocation in
the Federal Register, 80 of the 105
tolerances are counted here as
reassessments made toward the August
1999 review deadline of the Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)
section 408(q), as amended by the Food
Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996.
EPA will propose a rule to revoke these
80 reassessed MMPE tolerances in a
subsequent Federal Register notice.

Elsewhere in EPA documentation, feeding coumaphos to chickens to rid them of
parasites was mentioned.  My appetite for some of my favorite foods is waning.

The coumaphos label from 1999 does not specifically address comb honey.  The
Federal Register is where an ultra dutiful legalistic citizen might search
for some new and wonderful regulation applying to him.  Searching the FR for
"honey" showed no rulemaking relating to comb honey, and searching for "comb
honey" returned only entries relating to honey in general.  The EPA web site
is shut down due to the hacker scare.  The search also produced a warning to
the effect that the FR is being reindexed, so the search engine may not find
everything.

Sometimes overzealous local offices of bureaucracies, sometimes staffed by
people who got into that line of work because of a personal agenda, get out
of line.  Perhaps that's what is happening.

Meanwhile, the regulation that can't be found in the proper places for a
regulation probably isn't a regulation.

Bill Morong