The EPA has reached three settlements with Bayer CropScience, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Dow AgroSciences resolving the agency’s allegations that the companies or their agents distributed and sold pesticide products that lacked required labels or were missing critical information on the labels.
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) requires pesticides sold in the US to include EPA-approved labels.
As part of the settlements, Bayer will pay an $85,500 penalty, DuPont will pay a $22,200 penalty and Dow will pay a civil penalty of $182,640 and implement an environmentally beneficial project worth about $231,000. The supplemental project requires that Dow develop a widely available, web-based FIFRA training with a focus on “supplemental distribution,” which will assist entities that make, import, sell or distribute pesticide products, and other stakeholders to understand FIFRA requirements and ensure full compliance.
In addition to paying a monetary penalty, each case required the settling party to certify that it was currently in full compliance with FIFRA and the underlying regulations.
DuPont last year paid an almost $1.9 million penalty to resolve allegations violations of pesticide reporting and distribution laws, according to an EPA settlement.
Pesticide manufacturers are pushing back against pressure to disclose all of the chemicals in pesticide formulations, Chemical & Engineering News reported earlier this year.
