Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act FIFRA Larrica

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Larrica AC Devin

What? • An act created to protect the public health and environment from the misuse of pesticides • Regulates the labeling and registration of pesticides and by considering the costs and benefits of their use • Requires Manufacturers to submit data pertaining to the safety and efficacy of products sold ▫ Efficacy: capacity for producing a desired result or effect

Who? • Three U. S. Federal Agencies ▫ Environmental Protection Agency ▫ Part of the executive branch and in charge of FIFRA ▫ One of two pesticide acts they implemented ▫ United States Department of Agriculture ▫ Food and Drug Association • Regulate the sale and use of pesticides under FIFRA

Work in Progress • 1910 Federal Insecticide Act • • ▫ Protecting consumers from ineffective products and deceptive labeling 1947 FIFRA First Established ▫ Expanded FIA to include Fungicide and Rodenticide 1972 FIFRA amended by FEPCA 1996 Food Quality Protection Act ▫ Effects of small amounts of pesticides on children ▫ Requires EPA to develop a screening program for their effects on humans ▫ Requires EPA to set a maximum residue limit on each registered persticide Today ▫ Called the FECPA Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act

DDT • Most effective bug Killer • Vietnam • Environmental activist Rachel Carlson wrote Silent Spring in 1962 ▫ Sugested that DDT is bad Can you believe that it was made in a lab in 1873?

• Between 1972 the EPA used FIFRA to ban or severely restrict 64 Chemicals • According to National Academy of sciences federal laws regulating pesticide use in the united states are inadequate and poorly enforced by the three companies. • Under FIFRA, the EPA was supposed to asses the health risks of the acticve ingredients in pesticide products already in use. But after more than 30 years, less than 10% of the active ingredients in pesticide products were actually tested. They claimed that they didn’t have sufficient funds to complete these tests.

Angry Farmers • Bates vs. Dow Agro. Sciences LLC ▫ Peanut farmers threatened to sue D. A in state court for damages cause by one of Dow’s herbicides • Ruckelshaus vs. Monsanto

Why? • 2. 6 million tons of pesticides are used (4. 9 tons per minute) • Public concern about the presence of pesticides in food, drinking water, and the environment • The first pesticide regulation (Federal Insecticide Act) was established in 1910 • FIFRA was established in 1947 with the development of synthetic organic pesiticides

Sources • http: //www. epa. gov/oecaagct/lfra. html • http: //css. snre. umich. edu/css_doc/FIFRA. pdf • http: //www. hercenter. org/regsandstandards/fif ra. cfm