Mosquito Adulticide Labels, EPA Recommendations

EPA Pesticide Program Updates
From: EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs
Date: March 9, 2005

BETTER LABELS FOR MOSQUITO CONTROL PRODUCTS (NEWS BRIEF)

EPA is issuing seven new recommendations to pesticide registrants and
others to improve label statements for pesticide products used to
control adult mosquitoes. The recommendations pertain to pesticide
products applied by ultra-low volume aerial or ground application
methods. The recommendations promote consistency and clarify labeling
statements that may have been unclear to users. The improvements will
help public health mosquito control officials use the most effective
techniques while ensuring that use of these products will not pose
unreasonable risks to public health or the environment. The
recommendations are:

(1) adult mosquito control applications should be limited to trained
personnel;
(2) mosquito control directions and precautions should be clearly
distinguished from any other use directions allowed on the label, such
as agricultural crops;
(3) label precautions and directions should be revised as needed to
make hazards to aquatic life as clear as possible, and also to allow
the application of these products over or near a body of water
allowable under some circumstances;
(4) users should consult with the state or tribal agency for pesticide
regulation to determine if permits or other regulatory requirements
exist;
(5) labels should specify a spectrum of spray/fog droplet sizes, and
indicate that droplet size should be determined according to directions
from equipment manufacturers or other appropriate sources;
(6) precautionary language to protect bees should have a provision to
allow mosquito control applications in order to respond to threats to
public health which are identified by health or vector control
agencies on the basis of evidence of disease organisms or diseases
cases in animals or humans; and
(7) labels for adult mosquitoes should include limits on timing and
number of applications to the same location.

EPA worked with state agencies to develop initial recommendations and
presented them at two public meetings of the Pesticide Program Dialogue
Committee, an advisory committee to EPA representing a full spectrum of
interests, including pesticide manufacturers, public health agencies,
academia, user groups and public interest groups. In April 2004, EPA
issued draft recommendations for public comment. To view the seven new
recommendations, go to: http://www.epa.gov/PR_Notices/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WESTNILEVIRUS-L is an email discussion group for communication
and discussion about West Nile Virus, particularly regarding policy,
risk reduction and public education issues. It is hosted at Cornell
University and moderated by Dr. Lois Levitan, Program Leader of
Cornell's Environmental Risk Analysis Program (ERAP).

Subscribers are encouraged to post to the group by sending
messages to <envrisk@cornell.edu>. Put "WNV Listserv" in
the subject line and send unformatted text, without attachments.

To subscribe (or unsubscribe), send an email request with
  your name and contact information to <envrisk@cornell.edu>.
To receive messages once a day in digest format, subscribers should
send an email to <listproc@cornell.edu> with message:
"set WESTNILEVIRUS-L mail digest-nomime".

Postings are archived at
<http://environmentalrisk.cornell.edu/WNV/WNV-LArchive>.

SEE ERAP's WEST NILE VIRUS BIBLIOGRAPHIES & OTHER RESOURCES,
on the web at: <http://environmentalrisk.cornell.edu/WNV/>
Received on Wed Mar 9 20:29:50 2005