EPA bans carbofuran for food crops; FMC to appeal

Washington, D.C.-The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on May 11 announced its final decision to revoke all food tolerances for the pesticide carbofuran, which is sold under the name “Furadan” by FMC Corporation, headquartered in Philadelphia. The agency’s announcement confirms a proposed action first announced in July 2008. The pesticide’s granular form was banned in the mid-1990s because it was blamed for killing millions of migratory birds. In 2006, EPA began its effort to remove the pesticide completely from the market, claiming it poses an unacceptable health risk, especially to children. In March, FMC voluntarily scaled back Furadan uses to a smaller number of crops in hopes of heading off broader restrictions. EPA, however, said it was revoking all allowable tolerance levels for carbofuran on food crops, including imported food crops. In the coming months EPA will move to ban the chemical’s use altogether, including on nonfood crops, because of risks to farm workers and to the environment. EPA said the chemical poses “an unacceptable dietary risk, especially to children, from consuming a combination of food and water with carbofuran residues.” FMC on May 12 said it “strongly disagrees” with the EPA decision and plans to file objections and seek an administrative hearing. “We are very disappointed by the EPA revocation and their unwillingness to recognize that our voluntary changes to the label allowed the product to meet the dietary safety standard using EPA’s own conservative assumptions,” said Dr. Michael Morelli, director of Global Regulatory Affairs, FMC Agricultural Products Group. “President Obama has committed EPA to regulating on the basis of sound science, and FMC is confident that a fair hearing based on sound scientific principles will prove carbofuran’s safety to the satisfaction of all.” FMC said several major grower associations, the USDA, and all 50 Secretaries of State Departments of Agriculture “have gone on record supporting the continued, but very limited use of carbofuran where there are no alternative products, such as in sunflowers and corn rootworm rescue.” The ban goes into effect at the end of the year, and FMC reiterated on its website that it can still sell, and growers can use, carbofuran until Dec. 31, 2009. “The company will follow all available administrative procedures and hopes to have the product available for the next crop growing year,” FMC said.