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EPA Files Complaint Against CT Firm Charged with Violating Pesticide Laws

Release Date: 09/27/2006
Contact Information: Sheryl Rosner, (617) 918-1865

(Boston, Mass. - Sept. 27, 2006) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's New England office announced today that it intends to seek monetary penalties against a Connecticut company that distributes and sells products intended for agricultural, aquatic, horticultural, turf, and general uses for alleged violations of pesticide laws.

EPA's New England Office will be seeking the assessment of an administrative penalty against BioSafe Systems, L.L.C. of Glastonbury, CT citing violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). EPA’s Complaint proposes a penalty of $39,000 against BioSafe and cites the company for distributing, selling or offering for sale, two EPA-registered pesticides while making claims that were substantially different than the statements that are required by the pesticide law to register the products. EPA also alleges that BioSafe violated an EPA Stop Sale, Use, or Removal Order previously issued to the company regarding the same EPA-registered pesticides. The alleged violations occurred between January and December 2005.

“Vigorous enforcement of pesticide laws ensures that consumers are sold products that work the way they are supposed to work,” said Robert W. Varney, Regional Administrator of EPA’s New England office. “The law is designed to protect us against buying products that make false claims that could be harmful to our health by stopping the sale of these products before they reach the marketplace.”

Products are regulated as pesticides under FIFRA because they are intended (or claimed) to prevent or destroy pests, including algae, viruses and bacteria, among other things. Under the law, regulated pesticides must be registered with EPA before they are sold or distributed, and claims made on the product labels must be consistent with the required claims made during the registration process.

More information on pesticides and the FIFRA program (epa.gov/region1/topics/pesticides/index.html)

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