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PA FIRST ACTION UNDER THE FOOD QUALITY PROT. ACT OF 1996

Release Date: 08/23/96
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PA FIRST ACTION UNDER THE FOOD QUALITY PROT. ACT OF 1996

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1996

EPA GRANTS EMERGENCY EXEMPTION FOR PYRIDABEN USE ON APPLES IN FIRST ACTION UNDER THE FOOD QUALITY PROTECTION ACT OF 1996

EPA has approved the emergency use of the pesticide pyridaben to control mites on apples in Delaware, New Jersey and Virginia. This is the first decision on a new pesticide use under the revised standards of the Food Quality Protection Act signed into law by President Clinton on Aug. 3. The new law establishes a new, health-based standard for tolerances (maximum legally permissible levels) for pesticide residues in food and requires EPA, for the first time, to establish tolerances to protect public health whenever it grants approval for the emergency use of a pesticide under Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act. The law also requires EPA to make specific findings that tolerances are safe for infants and children and establishes the general standard of a "reasonable certainty of no harm" to consumers. EPA has determined that the use of pyridaben as approved meets these standards and will pose no significant risk to consumers. This action will allow the use of pyridaben on apples in these three states through the end of September. The exemption was requested as a result of the cancellation earlier this year of propargite, another pesticide that was used to control mites on apples. EPA and Uniroyal Chemical Co., the manufacturer of propargite, reached a voluntary agreement to cancel a number of propargite uses, including apples, based on dietary health risk concerns. Other registered miticides are not viable alternatives because they are either ineffective or incompatible with Integrated Pest Management programs. For more information, call Robert Forrest, EPA Office of Pesticide Programs at 703-308-8417.

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