07/15/08 New soil fumigant safety measures being published

Farm and Ranch July 15, 2008 New safety measures proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency for soil fumigants are being printed tomorrow in the Federal Register, which sets off a 60-day public comment period. Fumigants used by Pacific Northwest potato growers, such as metam sodium and metam potassium are among the compounds affected and which will become classified as restricted-use pesticides. Steven Bradbury, director of EPA's special review and re-registration division says the new safety measures are aimed at increasing protection for agricultural workers and bystanders. He says applicators are going to have to complete written fumigant management plans. Bradbury: "As we were developing our mitigation package we spent a lot of time working with applicator groups and found that the high performing applicators are in fact doing written plans as they prepare for their fumigation activities. So we have incorporated that into our decision. So developing a fumigant management plan is one important component. Another important component to the mitigation package is that the agency is requiring that buffer zones be employed around the application sites. So that will be a new component to the use of fumigants." There are also requirements for product registrants for education of applicators and community members. Bradbury says it will probably be 2010 before the measures will be effective on new labels. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.