Last week, ASA led a coalition letter expressing great concern with EPA’s proposed interim decision for the insecticide, dimethoate.
Dimethoate is an organophosphate insecticide registered for use in soybeans and several dozen other specialty and row crops. In soybeans, it is registered to treat loopers, aphids, bean leaf beetles, leafhoppers, Mexican bean beetles, spider mites, three-cornered alfalfa hoppers, and grasshoppers.
EPA proposes terminating uses of dimethoate in soybeans due to an ecological risk assessment that found it and about a dozen other uses to be too low in benefit relative to the alleged risks they pose.
Dimethoate is an important tool for many U.S. farmers and other users. It is relatively affordable, effective, and is a vital component to the insect management strategy of thousands of farmers and businesses across the country.
In the letter, the groups sound the alarm on EPA conducting a Tier 1 ecological risk assessment, which uses very conservative values and is designed to overstate risks without conducting higher tiered assessments to verify whether those risks genuinely exist. EPA also declined a request from the registrants asking the agency to conduct a higher tiered assessment in public comments, stating the Tier 1 assessment was sufficient.
“We are greatly concerned EPA is arbitrarily proposing to curtail or end uses based on overly conservative ecological models intended for risk screening without doing its due diligence to verify that risks genuinely exist by using higher tiered modeling and using real-world data available to the agency,” the groups state in the letter. “This is even more troubling given that it is the sole justification for restricting uses, as EPA did not identify any risks of concern from the agency’s revised human health risk assessment.”
The letter, signed by 28 organizations, further emphasizes that EPA has an obligation to work with stakeholders and technical registrants to revise uses to address risks before proposing to eliminate them.
ASA will continue to engage with EPA on the importance of dimethoate stands ready to assist the agency during the registration review process.
