Chlorpyrifos manufacturers last week announced they have reached an
agreement with California regulators on how the sale and use of the product
will be phased out in 2020. The negotiated settlement provides an element of certainty
for chlorpyrifos users, provides an opportunity for existing stocks of the
product to be used, and for affected growers to have a transition period as
they work to adopt alternative crop protection solutions.
The timeline for phaseout of chlorpyrifos in California is as follows:
Nov. 8, 2019 – Registrants will cease
chlorpyrifos sales.
Feb. 6, 2020 –
Dealers/distributors will
cease chlorpyrifos sales.
Dec. 31, 2020 –
Chlorpyrifos use in
California ends.
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation announced last
May it would ban the product and
said at the time the phaseout could take up to two years. California Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget requested $5.7 million to “support the
transition” to other pest control measures and is proposing a working
group to identify and recommend alternatives.
Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate insecticide that is used in more than
50 fruit, nut, cereal and vegetable crops and has been the subject of
activist group attacks and controversy for many years.
In response to a court ruling stemming from a petition filed in 2007 by the
Pesticide Action Network North America and the Natural Resources Defense
Council, the EPA announced in
July it will not ban chlorpyrifos, but instead expedite the registration
review process under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act
(FIFRA) that requires pesticides to be reregistered with the EPA every 15
years. The reregistration should now “be completed well before the 2022
statutory deadline,” according to an EPA spokesperson.
In response to this, activist groups sued the EPA,
extending ongoing litigation.
