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The deadline to submit comments to USEPA on their proposed spray drift label language is Friday, March 5, 2010.

The USEPA is proposing to insert language on the pesticide labels that reads "do not apply this product in a manner that could cause an adverse effect  to people or any other non-target organism."  Currently the USEPA regulations take into account that the use of the product should generally not cause an unreasonable adverse effect.

The insertion of the "could cause" language would take pesticide misuse enforcement to an entire new level, making enforcement subjective and essentially your word against someone else's whether an adverse effect occured.  Frivilous lawsuits against pesticide applicators will likely become far more common as well if this proposed rule becomes the new law for pesticide labels.   

IFCA has prepared a sample letter to help you with your comments, and it can be directly emailed to the USEPA, just follow the web link at the bottom of the letter.  You can also sign a national petition against this proposed rulemaking.  Go to www.ifca.com to download the sample letter and the Alert with the link to the petition.  Everyone who cares about agriculture should sign the petition so spread the word. 

Please make your voice heard, the future of our industry depends on us all doing our part as citizens and taxpayers to speak out on this very important issue.