Groups' Efforts for Disclosure of Pesticide "Inerts" Grinds On

September 23, 2015

Whether pesticides harm the birds and bees — or human health — matters a lot. One of the public's protections is the requirement for disclosure in the nation's pesticide laws. Yet, as enforced by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) , the regulations have big loopholes for "inert" ingredients — those other than the main active pesticide in a given formulation.

In the last several years, environmental health groups have stepped up legal efforts to get EPA to require pesticide makers to disclose those "inert" ingredients. Such ingredients may potentiate the effects of the main, or "active," pesticide, make it more stable, make it stick to leaves, enhance absorption and do other things. Despite the term "inert," some of the known inerts can have toxic effects.

Now several groups have filed a new lawsuit trying to force EPA to act on their demands for label disclosure of pesticide inert ingredients. It is a new chapter in a series of suits and regulatory actions going back to the mid-1980s.

EPA started a formal rulemaking process in 2009 that could have led to disclosure requirements, but industry opposed it and EPA took no further regulatory action, other than to delist some inerts companies had already discontinued.

The groups involved are the Center for Environmental Health, Beyond Pesticides, and Physicians for Social Responsibility. They are represented by Earthjustice.

The groups argue that EPA has authority under current federal pesticide law to require disclosure of inert ingredients.