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EPA Office of Inspector General Releases Structural Fumigation Report: Additional Measures Can Be Taken to Prevent Deaths and Serious Injuries From Residential Fumigations

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EPA Office of Inspector General Releases Structural Fumigation Report: Additional Measures Can Be Taken to Prevent Deaths and Serious Injuries From Residential Fumigations

 

On December 12, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released its report on the OIG’s review "to determine the extent and nature of adverse impacts caused by structural fumigations". The report, titled: Additional Measures Can Be Taken to Prevent Deaths and Serious Injuries From Residential Fumigations, includes the OIG’s findings, recommendations and the EPA’s response and proposed action steps. The full report can be found here: https://www.epa.gov/office-inspector-general/report-additional-measures-can-be-taken-prevent-deaths-and-serious-injuries

 

The report identifies three major factors that the OIG believes contribute to adverse effects:

1) No requirement to secure tenting around structures undergoing fumigation,

2) Ineffective devices used to detect pesticide levels inside of structures, and

3) Failure to attend mandatory training for residential pesticide applicators who conduct fumigations.

 

Seven specific recommendations were made to the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) within the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) and EPA Region 2. The recommendations are outlined below:

For the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention:

1.Implement a process to evaluate label changes for all three brands of sulfuryl fluoride, including requirements to:

·Create a barrier to access, use detection mechanisms, or require similar measures designed to prevent access into fumigation tents.

·Prepare a site-specific residential fumigation management plan before application.

2.Provide label language that clearly defines the criteria for meeting the applicator stewardship training requirement for sulfuryl fluoride, including the frequency of training.

3.Conduct an assessment of clearance devices to validate their effectiveness in detecting required clearance levels, as part of the Office of Pesticide Programs’ ongoing re-evaluation of structural fumigants.

4.Establish milestone completion date(s) for the pesticide incident database initiative.

 

For the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance:

5.Assess whether structural fumigation and fumigant product compliance and associated applicator certification and training should be included as focus areas in the FIFRA Cooperative Agreement Guidance, and include them in the guidance as appropriate.

 

For EPA Region 2:

6.Include in the FIFRA cooperative agreement with the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture, an investigation and evaluation of sulfuryl fluoride usage to determine whether misuse has occurred.

7.Based on the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture’s investigation and evaluation, provide assistance to Puerto Rico to develop recommendations for any appropriate changes to Puerto Rico regulations, such as requiring the reporting of sales and use of sulfuryl fluoride, and require advance notification of planned residential fumigations.

 

The majority of the recommendations were accepted by EPA with a planned completion date of 11/30/2017. NPMA is actively engaged on this issue through its Industry Stewardship Strategy for Structural Fumigation and will continue to work closely with fumigant registrants, applicators, EPA and State Lead Agencies to ensure that the sensible solutions are implemented. Our objective continues to focus on reducing the likelihood of any adverse impacts of structural fumigation while defending these products and processes as an effective and imperative tool in protecting property and food.

 

Should you have specific questions about the report or regulations regarding structural fumigation please contact the NPMA Policy Team at publicpolicy@pestworld.org.

 

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