Federal Insecticide, Fungicide,
and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
Larrica
AC
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What?
• An act created to protect the public health and
environment from the misuse of pesticides
• Regulates the labeling and registration of
pesticides and by considering the costs and
benefits of their use
• Requires Manufacturers to submit data
pertaining to the safety and efficacy of products
sold
▫ Efficacy:capacity for producing a desired result or effect
Who?
• Three U.S. Federal Agencies
▫ Environmental Protection Agency
▫ Part of the executive branch and in charge of FIFRA
▫ One of two pesticide acts they implemented
▫ United States Department of Agriculture
▫ Food and Drug Association
• Regulate the sale and use of pesticides under
FIFRA
Work in Progress
• 1910 Federal Insecticide Act
▫ Protecting consumers from
ineffective products and
deceptive labeling
• 1947 FIFRA First Established
▫ Expanded FIA to include
Fungicide and Rodenticide
• 1972 FIFRA amended by FEPCA
• 1996 Food Quality Protection
Act
▫ Effects of small amounts of
pesticides on children
▫ Requires EPA to develop a
screening program for their
effects on humans
▫ Requires EPA to set a
maximum residue limit on
each registered persticide
• Today
▫ Called the FECPA
DDT
• Most effective bug Killer
• Vietnam
• Environmental activist Rachel
Carlson wrote Silent Spring in
1962
▫ Sugested that DDT is bad
Can you believe that it was made
in a lab in 1873?
• Between 1972 the EPA used FIFRA to ban or severely restrict 64 Chemicals
• According to National Academy of sciences federal laws regulating pesticide
use in the united states are inadequate and poorly enforced by the three
companies.
• Under FIFRA, the EPA was supposed to asses the health risks of the acticve
ingredients in pesticide products already in use. But after more than 30
years, less than 10% of the active ingredients in pesticide products were
actually tested. They claimed that they didn’t have sufficient funds to
complete these tests.
Angry Farmers
• Bates vs. Dow AgroSciences
LLC
▫ Peanut farmers threatened to
sue D.A in state court for
damages cause by one of
Dow’s herbicides
• Ruckelshaus vs. Monsanto
Why?
• 2.6 million tons of pesticides are used (4.9 tons
per minute)
• Public concern about the presence of pesticides
in food, drinking water, and the environment
• The first pesticide regulation (Federal
Insecticide Act) was established in 1910
• FIFRA was established in 1947 with the
development of synthetic organic pesiticides
Sources
• http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/lfra.html
• http://css.snre.umich.edu/css_doc/FIFRA.pdf
• http://www.hercenter.org/regsandstandards/fif
ra.cfm