EPA Office of Pesticide Programs – Removal of Certain Inert Ingredients from Approved Chemical Substance List – Extension of Comment Period

On October 22, 2014, EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) issued a Federal Register (FR) Notice concerning the removal of certain chemical substances from the current listing of inert ingredients approved for use in pesticide products.  OPP initiated this effort, in part, because they believe the inert ingredients listed in the FR Notice are no longer used in any registered pesticide products. The FR Notice’s comment period was scheduled to close on November 21, 2014. 

Pesticide registrants and other stakeholders potentially impacted by the EPA proposal requested an extension on the comment period stating that more time was needed to confirm the chemical substances against the registrations.

On November 26, 2014, EPA/OPP issued a subsequent FR Notice extending the comment period for 60 days; the comment period is now scheduled to close on January 20, 2015.  EPA granted the extension request to provide stakeholders with sufficient time to conduct the necessary record verifications.

Keller and Heckman LLP is available to assist registrants that may be affected by this FR Notice.  You can review the list of chemicals available here, or by visiting Regulations.gov, and searching for docket “EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0558.”  If a registrant has any inert ingredient proposed for removal in a current formulation, the Registrant should notify EPA in writing not later than January 20, 2015.  Notices should be sent to EPA’s designated contact, Kerry B. Leifer, Registration Division, Office of Pesticide Programs, at (703) 308-8811 or leifer.kerry@epa.gov.  In addition, Keller and Heckman LLP’s Pesticides Practice Group is available to counsel clients on FIFRA compliance and can be reached at 202-434-4100 or fifra@khlaw.com.