EPA Establishes Levels for Emergency Insecticide

WASHINGTON (CN) - The EPA has determined insecticides that contain the unregistered ingredient sulfoxaflor are safe enough to use temporarily to combat a bug that wrecks cotton crops in Southern states. The agency set time-limited legal levels for use of the Dow AgroSciences chemical that are set to expire at the end of 2015.

Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee had requested emergency use of pesticides that contain sulfoxaflor to help combat tarnished plant bug, an insect that destroys cotton and other plants, and is notoriously difficult to deal with.

Based on analysis of potential health risks, the EPA set the levels for sulfoxaflor residue on cotton seeds at 0.2 parts per million, on cotton gin byproducts at 6 parts per million and on cotton hulls at 0.35 parts per million.

The agency also announced that the temporary conditions may not serve as a basis for other states to register sulfoxaflor for special local needs, and reiterated that the chemical could only be used with proper emergency exemptions.

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