NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
August 12, 1999
In early August the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it had reached agreements with pesticide manufacturers to stop the sale of methyl parathion for most uses and to significantly limit sales of azinphos methyl. Both of these products are classified as organophosphate pesticides.
In North Dakota, methyl parathion is also marketed under the trade name Penncap-M, and azinphos methyl as Guthion. Due to the types of food crops involved in this EPA action, a specialist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service says the decision will have a limited effect on the state's producers.
"Primarily, fruits and vegetables are being affected. The emphasis has been put on foods items represented in children's diets," says Phil Glogoza, extension entomologist at NDSU.
This initial EPA focus on organophosphate pesticides stems from the Food Quality Protection Act, passed by Congress in 1996. This legislation set tougher standards to protect infants and children from pesticide risks and charged the EPA with enforcing those standards.
Under the agreement EPA reached with manufacturers, methyl parathion can no longer be used on any fruit, nor on carrots, succulent peas, succulent beans and tomatoes--all of which are being defined by the EPA as "children's food." Other canceled food uses include artichokes, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, collard, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, mustard greens, rutabagas, spinach and turnips.
The crops that can still receive methyl parathion applications include alfalfa, barley, cabbage, corn, dried beans, dried peas, lentils, oats, onions, rape seed (canola), rye, soybeans, sugarbeets, sunflower, wheat and white potatoes.
Glogoza says North Dakota small grain producers have used methyl parathion to control aphids and grasshoppers in wheat, but there are several other products available for this purpose. And while methyl parathion remains labeled for dry beans in North Dakota, few producers use it.
But methyl parathion has been one of the few insecticides registered for canola, so producers have been relying on it to control flea beetles, grasshoppers and caterpillar pests such as the diamond-backed moth and the Bertha army worm, Glogoza says. However, within the last month, the EPA registered another insecticide for canola, Capture (bifenthrin), which promises better control of the same insects than does methyl parathion.
"At one time, methyl parathion was probably one of the most common products used in sunflower," Glogoza says. "Other products now have taken on a more common usage than methyl parathion, although there are still cases, such as for the control of seed weevils and banded sunflower moths, where it is the preferred product under certain circumstances."
When it comes to azinphos methyl, even fewer North Dakota producers are affected by the EPA action, which establishes a maximum seasonal use rate and increases the pre-harvest interval for this pesticide. The EPA has lowered the tolerances of azinphos methyl, or Guthion, for pome fruit (apples, pears, quinces and crabapples) from 2.0 parts per million (ppm) to 1.5 ppm. Beginning in the year 2001, that tolerance drops to 1.0 ppm.
"Guthion is not that widely relied upon in North Dakota. The only crop where it's used is potatoes, and it's used on a limited number of acres," Glogoza concludes. "Potato producers will alternate Guthion with other pesticides so that Colorado potato beetles are exposed to products with different modes of action. The use of different chemistry can help limit the potential for insecticide resistance."
In addition to methyl parathion and azinphos methyl, EPA Administrator Carol Browner says the agency will review the 37 other major organophosphate pesticides currently registered. She expects actions based on that review to come by the end of next year. Meanwhile, during the past three years the EPA has registered 48 new, safer products that it says constitute lower-risk alternatives to the organophosphate pesticides.
###
NDSU Agriculture Communication
Source: Phillip Glogoza (701) 231-7581
Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136