EPA Seeks to Ban Endosulfan Use in the United States

By Jim.Robinson|June 17, 2010

The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., an independent publisher of U.S. government information, has reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in negotiations with Raleigh, North Carolina-based Makhteshim Agan of North America, to voluntarily end the manufacture and use of endosulfan in the United States.

Makhteshim Agan’s Thionex and Methofan, include endosulfan as an active ingredient. The company is the lone manufacturer of the insecticide in the United States.

According to the EPA, endosulfan — which is used on cotton and other fruit and vegetables crops — can pose unacceptable neurological and reproductive risks to farm workers and wildlife and can persist in the environment. The agency added that the pesticide is used on a “very small percentage of the U.S. food supply and does not present a risk to human health from dietary exposure.”

The EPA says it will work with Makhteshim Agan of North America on eliminating all endosulfan uses while “incorporating consideration of the needs for growers to timely move to lower-risk pest control practices.”