Latest Product Label Updates at Your Fingertips
January 8, 2023 The EPA’s website Bulletins Live! Two is available to provide current information on endangered species components of current pesticide product labels.
The website — available at EPA.gov/Endangered-Species/Bulletins-Live-Two-View-Bulletins — is now considered an extension of the endangered species section of the label, and growers and applicators must consult the website and document any mandates for product use in their area.
“Bulletins Life! Two is a new thing that many people may not be aware of,” says Dr. Don Parker, Vice President, Technical Services for the National Cotton Council. “I’ve had some discussions recently with EPA about building awareness about the website and its link as a legal obligation to the label.”
How It Works
If the pesticide label directs users to the website, they are required to follow the pesticide use limitation(s) found on the label and in the Bulletins Live! Two system for their intended application area, pesticide product, and application month. The bulletins, generated as a printable PDF, contain:
- A map of the user-defined intended application area
- The user-selected active ingredient and/or pesticide product to be applied
- Pesticide use limitations(s)
- The month for which the bulletin is valid
Directions and tutorials explaining use of the site are provided. Bulletins may be accessed up to six months before pesticide application. Growers and applicators must follow the correct bulletin for the month of the planned application.
“Whether or not growers have additional restrictions that apply for their product use, they need to print it out and keep it with the product label,” adds Parker. “Those two things combined will show that a legal application of that product was made.
“But,” he reminds,” if you print it today, it may not be the same in five months. Updates are being made regularly. It’s important for growers to know the timeline so that they’re good for the period and legal under that obligation.”
If the website shows no specific use limitations for the product, it’s because EPA has not yet determined if additional geographically specific use limitations are needed, or that there are no specific use limitations required for the time period or application location.
Also, certain states may have pesticide use limitations beyond those found in the bulletin. Information found on Bulletins Live! Two is not intended to replace or override any restrictions that individual states may impose. Growers need to be aware of and follow pesticide limitations according to both the state AND federal requirements.
Like all projects, Bulletins Live! Two is a work in process.
“EPA is asking for comments and feedback on the service, and they have proposed including some mitigation measures that would reduce movement of pesticide through erosion and would reduce spray drift,” says Parker. “There would be kind of a list with different options of what growers could do so that they could still use that label with these different mitigation possibilities.”
GET THE NEWSLETTER TODAY!
