The request by the EPA, according to Reuters, was made over concerns that the insecticide could be harmful to organisms in streams and ponds.
Instead, Bayer plans to ask for an administrative law hearing from the EPA’a office of General Council into the registration on flubendiamide, the active ingredient in the company’s Belt insecticide. “We believe it is an important tool for farmers and can be used safely and effectively,” Dana Sargent, vice president of regulatory affairs at Bayer, told AgWeb prior to the company’s announcement Friday.
On Friday, the EPA disagreed with the company’s criticisms and responded to Bayer’s announcement, saying it would move to cancel flubendiamide’s registration. “EPA issued a time-limited registration to Bayer CropScience and Nichino America for flubendiamide to better understand the potential impact of the product’s metabolite to degrade in the environment and its toxicity. The agency also wanted to be able to quickly take this product off the market if there were problems. EPA required additional studies that found the product degrades or breaks down into a material which is more toxic than flubendiamide, is extremely toxic to aquatic species and is persistent in the environment,” the agency said in a statement.
Sargent believes the issue is bigger than any one company’s product and is questioning the EPA’s support for production agriculture, saying denying a product’s registration based on “unrealistic theoretical calculations” calls into question the EPA’s commitment to sustainable agriculture and innovation.
The EPA granted registration to Bayer’s flubendiamide in 2008, but as a limited time conditional registration, if additional testing found the chemical to be damaging, said the EPA in a statement, reports Fortune. The insecticide is used to control crop-damaging moths and worms in more than 200 crops including almonds, cotton, corn and soybeans.
Bayer’s own tests showed the product was toxic to invertebrates in river and pond sediment. These organisms are an important food source for fish. It was also shown that the product was potentially toxic to lepidopterous species, including endangered species, and the aquatic larvae of some of the species, as shown in the EPA’s Pesticide Fact Sheet for flubendiamide.
Belt insecticide will remain on the market, pending a mandatory comment period as required by law, and then, Bayer will ask for a formal hearing to determine the fate of its insecticide. The EPA earlier made an unsuccessful attempt to withdraw its registration for Dow Chemical Co’s Enlist Duo weed killer.