New Approaches to Minor Uses

June 6, 2001

Minor uses of pesticides are those for which the total United States production for a crop is fewer than 300,000 acres. Minor use also applies to pesticide uses which do not provide sufficient economic incentive for a registrant to support initial or continuing registrations. Minor uses include fruits, vegetables and control of disease vectors, such as mosquitos, ticks, cockroaches, rodents and disease-causing organisms.

Minor Use Report

EPA has prepared a Report on the Minor Uses of Pesticides (132 KB, PDF), mandated by Section 13 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA). The report describes actions taken by EPA to increase communication with minor use stakeholders and expedite registrations for minor use pesticides. To accomplish this, EPA has designated a minor crop advisor and a public health coordinator to increase responsiveness to minor use concerns. The report also describes the coordinated approach between EPA, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) required by FQPA for dealing with minor use issues.

EPA in partnership with USDA’s Interregional Research Project 4 (IR-4) has aggressively sought to increase pesticide registrations for minor uses, registering 814 new uses in 1999 and 901 in 2000. Over 80% of the new use registrations have been for reduced-risk pesticides. Minor use priorities for reregistration and tolerance reassessment have been guided by recommendations from the EPA/USDA Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee (TRAC) and the Committee to Advise on Reassessment and Transition (CARAT). In conducting its minor use related activities, EPA has embraced core FQPA implementation principles including:

• Use of sound science in decision making
• Establishing transparent regulatory processes
• Ensuring reasonable transition for agriculture to new methods and alternatives
• Fostering the involvement of stakeholders

Minor Use Activities

FQPA requires that minor use issues be addressed in a coordinated, cross-agency manner. As a result, EPA and USDA are building on existing efforts at both agencies by increasing the involvement of stakeholders in collecting information crucial for common-sense regulatory decision making and expediting registrations of pesticides for minor uses. To increase coordination on public health pesticide issues, EPA has signed a memorandum of understanding with DHHS’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) which outlines how the agencies will collaborate on implementing the public health provisions of FQPA.

EPA’s Minor Use Team and Public Health Coordinator

EPA has a Minor Use Team that provides a coordinated, program-wide approach to minor use pesticide issues. The team includes a leader reporting directly to the Director of the Office of Pesticides Programs (OPP), and representatives from all sectors of OPP as well as USDA’s IR-4 (http://ir4.rutgers.edu/foodcrops.html) program and Office of Pest Management Policy (OPMP) (www.ars.usda.gov/opmp/). The Minor Use Team works closely with grower organizations, USDA, and other stakeholders. EPA arrived at this organizational structure with help from EPA’s Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee, USDA, and growers concerned about minor uses, including the Minor Crop Farmer Alliance, an advocacy group representing minor crop farmers.

The Minor Use Team has three primary goals:

1. Obtaining and Using the Best Available Usage Data by; supporting processes for users to be able to provide real world data and verify that the data are used, strengthening cooperation with USDA and the minor use community to generate and/or obtain data, and using EPA’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (PESP) (www.epa.gov/oppbppd1/PESP) to increase and improve communication with minor use stakeholders;



2. Facilitating Open Dialogue with the Minor Use Community by increasing involvement with stakeholders early in the regulatory process; and



3. Promoting Development of Reduced Risk Pesticides for Minor Uses by supporting efficacy testing of new products and working with IR-4 to expedite registration of reduced risk pesticides for minor uses.

EPA/USDA Partnerships

EPA and IR-4 have a long history of working together to register pesticides for minor crops. IR-4 shares EPA’s commitment to prioritizing registration of reduced risk pesticides, and as a result, over 80 percent of IR-4 projects support registration of reduced risk pesticides. EPA gives high priority to both minor use and reduced risk chemical reviews. EPA and IR-4 are working together to streamline processes and procedures for minor use pesticide registrations. EPA/IR-4 registration streamlining partnership projects include: developing ‘blanket’ tolerances for selected reduced risk chemicals; reducing cost and time for IR-4 field and laboratory work and shortening EPA review time; sharing work plans, allowing EPA to predict arrival of IR-4 petitions and IR-4 to group submissions to expedite reviews; streamlining the reduced risk justification for minor uses by making it less resource intensive for IR-4 to request reduced risk classification for those materials which have already been designated as reduced risk; assigning an IR-4 minor crop expert to EPA’s Office of Pesticide Program to assist with minor crop issues; and creating crop groupings, resulting in fewer data requirements and substantial savings to IR-4 and to EPA.

In response to the needs expressed by many producers of minor crops and FQPA requirements, USDA created the Office of Pest Management Policy (OPMP). This office serves as the focal point within USDA for pesticide regulatory issues. OPMP integrates and coordinates pesticide issues across existing USDA programs including:

• National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) (www.usda.gov/nass) which provides national pesticide use data;



• Pesticide Data Program (PDP) (www.usda.gov/science/pdp/index.htm) which generates real world pesticide residue data for many fruits and vegetables and has recently undertaken drinking water pesticide residue sampling for New York and California;



• Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) (www.reeusda.gov) that administers land-grant college extension and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs, research grants to develop new pest management tools and strategies, and pesticide applicator training programs; and the



• Agricultural Research Service (ARS) (www.ars.usda.gov) which provides basic research and technology transfer of pest management tools.

Information Contacts

EPA Minor Use Program: Sidney Jackson, Acting, Minor Crop Advisor, Office of Pesticide Programs, 7501C, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., Washington, DC 20460. Telephone 703-305-7610. Email: jackson.sidney@epa.gov

IR-4 (Interregional Research Project No. 4): Dr. Bob Holm, Executive Director, Center for Minor Crop Pest Management, Technology Centre of New Jersey, Rutgers, 681 U.S. Highway 1 South, North Brunswick, NJ 08902. Telephone 732-932-9575. Email: Holm@AESOP.Rutgers.edu

USDA Office of Pest Management Policy: Allen Jennings, Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary, USDA, Washington, D.C 20015. Telephone 202-720-5375. Email: allan.jennings@usda.gov

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