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EPA Orders Two Companies to Stop Marketing Ineffective Hospital Disinfectant Products

Release Date: 11/27/2002
Contact Information:


Teresa Libera 202-564-7873/libera.teresa@epa.gov

(11/27/02) EPA has ordered two companies to stop selling and distributing an ineffective hospital disinfectant and tuberculocide. Both Biospan Technologies Inc. (Biospan) of Washington, Mo., and Infection Control Technologies (ICT) of Woods Cross, Utah, were asked to recall all quantities of this product from the marketplace. The product, BI-ARREST 2, is produced and distributed by ICT and the primary registration is held by Biospan under the product name, “Dow Liquid Disinfectant Formulation 2A.” Because BI-ARREST 2 was found to be ineffective, its continued use to control microorganisms in operating rooms, emergency rooms and other public health situations may pose a serious risk to the public. On Nov. 15, EPA ordered the companies to stop selling the misbranded pesticide. The label contained statements that the product was effective against the microorganisms Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. EPA testing proved these claims to be false. EPA laboratories routinely test tuberculocides and hospital disinfectant products to ensure products marketed to the public protect public health providers, consumers and others who rely on EPA’s registration of these products as evidence they work as claimed on the label. Selling or distributing a misbranded pesticide product is prohibited under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, which provides that a pesticide is misbranded if its labeling bears any statement that is false or misleading. Misbranding includes a false or misleading statement concerning the effectiveness of the product as a pesticide.