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Pesticide News Story: Predator Control Pesticide Cancellation Petition Comment Period Extended
For Release: January 18, 2008
To allow additional time for interested parties to provide substantive input, EPA has extended to March 5, 2008, the public comment period on a petition from a coalition of environmental groups that requested the Agency to cancel the registrations of two predator control pesticides, M-44 sodium cyanide capsules and sodium fluoroacetate, known as “compound 1080.” EPA’s Questions for Commenters on topics including incident data, alternatives, usage, and economic benefits, available in document number EPA-HQ-OPP-2007-0944-0331 at www.regulations.gov are designed to provide information that would be most useful to the Agency in considering this petition. The January 16, 2008, Federal Register notice provides further information about this comment period extension.
On November 16, 2007, EPA announced in the Federal Register that earlier in 2007, the Agency received the predator control pesticides petition and subsequent addendums from environmental groups including Sinapu, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Beyond Pesticides, Forest Guardians, Predator Defense, Western Wildlife Conservancy, Sierra Club, The Rewilding Institute, Animal Defense League of Arizona, and Animal Welfare Institute. The petitioners claim that M-44 sodium cyanide capsules and sodium fluoroacetate cannot perform their intended functions without causing unreasonable adverse effects on the environment and posing an imminent hazard. EPA has not yet reached a decision on the petition and has extended the comment period through March 5 to obtain additional public input.
Sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate are toxicants used by livestock owners and managers, mainly in the western United States, to control predators. Sodium cyanide is used in the M-44, a device that sprays sodium cyanide powder into the mouth of the predator, while sodium fluoroacetate is injected into rubber reservoirs of the livestock protection collar. In the mid-1990s, EPA did a thorough assessment of these pesticides and found that both were eligible for reregistration. The resulting Reregistration Eligibility Decisions (REDs) are available on the Agency’s Web page.