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Ethion RED Cover Letter
April 27, 2001
Dear Registrant:
This is to inform you that the Environmental Protection Agency (hereafter referred to as EPA or the Agency) has completed its review of the available data and public comments received related to the preliminary and revised risk assessments for the organophosphate pesticide ethion. The public comment period on the revised risk assessment phase of the reregistration process is closed. Based on comments received during the public comment period and additional data received from the registrant, the Agency revised the human health and environmental effects risk assessments and made them available to the public on July 14, 1999. Additionally, the Agency had a meeting with stakeholders on July 27, 1999, where the results of the revised human health and environmental effects risk assessments were presented to the general public. This stakeholders' meeting concluded Phase 4 of the OP Public Participation Pilot Process developed by the Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee, and initiated Phase 5 of that process. During Phase 5, all interested parties were invited to participate and provide comments and suggestions on ways the Agency might mitigate the estimated risks presented in the revised risk assessments. This public participation and comment period commenced on July 14, 1999, and closed on September 14, 1999.
Based on its review, EPA identified risk mitigation measures and additional data that it believes are necessary to address the human health and environmental risks associated with the current use of ethion. However, the registrants of ethion have requested a voluntary cancellation of their registrations for technical products with risk mitigation measures to be effective during the phase-out period. The EPA has accepted this proposal, and is now publishing its reregistration eligibility and risk management decision for the current uses of ethion. The tolerance revocations for ethion will be finalized when the cancellations become effective. The Agency's decision on the individual chemical ethion can be found in the attached document entitled, "Reregistration Eligibility Decision for Ethion."
A Notice of Availability for this Reregistration Eligibility Decision for ethion will be published in the Federal Register. To obtain a copy of the RED document, please contact the Pesticide Docket, Public Response and Program Resources Branch, Field and External Affairs Division (7506C), Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP), USEPA, Washington, DC 20460, telephone (703) 305-5805. Electronic copies of the RED and all supporting documents are available on the Internet.
The RED is based on the updated technical information found in the ethion public docket. The docket not only includes background information and comments on the Agency's preliminary risk assessments, it also now includes the Agency's revised risk assessments for ethion (revised as of July 14, 1999 with addenda on November 18, 1999, January 4, 2000 and May 17, 2000), and a document summarizing the Agency's Response to Comments. The Response to Comments document addresses corrections to the preliminary risk assessments submitted by chemical registrants, as well as responds to comments submitted by the general public and stakeholders during the comment period on the risk assessment. The docket will also include comments on the revised risk assessment, and any risk mitigation proposals submitted during Phase 5. Comments on mitigation or mitigation suggestions were submitted by representatives of growers and the citrus industry in Florida.
This document and the process used to develop it are the result of a pilot process to facilitate greater public involvement and participation in the reregistration and/or tolerance reassessment decisions for these pesticides. As part of the Agency's effort to involve the public in the implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA), the Agency is undertaking a special effort to maintain open public dockets on the organophosphate pesticides and to engage the public in the reregistration and tolerance reassessment processes for these chemicals. This open process follows the guidance developed by the Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee (TRAC), a large multi-stakeholder advisory body that advised the Agency on implementing the new provisions of the FQPA. The reregistration and tolerance reassessment reviews for the organophosphate pesticides are following this new process.
In this RED, the Agency details the terms of the voluntary cancellation of ethion, including the risk mitigation measures outlined in Section IV of this document and described in Section V. Instructions for registrants on submitting the revised labeling and the time frame to do so can be found in Section V of this document.
Should a registrant of technical product fail to implement any of the risk mitigation measures outlined in this document, and as agreed by the Agency and the registrants, the Agency may initiate appropriate regulatory action. Likewise, if other registrants fail to implement risk mitigation measures as outlined in this document and detailed on the labels of technical and manufacturing-use ethion, the Agency may initiate appropriate regulatory action.
If you have questions on this document or the label changes necessary for reregistration, please contact the Special Review and Reregistration Division representative, Jill Bloom, at (703) 308-8019. For questions about registration amendments, please contact Marilyn Mautz at (703) 305-6785.
Lois A. Rossi, Director
Special Review and
Reregistration Division (7508C)