Hearings begin on 2,4,5-T ban

Press, 21 April 1979, Page 2

Hearings begin on 2,4,5-T ban

NZPA Washington Washington hearings, expected to last three months, began yesterday on the Environmental Protection Agency’s March 1 temporary national ban on the controversial herbicide, 2,4,5-T. The emergency halt to most uses of the chemical was ordered pending completion of a full review of the chemical’s risks and benefits.

The agency’s “emergency suspension,” the most drastic measure it can take under the law, came after a study which apparently indicated significant new evidence linking 2,4,5-T with miscarriages in women.

The New Zealand Health Department, which is making its own investigation, said recently that it had found “severe inadequacies” in the agency’s report which led to the ban. A United States District Court judge in Michigan last week, denied a request for an injunction against the agency suspension lodged by the Dow Chemical Company, the biggest manufacturer of 2,4,5-T and other manufacturing companies.

Ivan Watkins-Dow, Ltd, a subsidiary of Dow based at New Plymouth makes 2,4,5-T for the New Zealand market. Dow Chemical challenged the suspension as arbitrary and capricious. A spokesman for the company said yesterday that it had not yet been decided whether to appeal against the judge’s ruling. The Environment Protection Agency administrative panel hearing objections by Dow and other manufacturers to the suspension consists of three agency employees who are not connected with pesticides or toxic studies. They are an economist, a scientist, and a water-resources expert. Forty witnesses, including opponents and supporters of the suspension, have asked to testify. By the time the hearings are over, probably in late July, the panel will also have the results of the agency’s risks-benefits review. Armed with those and evidence from the hearing, the panel will make its decision.

It can lift the suspension, modify it, or find that the

March 1 suspension was warranted. If the panel backs up the agency’s earlier ruling, the agency may proceed to cancel registration of 2,4,5-T, making the ban permanent.

However, any agency decision can be appealed to the courts by opponents. Cancellation proceedings could take one to two years. Dow Chemicals says that there is no existing alternative — chemical or nonchemical — that achieves the public benefits of 2,4,5T. The chemical has been used for 30 years to control trees, brush, and weeds, and is not dangerous, according to the company.

Exhaustive international scientific studies have shown that 2,4,5-T is not hazardous to human or animal life under normal conditions of use, or even under conditions of substantial misuse, the company has submitted.

The emergency suspension applies to the use of 2,4,5-T on pasture land, forest land, and rights-of-way. It does not affect its use on rangelands and rice-producing areas.