EPA, Companies Plan to Phase Out Pesticide Amid Health Concerns

JOHN J. FIALKA / WALL STREET JOURNAL 6dec00

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency reached a voluntary agreement with two agrichemical manufacturers to phase out the sale of Diazinon -- one of the nation's most widely used pesticides -- for home, garden and lawn uses in the next four years.

Carol M. Browner, the EPA's administrator, said the agreement will largely eliminate most of a family of pesticides called organophosphates. Earlier this year, the agency halted sales of several other such pesticides, which closely resemble the chemical structure of World War II-era nerve gas. Overexposure to organophosphates can cause nausea, headaches, vomiting and general weakness, the EPA said. It can also pose a threat to birds and other animals.

The EPA said it will also phase out the use of Diazinon on 20 food crops. The pesticide, which has been sold in the U.S. for 48 years, still has other agricultural uses.

The move was negotiated with Syngenta, an agrichemical maker based in Basel, Switzerland, and Makhteshim Agan Industries Ltd., an Israeli company. Syngenta said that the decision to end Diazinon sales was based on "declining profit margins" and that it would phase the product out of its business over the four-year period.

The company said that its tests show that the insecticide will continue to meet or exceed the safety margins required by the federal Food Quality Protection Act during the phase-out period.

Makhteshim Agan, which sells a generic version of Diazinon, said it would continue to sell in the U.S. for agricultural uses allowed by EPA. "We will support it and do toxic studies to prove to consumers and customers that they can use the product safely," said Moshe Givon, president of Makhteshim Agan North America, based in New York.

The phase-out will eliminate 11 million pounds of Diazinon a year, or 75% of its market in the U.S., the EPA said.