February 2002 Regulation of Mosquito Control
How safe are the pesticides used in mosquito control? How do these products affect the public, the applicator, other animals, plants, and the environment we live in? Who regulates their use? Good, legitimate questions.
We live in a technologically advanced world. This technology is constantly changing our world and does have an impact on the environment. From viruses to whales, we all share the same environment. This “living” environment, planet Earth, cleans and stabilizes itself naturally, over time. The pollutants that man and nature put into the environment are broken down by the natural cycles inherent to out planet, such as the carbon cycle, oxygen cycle, water cycle, etc. Man’s activities place a wide variety of pollutants into the environment. The operation of internal combustion engines, mining operations, manufacturing operations, power generation, agriculture, and pesticides all contribute to the pollution of the planet. Initially, such activities were small in scale and had a minimal impact, or so we thought. However, as our population grows and the world becomes more industrialized, the chronic, increased exposure to pollutants has caused problems. The result was and still is, regulation.
In regard to the use of pesticides, many lessons have been learned. Our knowledge of the fate of a pesticide in the environment has increased. The regulation of pesticide use is based on this never ending increase of knowledge. The result is a constant change in the products used and the product labels that dictate how they’re used.
The registration of a pesticide is not easy. It takes 5-10 years of testing and millions of dollars and even then the product’s registration can be denied. The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is the regulatory authority that governs the distribution, sale, and use of pesticides in the United States. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for administering these regulations. The EPA is responsible for evaluating and registering pesticides and ensuring that, when used according to label directions, they will not cause unreasonable adverse effects to humans or the environment. Some of the things a pesticide is tested for are health hazards (acute and chronic), signs and symptoms of exposure, environmental hazards, first aid measures, fire-fighting measures, personal protection for applicators, handling and storage, physical and chemical properties, decomposition products, routes of entry, irritancy, allergic sensitization, carcinogenicity, reproductive effects, teratogenicity, mutagenicity, effect on micro-organisms, fish, invertebrates, birds and other non-target organisms, disposal considerations, transportation requirements, etc., etc. All of this information is expressed on a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) of the product being tested.
Once approved and registered by EPA, FIFRA grants significant latitude to the states in regulating the requirements of FIFRA. Many states, with their own laws, mirror the federal regulations. In Florida, Chapter 388 of the Florida Statutes establishes how Mosquito Control Programs will be operated. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) is the agency that administers and enforces the rules and regulations as set forth in Chapter 388 F.S. FDACS is responsible for determining a county or district’s eligibility to receive state aid, determines prerequisites for source reduction projects, certifies program budgets, use of funds, program directors and applicators, provides penalties for failure to comply with the FIFRA and the U.S. EPA rules, creates criteria to justify the application of pesticides, approves aerial application of pesticides, is responsible for protecting the health, safety, and welfare of arthropod control employees and the general public, is authorized to create rules and regulations more stringent than EPA’s and establishes criteria for arthropod control on environmentally sensitive, biologically productive public lands.
When proposing source reduction work (dredging and filling), two other regulatory agencies become involved. A joint application must be submitted to and approved by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CORPS) before dredging and filling activities can be performed.
So, back to the original questions; Who regulates our activities? - EPA, FIFRA, FDACS, Chapter 388 F.S., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, FDEP and the product label.
How do mosquito control products affect the public, applicators and our environment? - The answers are on the MSDS of the product, which by law, must be provided upon request, anytime pesticides are purchased.
Are mosquito control products safe? Because mosquito control products are applied to the public environment, they have to be. The pesticide manufacturers, the EPA, and FDACS understand that we are not treating a field of soybeans when we apply our products. Most pesticides used in mosquito control are considered “soft” pesticides. The “soft” pesticides used in mosquito control are insect growth regulators (IGRs) and biological pesticides. The IGRs keep the larva from becoming adult mosquitoes and the biological pesticides are bacterial proteins or bacteria, that when ingested, kill only the mosquito larva in the habitat. When adulticiding (killing adult mosquitoes) “hard” pesticides are used. “Hard” pesticides are chemical products such as Malathion, Dibrom and Permethrin. The application of these products is in an atomized form. The droplet size of the spray must be within a specific micron size (so as not to settle), the dose rate is set to kill mosquito size insects and the spraying is done at night, when mosquitoes are active and most other insects are not. Spraying of these adulticides is only done when surveillance criteria are met and the environmental conditions are right (calm and warm). All these requirements are spelled out on the product’s label. The product label is the law. The label is the final and actually the most important aspect of pesticide regulation. |