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UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460

 

OFFICE OF CHEMICAL SAFETY

AND POLLUTION PREVENTION

Risks and Benefits for the Remaining Uses of Azinphos-methyl

July 1, 2012

In November of 2006, EPA issued a final decision to phase out all of the remaining uses 

of azinphos-methyl (AZM) by September 30, 2012. The phase-out was implemented 

through amended registration terms and conditions submitted by each of the AZM 

registrants. EPA also issued a cancellation order to put the phase-out into effect. In 

connection with the terms and conditions of registration, EPA committed to conducting a 

new risk-benefit analysis prior to the effective date of cancellation. Following that 

analysis, EPA would then determine whether the risk benefit analysis indicated the need 

to allow for an extension of the 6-year phase-out period or whether it supported 

maintaining the terms of the current phase out.

In the 2006 phase-out decision, EPA determined that there were worker and ecological

risks that warranted cancellation, but concluded that in light of high near-term benefits to 

growers, it would allow a 6-year phase-out, provided certain risk mitigation provisions 

(reduced applications and application rates, as well as buffer zones around water bodies 

and certain structures) were implemented during the phase-out to further reduce risk to 

workers and the environment. EPA concluded that high near-time benefits existed 

because many key alternatives lacked maximum residue limits (MRLs) that allowed 

export of treated crops to certain important export markets. EPA also determined that

growers needed time to transition to effective strategies for applying the alternatives. 

Even with the mitigation, EPA determined that the risks were in excess of EPA's levels of 

concern for workers and non-target wildlife and that in the longer term, these risks 

merited the cancellation of the remaining uses of AZM given that benefits, while still 

significant, were likely to decline over the phase-out period as MRLs were established by

other countries for many newer alternatives.

This document identifies the supporting documents EPA will utilize in its risk-benefit 

analysis. In assessing the risks and benefits in 2012, EPA has reviewed any new 

information received since the 2006 decision to determine the extent to which factors 

may have significantly changed from the previous risk-benefit analysis. There has been 

no new information submitted that would change EPA’s worker or ecological risk 

pictures significantly from the 2006 assessment. Therefore EPA continues to rely on the 

risk assessment conducted in 2006. EPA has also collected and considered an extensive 

body of information concerning the current benefits of AZM. Using this new 

information, EPA completed and added to the public docket a crop-by-crop analysis of

the current grower impacts of maintaining the September 30, 2012 cancellation date. 
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These documents can be found at: http://www.regulations.gov under docket number 

EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0365. 

EPA will use these analyses to make a determination whether to keep in place or amend 

the cancellation order that becomes effective September 30, 2012.