More than one-quarter of all 'crisis' exemptions each year are for control of weeds. After successfully halting the delivery of the benefits of the FQPA to the public, pesticide lobbyists are now going farther. They have authored and won support for a bill to effectively roll back the law altogether. This bill would delay children's health protections and broaden loopholes for exemptions from these rules. The program today is a well greased escape chute through which pesticide companies avoid the full children's health requirements of current law.
Children bear the risk of the untested pesticides, while pesticide companies reap the profits.
Nothing better illustrates the phony essence of the program than the surge in emergency and crisis exemptions granted for control of weeds. The EPA has put itself in a downward spiral where each emergency exemption helps to create the need for future ones. As a first step toward reform, EPA must resist pressure from the pesticide lobby and its allies and reign in its impulse to grant 'emergency' exemptions. FQPA requires an affirmative finding that Section 18 exemptions are safe for infants and children. Require manufacturers to monitor residue levels of Section 18 compounds on treated food, particularly food consumed by children.