Steve Tvedten of Get Set, Inc.'s email to Lyndon Hawkins of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation .

Questions have been asked of the California Department of Pesticide Control since Fontana Unified School District declined to consider a pesticide free IPM program because of the Department of Agriculture's opinion about only utilizing registered pesticides to eliminate pests.  The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has remained silent and not responded to these issues:

Subject: Undisclosed "inerts" make it impossible to determine actual Risk.
       Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 08:36:05 -0400
       From: Rosalind Tvedten <stvedten@earthlink.net>
 Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
         To: Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>

 Dear Lyndon, I thought you might like to review a recent News Release on "inerts".  When you pretend to "register" dangerous poisons as a pesticide, and simply ignore all of the "inerts" in the poison compound and their synergistic effects, you make it impossible to determine the actual risk and health effects of that "registered" poison compound.  As you are well aware, none of the so-called "inerts" are considered much less tested in your "registered" poison compound.  Many "inerts" are far more deadly and pollute and contaminate far longer than the "registered" active ingredient.  Now many people are sharing my concern that there truly are no "registered" pesticide poisons.  NEWS  RELEASE for immediate release   Contact:      Norma Grier   (541) 344-5044, ext. 21
 

80 More Groups Demand that EPA Require Disclosure of All Ingredients on Pesticide Labels - June 18, 1999

Eugene, Oregon -- Today, a larger and broader-based coalition joined the chorus of groups and state attorneys general demanding that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency require disclosure of all product ingredients right on pesticide labels.  In a letter to EPA Administrator  Carol Browner, 80 new groups asked to be added to a petition that puts the public's right to know ahead of the pesticide industry's desire for secrecy.

        The original petition, asking for a change in national pesticide regulations, was filed in January, 1998 by 180 groups.  On the same day, the attorneys general from seven states and a territory filed a parallel petition asking EPA for the same rule change.

        "In the last 18 months, EPA has taken no action on our coalition's petition," said Norma Grier, executive director of the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP).  "By submitting the names of 80 more groups, we are sending a message to EPA that growing sectors of the public believe they should know what is in the chemical cocktails that are widely used to kill pests."

        "With these new groups, there are now 260 organizations from 42 states asking EPA to put a stop to the pesticide industry's secrecy on the ingredients that are in pesticide products." said Grier.  "Pesticides are hazardous by design, and virtually everyone is exposed to them," she  added. "To protect human health and the environment, we must know all the ingredients in the pesticide products used around us every day."

        The coalition of groups has asked that the so-called "inert" ingredients in pesticides be named on product labels.  Inerts can constitute up to 99 percent of a product formulation, but the ingredients are rarely named on labels.  According to the EPA, about 2,300 ingredients are routinely added to pesticide products.  Research by NCAP has shown that up to 26 percent of these ingredients are regulated as hazardous by EPA or other federal, state or international agencies, but their presence in particular products is not publicly disclosed.

        In 1996, NCAP won a lawsuit against EPA because the agency wrongfully withheld information on the inert ingredients in six pesticide products when that information was requested under the Freedom of Information Act.  The court found that the identities of inerts are not a  trade secret, and most are not confidential business information.  The petition is based on these legal findings.

        The coalition of petitioners is made up of groups representing national, state, and local environmental, labor, health, and religious organizations.

        The Northwest Coalition for Alterntives to Pesticides works to protect people and the environment by advancing healthy solutions to pest problems.   Copies of today's letter and the January, 1998 petition for rulemaking are available on NCAP's website at www.efn.org/~ncap/.

Lyndon, when are you going to protect the people and the environment rather than the profits of the poison "industry"?  When will it be legal in California (in your opinion) to wash your can - and in so doing kill the flies and maggots with soap and water?

Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten