Two Biotech Companies Fined for Violations
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Date:
Wed, 18 Dec 2002 08:30:46 -0500
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Two Biotech Companies Fined for Violations
SAN FRANCISCO, California, December 16, 2002 (ENS) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has settled cases with two Midwest companies over their alleged mishandling of genetically modified corn grown for seed under strict field testing conditions in Hawaii.
The action, announced Friday, settles complaints against Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., a subsidiary of DuPont, and Dow AgroSciences. The EPA charged the companies with failing to comply with the conditions of the agency's Experimental Use Permits for growing genetically modified corn seed.
An Experimental Use Permit is issued under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) which is overseen by the EPA to allow for field testing of new pesticides in order to generate the data necessary to support their registration as pesticides. These corn varieties have been modified to contain genes that help protect the corn plant from pests.
The EPA contends that the companies did not comply with certain permit requirements to grow genetically modified corn.
While Dow and Pioneer neither admit nor deny any wrongdoing under the settlement, both companies have agreed to pay penalties to resolve the enforcement actions. The settlement reached with Dow is for $8,800 and the settlement reached with Pioneer is for $9,900.
"EPA required strict conditions in these particular permits to maximize containment to ensure that no pollen from the experimental corn is transferred to other corn," explained Wayne Nastri, the regional administrator of the EPA's Pacific Southwest region. "Companies using experimental permits to field test genetically modified corn need to abide by the conditions in the permit."
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), while applauding the EPA's enforcement actions against the companies, said the monetary fines issued are too small to deter other companies from making the same violations.
"EPA needs to institute a strong inspection and compliance program if the food supply and the environment are to be protected from GE crop experiments," said CSPI biotechnology project director Gregory Jaffe. "EPA should regularly inspect all field trials of experimental GE crops and conduct random inspections of commercial plantings of approved GE crops. Also, additional containment measures should be imposed on new permits issued to violators such as Pioneer and Mycogen."
The violations in Hawaii, as well as recent violations in Iowa and Nebraska by Prodigene, "provide ample evidence that the biotechnology industry cannot be trusted on its own to safeguard the food supply and environment," Jaffe added. "It is ironic that the biotechnology industry itself is jeopardizing public acceptance of a potentially invaluable technology."
The cases in Hawaii were initiated after the EPA conducted inspections in March 2002 at Dow AgroSciences and Pioneer's research fields on the islands of Molokai and Kauai.
According to the complaints, the EPA inspector found that Dow AgroSciences did not have an appropriate tree buffer around its experimental corn field and failed to use hybrid corn varieties as a buffer crop, both of which were required to ensure pollen containment. Pioneer Hi-Bred planted its experimental corn in an unapproved location, which was within 1,260 feet of other Pioneer seed production corn.
In addition to paying a monetary penalty in this case, Pioneer Hi-Bred must perform additional crop testing to determine if any genetic material from the experimental plants were transferred to unmodified corn grown by Pioneer Hi-Bred in the adjacent fields. This testing will ensure that the corn seed grown under the permit restrictions is contained.
For more information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides
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