GAO says it is unclear how EPA ensures that the additional information is ever received. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Report questions pesticide approvals

The Environmental Protection Agency is giving the green light to some pesticides without enough data to prove they are safe, a report for Congress warns.

In a 52-page report released Monday, the Government Accountability Office raises concerns about EPA’s method of granting conditional approval for new uses of pesticides in advance of receiving full reports from the manufacturers to support the safety of their use. The findings in the report come amid growing concern over the effects of pesticides on humans and the environment, which have been linked to neurological disorders and cancer, among other things.


EPA officials, in response to recommendations in GAO’s report, “EPA Should Take Steps To Improve Its Oversight Of Conditional Registrations,” have agreed to update their systems to allow for the easier tracking of conditional registrations and better monitor submission of the needed data.

However, the agency in a July 18 letter to Alfredo Gomez, GAO’s acting director, also defends its conditional registration program.

While EPA has “made mistakes in how it has identified the states of conditionally and unconditionally registered pesticides” and has limitations in tracking the submission of data, “all conditionally registered products meet applicable legal standards, and pesticides have not been allowed in the marketplace without adequate testing to ensure safety to both human health and the environment,” the letter says.

Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide & Rodenticide Act, EPA can grant conditional registrations for new or existing active ingredients if the pesticide or its new use is deemed to be similar to a registered pesticide, if the use is determined unlikely to cause adverse effects and the manufacture lacks sufficient time to complete needed studies, among other things, the GAO report explains. The data called for in the conditional registration should be submitted to the agency within four years.

However, GAO says it is unclear how EPA ensures that the additional information is ever received.

“EPA does not have a reliable system … to track key information related to conditional registrations,” including the timely submission of information, the watchdog agency reports. “As a result, pesticides with conditional registrations could be marketed for years without EPA’s receipt and review of these data.”

The report follows 2010 allegations from environmental and other groups that EPA was overusing conditional registrations and that some pesticides have been missing required data for decades. GAO’s investigation stems from a request by Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Environment and the Economy Subcommittee.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is using the report to back calls for EPA to cancel all conditional pesticide registrations.

Mae Wu, an attorney for NRDC, in a statement released Monday, says, “public health and safety would be better served if EPA immediately canceled any conditional registrations with missing toxicity data, or pesticides that are out of compliance for any reason. EPA should only conditionally register new pesticides, as the law intends, in very limited circumstances to respond to public health crises.”