EPA pushes for changes in pesticides' and disinfectants' label copy

The agency's just-inaugurated "Consumer Labeling Initiative"-a task force composed of federal and state officials plus a smattering of industry representatives,-is the vehicle for doing that. Mary Dominiak, co-chair of the CLI task force and herself an EPA official, says the EPA's concern is that information on pesticide labels is too technical and opaque to the consumer. She wants to see more understandable language on product hazards, safe use, disposal and other things. Dominiak explains that the most likely outcome will be an EPA rulemaking that mandates changes in how existing label information is written, substituting the words "first aid" for "treatment indications," for example. However, she does not rule out new EPA requirements for additional label information under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, the law which regulates farm and home pesticides. "If people identify essential information that cannot be provided under current law, we would consider that," she says. c