locating information on 'inert' ingredients in pesticide products - norma grier

5/25/2018 Locating Information on 'Inert' Ingredients in Pesticide Products - Norma Grier

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NCAP

Northwest Coalition forAlternatives to Pesticides

P.O. Box 1393Eugene, OR 97440(541) 344-5044(541) 344-6923 [email protected]://www.efn.org/~ncap/

Locating information on the inert ingredients in

pesticide products.by Norma Grier; December 15, 1997

Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP)

PO Box 1393; Eugene, OR 97440

(phone) (541) 3445044 (fax) (541) 3446923(email) [email protected]

On October 11, 1996, the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides

and the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides jointly won a Freedom of

Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the US Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA). The American Crop Protection Association (ACPA), a pesticide

manufacturers trade organization, intervened in the case. The court declared that the

identities of the inert ingredients in pesticide products cannot be claimed as trade

secret and in most cases are not confidential business information. The groups were

represented by the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, Oregon. The

ruling was issued by Federal District Court Judge James Robertson in the District of

Columbia (941 F.Supp. 197).

The judged ordered EPA to disclose the common name and chemical abstract

service (CAS) number for 20 of the 24 inert ingredients found in the following six

herbicide products: Aatrex 80W; Weedone LV4; Roundup; Velpar; Tordon 101; and

Garlon 3A. For two inert ingredients, the judge ordered public disclosure of the

common name but not the CAS number. The judge did not name all of the ingredi-

ents in his ruling. Rather he placed them in an attachment under court seal. This

action was taken in case the ruling was appealed. In November, ACPA asked the

court to clarify and amend its judgment. On November 27, 1996, Judge Robertsondenied the motion except to change the trade names to common names of two ingre-

dients found in Velpar. By February, 1997, it became clear that none of the parties

was going to appeal. On March 21, EPA mailed our attorneys the names of the

ingredients in the six products.

In bringing this lawsuit, NCAP learned quite a bit about the way to find out

the identities of pesticide product ingredients, including disclosure on Material Safety

Data Sheets (MSDSs), from articles in the published literature or other public docu-

ments, by asking the companies themselves, and by reverse engineering two formulas

ourselves at a private laboratory.

This is what we know about the ingredients in the six herbicide products and

how we learned their identities.

Aatrex 80W(active ingredient: atrazine)

The court indicated there are four inert ingredients in this product. Crystalline

silica and nuisance dusts are noted as ingredients on CibaGeigys MSDS. EPA

disclosed to us that this product contains sodium butylonaphthalene sulfonate (CAS#

25638-17-9), sodium lignosulfonate (CAS# 8061-51-6), gum arabic (CAS# 900-01-

5), and kaolin type clay (CAS# 1332-58-7).


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Weedone LV4 (active ingredient is the butoxyethyl ester form of 2,4D)

The court listed three inert ingredients in this product. According to the court, two of the ingredients

appear on EPAs statement of formula with trade names instead of common names with CAS numbers.

Because the common names and CAS numbers for these two ingredients do not appear on the statement

of formula, the judge said there was nothing to disclose under FOIA. As EPA reregisters active ingredi-

ents, it will require industry to update the statement of formula and provide the common chemical

name and CAS# for all ingredients in the product. Trade names will disappear off the statements of

formula as EPA completes reregistration of pesticide active ingredients. Rhone Poulencs MSDS listsWeedone LV4 as having petroleum distillates containing naphthalene. NCAP had this product reverse

engineered at a private lab that found 1phenyl1hexanone and seven different types of benzene

derivatives (petroleum distillates), naphthalene, a surfactant similar to dodecyl benzene sulfonate, and

some inorganics similar to sodium carbonate. EPA told us that the one disclosable ingredient is petro-

leum naphtha/kerosene (CAS# 64742-94-5).

Roundup(active ingredient is glyphosate)

The court identified four inert ingredients in this product. Monsantos MSDS reveals that Roundup

includes the inert ingredient ethoxylated tallowamine (CAS# 61791262). Monsanto sent NCAP a

letter telling all of the Roundup ingredients and their percentage of weight in the formula on the same

day that they told EPA that all product ingredient information was to be withheld from us because it wastrade secret/confidential business information. (The court agreed with us that information cannot be

trade secret or confidential if it is shared.) Monsantos letter to NCAP says the ingredients in Roundup

are the isopropylamine salt of glyphosate (active ingredient), water, the ethoxylated tallowamine surfac-

tant, related organic acids of glyphosate, and excess isopropylamine. Published medical journal articles

have revealed the identities of Roundups surfactant since at least 1988. EPA told us that this product

contains ethoxylated tallowamine (CAS# 61791-26-2), isopropylamine (CAS# 75-31-0) and water

(CAS# 7732-18-5), and related organic acids of glyphosate (CAS# None).

Velpar (active ingredient is hexazinone)

The court said there are four inert ingredients in this DuPont product. From an USDA Forest Servicevegetation management environmental impact statement (Pacific Northwest Region 6, 1988), NCAP

knows that Velpar contains some of the following ingredients: acetic acid, diisopropyl naphthalene

sulfate, ethanol, hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, hydrous sodium silico aluminate, lactose,

polyethoxylated dinomyl phenyl, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, sodium alginate, sodium benzoate,

sodium sulfosuccinic acid, sodium tallowate, sugar, and water. EPA told us the four inerts in this

product were hydrous sodium silicoaluminate (CAS# 1344-00-9), dioctylester of sodium solfosiccinic

acid and sodium benzoate (CAS# 577-11-7), hydroxyprophy methyl cellulose (CAS# 9004-65-3) and

sugar (CAS# 57-50-1).

Tordon 101(active ingredients are a mixture of the triisopropanolamine salt of 2,4D and picloram)

The court said there are five inert ingredients in this product. DowElanco responded to NCAPs letterrequesting the inerts by telling us the ingredients and their percentage by weight in the formulations

for Tordon 101 and Garlon 3A (the other DowElanco product, see below). DowElanco said Tordon 101

has water, ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA, a chelating agent), a polyglycol nonionic surfac-

tant, and isopropanol. The court said the polyglycol name had to be public, but the CAS number

could be withheld because DowElanco had demonstrated that revealing that information would cause

the company substantial competitive harm. EPA told us the five ingredients in this product:

polyglycol (CAS# is confidential); versene acid (CAS# 60-00-4); triisopropanolamine (CAS#122-20-3);

isopropanol (CAS# 67-63-0); and water (CAS# 7732-18-5).


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Garlon 3A (active ingredient is the amine form of triclopyr)

This product has four inert ingredients according to the court, and, similar to Tordon 101, the

polyglycol in this product had to be disclosed while the CAS# did not. DowElancos MSDS lists water

(CAS# 7732185), ethanol (CAS# 64175) and triethylamine (CAS# 121448) in the product. In it

letter, DowElanco told NCAP that Garlon 3A had water, EDTA, polyglycol nonionic surfactant, and

ethanol. NCAP had this product reverse engineered by a private lab, and the lab found that in addition

the active ingredient the product contained water, ethanol, triethylamine, two components that appear to

be breakdown products of the active ingredient, an alkoxypoly(ethylenoxy) alcoholbased nonionicsurfactant, and EDTA. DowElanco also revealed the identities of the inerts in Garlon 3A to Lane

County (Oregon) Public Works Department in a letter. It did this after Public Works requested the

information so it could tell the public all the ingredients that were in the products that the county was

spraying along public roadways. EPA told us that the four ingredients are polyglycol (CAS# is confiden

tial), triethylamine (CAS# 121-44-8), ethanol (CAS# 64-17-5) and ethylenediaminetetracetic acid

(EDTA) (CAS# 60-00-4).

NCAP and other groups are submitting new Freedom of Information Act requests to EPA to get

information about inerts in more products. We encourage others to submit requests as well. Attached

is a sample FOIA request that we encourage you to copy. It is important that you request information

about the identities of the ingredients and not about the percentage of that ingredient in the product. Ifyou do submit requests and are successful or unsuccessful in finding out about the inert identities,

please tell NCAP. We want to know about your experiences.

A very helpful project that could be undertaken is to survey ingredients listed on MSDSs written

for specific pesticide products. If this was done via computer, it would create a nifty report that would

be useful to many people. MSDSs are required for worker righttoknow hazardous materials com-

munication, and they are publicly available through the Emergency Planning and Community Right to

Know Act (1986 Superfund amendments). MSDSs are written for pesticide products that are used in

commercial agriculture (because workers may be exposed to them) but are only sometimes, but not

always, available for home products.

MSDSs list ingredients that are considered hazardous because they are corrosive, flammable,

or toxic. You rarely find water on a MSDS. MSDSs must list certain hazardous substances that are

found in products at rates as low as one tenth of one percent. Sometimes these ingredients may be

unavoidable byproducts of the manufacturing process (contaminants, impurities) rather than intentional

added inerts. [Note: While the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act says all ingredien

other than the active ingredients are inerts, EPA has chosen to define intentionally added ingredients a

inerts and unavoidable product ingredients are contaminants or impurities.] Dont assume all

ingredients on a MSDS are inerts. They may be contaminants. Please let NCAP know if you under-

take compiling a list of inerts from MSDSs.

According to the EPAs 1995 list, there are 2,518 inert ingredients that are added to pesticide

products. EPA requires registrants who use the seven inerts of toxicological concern (List 1 Inerts)

that are still in products to name those inerts on labels (i.e., di-2-ethylhexyladipate, di-2-

ethylhexylphthalate, hydroquinone, isophorone, nonylphenol, phenol, and Rhodamine B). In addition

since 1984, EPA has required disclosure of the following four ingredients: carbon tetrachloride, methano

(4% or more), petroleum distillates (10% or more), and sodium nitrite. (See 49Fed. Reg. 37980.)

NCAPs goal is to get all ingredients listed on pesticide product labels. Please share with us yo

successes and failures in getting public disclosure about the identities of inerts. Well make more

progress by working together on this important issue.


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Sample Freedom of Information Act request for inerts in pesticide products

Note: Send this request to EPA by U.S. Postal Service, certified mail, return receipt requested.

(Date)

Freedom of Information Act Officer

U.S. EPA

401 M Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20460

Dear EPA FOIA Officer:

The [insert name of group] requests, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C.

552, a copy of the confidential statement of formula (EPA Form 85704) for the following specific

pesticide formula(s):

[List: Product name (active ingredient), EPA Registration #, manufacturer]

We are interested in the identity of inert ingredients, as opposed to percentages of the ingredients in

the product.

FOIA specifies that if some portions of the documents are exempt, you must segregate those portions

and give us the rest of the document. If you review any document that fits the request but decide to

withhold it in whole or part, please include it on a list of all nonreleased documents. In addition, if

you withhold any information on the basis of its business confidentiality, please provide documenta-

tion for your determination that the substantive criteria set forth in 40 C.F.R. 2.208 have been met.

We also seek that you waive any fees associated with responding to this request, 5 U.S.C. 552

(a)(4)(A)(ii)-(iii). [Insert name of group] will use the requested information to benefit the public by

informing pesticide users of the potential risks of the pesticides they use. The information will not

commercially benefit [insert group name] in any way.

We look forward to receiving your response within the ten days required by the Freedom of Informa-

tion Act.

Sincerely,

so and so

title, if any

locating information on 'inert' ingredients in pesticide products - norma grier

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