CATCH THE BUZZ - New Pesticide Reporting Page available

 CATCH THE BUZZ

New Pesticide Abuse Reporting Page Available

by Kim Flottum

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The EPA, in cooperation with Oregon State University, has launched a new portal for the reporting of ecological incidents related to pesticides, through their "National Pesticide Information Center" website. This is an effort by the Office of Pesticide Programs to improve the quantity and quality of incident data they receive for pesticides, so please check it out, use it, and get the word out to other interested parties!

The portal is not without a few problems. Pertinent information asked for on the 4 page query include the type of incident you wish to report...terrestrial, aquatic, both, for plants or bees.

They also want significant contact and location information, which makes sense, including your state and county, but also the number of affected entities, date observed, the weather when the event occured and a short overview of the event.

But here's the kicker, in my opinion...you need a significant amount of pesticide information...or they don't let you finish the report. They want the Product name and the active ingredient, and if possible the EPA Registration number (which is conveniently located on the label, in case you didn't know). They also want the formulation, evidence of misuse, how certain are you it was misused, and whether it was an aerial or ground spray.

I'm quite certain they want more, but since I didn't have the registration number, I couldn't get past that page on the report, so had to quit...This is a short coming on this what-could-have-been very useful report for beekeepers. Maybe product names and formulations and active ingredients and registration numbers are move available to people other than beekeepers. But when you find a dead hive you probably don't have ample opportunity to carefully read the label. Thus, this reporting device is meaningless. That is unfortunate.

To take a look at this report, and if you have a registration number, go to the web page below and make a report...

http://npic.orst.edu/eco

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