Washington — The Environmental Protection Agency is requesting comment on its proposal to track pesticide manufacturers’ bilingual product labeling compliance through EPA’s MyPeST app instead of an annual paper worksheet.
The Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2022 requires pesticide manufacturers to translate into Spanish safety and health information on product labels. The act also directs EPA to notify registrants within 10 days of updating its Spanish Translation Guide for Pesticide Labeling.
Under the act, labels for restricted-use pesticide products and agricultural-use products with the highest toxicity must be translated by Dec. 29. Labels for all other pesticide products must be translated by Dec. 29, 2030.
EPA’s proposal calls for app registrants to “still check a box next to each pesticide product indicating whether it includes the required bilingual labeling.” However, the app would also show users information such as product type and signal word to help confirm a product’s compliance date.
In addition, product information and compliance information would be in a “single location and allow for more efficient transmission, analysis and publication of data,” the agency says.
EPA is also asking employers with fewer than 25 workers to provide “examples of specific additional efforts that EPA could make to reduce the paperwork burden for very small businesses affected by this collection.”
The deadline to submit comments is Sept. 19.
In related news, EPA on July 21 updated its bilingual labeling Q&A to reflect new information about topics such as enforcement, compliance and handling subsequent label changes.
