Pest Management Professional, December 2017
reGULaTorY UPDaTe by DiANe SofrANec Managing Editor NPMA examines legislative issues for 2018 W hats on tap on the regulatory front for pest management professionals PMPs in the year ahead At PestWorld 2017 the National Pest Management Associations NPMAs Public Policy committee discussed the regulations that may affect the pest management industry in 2018 The NPMA is trying to be proactive and push the industry into the future when it comes to federal legislative and regulatory affairs said Andy Architect NPMAs chief industry relations officer One important piece of legislation is the Farm Bill a multi year omnibus that governs an array of farm food forestry and rural policies and programs under the joint jurisdiction of the House Committee on Agriculture and the Senate Committees on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry Included within this jurisdiction are issues related to the Federal Insecticide Fungicide Rodenticide Act FIFRA the statute that governs pesticides Of concern to the NPMA are three issues related to the Farm Bill 1Regulation of the sale and use of pesticides at the city and county levels instead of the preferred state level 2Modernization of the Endangered Species Act See The dangers of the ESA p 14 November 2017 3The requirement that pesticide applicators must obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits when applying pesticides directly to waters of the United States See Water permit issue persists p 16 July 2017 The NPMA also is working with product applicators and suppliers to modernize and simplify product labels It convened a group of NPMA members who are product applicators and suppliers to determine their pain points regarding product labels and to create recommendations or processes the NPMA can share with the U S Environmental Protection Agency We are just in the beginning stages but we believe it will be a fruitful endeavor said Dr Jim Fredericks NPMAs vice president of technical and regulatory affairs and PMPs Callback Cures columnist In addition tax reform likely will continue to be an issue next year Although the Public Policy committee members stressed that they could not say for sure what will happen next year they implored PMPs to make state representatives aware of what the industry does to protect the public and why these reforms are needed PMP You can reach Sofranec at dsofranec@ northcoastmedia net or 216 706 3793 mypmp net Pest Management Professional December 2017 25
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