- The U.S. EPA recently announced a new Hispanic environmental health page on pesticides in its Spanish-language portal. The new page discusses health and environmental issues associated with the proper use of pesticides and informational resources in Spanish and English. This Hispanic Web site is part of the agency's continuing expansion of outreach to the Hispanic community in the United States and Puerto Rico. The Hispanic environmental health page, "El medio ambiente y su salud," focuses on the agency's overall efforts to educate Hispanics, researchers, and health care providers on how environmental health issues affect the different Hispanic communities. The page is updated regularly with new information on developments and policy. Since its laufdnch last year, this popular page has covered issues such as asthma, mold and carbon monoxide. This segment of EPA's Spanish-language portal will feature other environmental issues such as green technology and drinking water in the near future. (http://www.epa.gov/espanol/pesticidas.htm).
- On March 24, the FDACS published a “Notice of Development of Proposed Rules and Negotiated Rulemaking” that affects chapter number 5B-62 - Citrus Nursery Stock Certification Program. Within the notice is a requirement that deals with citrus nursery site approval. Specifically, nurseries must be one mile away from commercial citrus groves and 100 feet away from plants not certified by FDACS as being free of nematodes. Citrus nurseries located on sites prior to April 1, 2006 will not be required to comply if they maintain continuous operation. There are also requirements for nursery structure and sanitation. These changes are an attempt at reducing citrus pests prior to grove planting. (Florida Administrative Weekly, 3/24/06).
- The EPA’s Biopesticides and Pollution Prevention Division has released a proposed rule on data requirements for registration of biochemical and microbial pesticides. As the biopesticide market matures and organic production converges with conventional production systems, the industry is becoming more significant in economic terms. The global biopesticides market is valued at $672 million, and is expected to increase to almost $1.1 billion by 2010. The biggest increases are expected in Europe, where maximum residue levels impose increasing restrictions on the use of conventional pesticides. (Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 3/13/06).
- The State of Maine may be the first state to adopt a rule which would require that indoor pesticide applicators make every possible effort to pursue
 Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and that residents and workers in private group homes, apartment buildings, and public and private office buildings are notified 24 hours in advance of any chemical applications. Specifically, the applicators “must undertake pest management activities using appropriate elements of IPM,” and that “in all cases any chemical application shall be conducted in a manner to minimize exposure and human risk to the maximum extent practicable using currently available technology.” (Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 3/13/06).
- Entomologists with the University of Arizona and the USDA advocate a combination of preventative action in the form of biological control and selective insecticides as the most effective, environmentally-friendly response to whitefly invasions. The researchers identified the most common causes of death, including predatory insects and weather-induced dislodgment. This led them to recommend complementing biological control with commercial insect growth regulators like buprofezin and pyriproxyfen. Their work is part of a growing knowledge base that has helped decrease insecticide use for whitefly control by about 85 percent since 1995. (USDA ARS News, 4/5/06).
- The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has prepared a document entitled, “Evaluation of asymptomatic citrus fruit (Citrus spp.) as a pathway for the introduction of citrus canker disease (Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri).” The evaluation concludes that it is highly unlikely that citrus canker could be introduced on asymptomatic, commercially produced citrus fruit that has been treated with disinfectant dips and subject to other mitigation. The evaluation is available for review and comment at: http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main (Federal Register, 4/6/06).
- The Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) met for the first time in Rome, Italy, during the first week of April 2006. The meeting brought together delegates from more than 150 countries to discuss how the Commission can deal with the challenge of global pest control. The CPM is a recently established governing body of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), tasked to set standards designed to prevent plant pests being spread through international trade, while ensuring that countries do not use plant protection regulations to protect, instead, their domestic producers. As global trade and movement of people and commodities increase, natural and national barriers that were once effective against the spread of unwanted pests are now under intense pressure. (CropBioTech Update, 4/11/06).
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