Safety Regulations on Commercial Formulations

Chemistry pervades every area of agribusiness. The use of chemicals was limited to about 50 compounds in 1940, now several hundred are used in perhaps 50,000 commercial formulations. Effectiveness and economical production are important, but safety to farmers, consumers, and the general public is so important that federal laws strictly demand it. The following specific regulatory applies.

1. The meat inspection Act of 1906 (as amended)
2. Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1935 (as amended by the Miller Amendment of 1954 concerned with pesticide residues: Color Certification Bill of 1960, and the Drug Amendment of 1962 amending the so-called Delaney (or cancer) clause 409 (s)(3)(A) of the Food Additives Amendment.
3. Agriculture Marketing Act of 1946 (as amended)
4. Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1947
5. Poultry Product Inspection Act of 1957
6. Public Law 86-139 of 1959 (which extends item 4)
7. Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), Public Law 92-516 of 1972 and its amendments, Public Law 94-140 of 1975, and Public Law 95-306 of 1978.

Registration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now required for all pesticides. The potential hazards of chemicals to public health and wildlife are constantly being considered and reviewed by competent government authorities and weighed against their proven value in agriculture. Parts of apparent problem lies in new analytical techniques which enable the determine. Chronic (long term) effects are especially difficult to measure even with relatively high concentrations. Adequate safeguards now exist, provided that label recommendations are followed intelligently and correctly by the user. Licencing of applicatiors helps assure compliance.