DuPont Fined for Failing to Properly Authorize Herbicide Repackaging
DuPont has agreed to pay a $15,600 civil penalty for failing to have proper written authorization for a Missouri agrichemical company to repackage and sell its Steadfast herbicide.
E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company Inc. (DuPont) has agreed to pay a $15,600 civil penalty for failing to have proper written authorization for a Missouri agrichemical company to repackage and sell DuPont’s Steadfast herbicide.
According to an administrative consent agreement filed by EPA Region seven in Kansas City, Kan., DuPont, headquartered in Wilmington, Del., had a contract repackaging and label authorization agreement with Central Elevator, Inc., that was effective from November 2005 through September 2006.
In May 2009, however, an inspector from the Missouri Department of Agriculture conducted an inspection of Central Elevator’s facilities at Silex and Olney, Mo., and collected documentation that the Missouri company had been repackaging Steadfast for sale to its customers, without a legally required repackaging and label authorization agreement.
Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), a registrant of a pesticide such as DuPont must have written authorization with a repackager, and must meet certain other conditions, to allow the repackager to repackage pesticide products without obtaining its own new registration.
Without an authorization agreement in place, repackaged products are legally considered to be unregistered. Without such agreements, a registrant cannot ensure the safety or integrity of its product. Unregistered and misbranded pesticide products may pose risks to human health and the environment, because neither the safety of the product nor directions for its safe and proper use have been verified.
Central Elevator obtained a repackaging agreement with DuPont shortly after the violation was discovered by the Missouri Department of Agriculture.