EPA Suspends All Registrations of Pesticide Dacthal, Citing Effects on Fetal Development

EPA announced the emergency suspension of all registrations of dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, a pesticide also known as DCPA or Dacthal. The sale, distribution, and use of all DCPA products is prohibited as of Aug. 7, when a notice signed by EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan appeared in the Federal Register. According to an agency press release, EPA took this action because the unborn babies of pregnant people who have been exposed to DCPA are at risk for changes in fetal thyroid hormone levels linked to low birth weight, impaired brain development, decreased IQ, and impaired motor skills. This is the first time EPA has ordered the emergency suspension of a pesticide under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) in almost 40 years.

 

DCPA is registered for use on crops such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, and onions and on non-residential turf such as golf courses and athletic fields. EPA’s press release explains that AMVAC Chemical Corporation, the sole manufacturer of DCPA, failed to submit data required to support the pesticide’s continuing registrations for almost 10 years. This data included a major study on DCPA’s effects on thyroid development. In 2023, EPA suspended the registration for the DCPA technical-grade product, used to manufacture end-use products. EPA rescinded the suspension following AMVAC’s provision of the requested documents.

 

In a risk assessment following AMVAC’s submission of the thyroid study, EPA concluded that health risks associated with DCPA use and application exist “even when personal protective equipment and engineering controls are used.” People who handle DCPA while pregnant may have exposures four to 20 times greater than what EPA has estimated is safe for unborn babies. For many crops and tasks, EPA found that DCPA levels in treated fields remain unsafe for 25 days or more. Pregnant people who live near areas where DCPA is used may be exposed to the pesticide through spray drift, when it moves through the air to locations other than where it was applied.

 

AMVAC voluntarily cancelled the use of DCPA on turf in December 2023. According to EPA, this practically eliminated exposures to DCPA during recreational activities. However, “AMVAC’s proposed changes to agricultural uses of DCPA do not adequately address the serious health risks for people who work with and around DCPA,” EPA’s press release states.

 

FIFRA authorizes EPA to suspend or cancel a pesticide when significant risks are associated with its use, although EPA rarely does so due to the time and resources required. FIFRA also permits EPA to suspend a pesticide while cancellation proceedings are in progress if the EPA administrator determines that continued sale, distribution, or use of the product poses an imminent hazard. EPA intends to issue a notice cancelling the registration of all DCPA products within 90 days.

 

“EPA has determined that there is no combination of practicable mitigations under which DCPA use can continue without presenting an imminent hazard,” the emergency suspension notice states.

 

After receiving citations requiring it to correct existing fall hazards at its Chester warehouse, and paying $17,403 in penalties, Adidas America Inc. - maker of one of the world's best-selling sneakers - now faces an additional $396,377 in penalties for continuing to ignore U.S. Department of Labor workplace safety standards.

 

The action comes after a January 2024 follow-up inspection at the facility prompted by Adidas' failure to submit required proof to the department's OSHA that the company had installed required guardrails or equivalent protection for employees accessing and working atop a mezzanine and made certain a ladder used to access the mezzanine extended at least three feet above the landing.

 

OSHA cited the company in March 2022 after its original 2021 inspection found the absence of guardrails and an unsafe ladder exposed Adidas employees to falls of up to 10 feet to the floor below. Inspectors returned in 2024 to find the company had not corrected its violations.

 

"When employers agree to correct a hazard, they must follow through and prove to OSHA that the hazards were addressed," explained OSHA Area Director Rita Young in Albany, New York. "Adidas America Inc. failed to do so, continued to expose their employees to potentially deadly and disabling injuries and are now liable for additional and sizable OSHA penalties."

 

OSHA's Warehousing page provides solutions to prevent injuries from hazards including forklifts, slips, trips and falls and materials handling. The agency's stop falls website offers safety information and video presentations in English and Spanish to teach workers about fall hazards and proper safety procedures.

 

Adidas America Inc. is a subsidiary of Adidas AG, an athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany, which is one of the world's largest sportswear manufacturers. Adidas America Inc. designs and markets its products, providing shoes, apparel and accessories for men, women, boys, girls, and infants and toddlers, as well as specialized basketball, football and training shoes.

 

 

A federal workplace safety investigation has found that a metro-Chicago carpentry contractor with a long history of exposing employees to potentially deadly hazards again ignored regulations to protect workers from falls.

 

For the seventh time since 2013, OSHA cited Dromin Development, LLC for not providing required safety equipment and training to employees building a new home in Frankfort. The company currently owes more than $114,000 in unpaid penalties for similar willful and serious violations.

 

The March 2024 inspection in Frankfort determined Dromin allowed employees to work at heights greater than six feet without fall protection and failed to provide training in fall protection and proper forklift operation. OSHA also noted workers failed to wear hard hats and used ladders improperly.

 

OSHA cited the Palos Park construction contractor for two repeat violations and one willful, one serious and one other-than-serious violation. The agency has proposed $268,309 in penalties.

 

"Each year, hundreds of workers die in preventable falls. Making sure workers wear fall protection each time they work at heights six feet or greater can be the difference between life or death,"" said OSHA's Chicago South Area Director James Martineck in Tinley Park, Illinois. "OSHA continues to work with the construction industry to address this deadly hazard and will continue to hold all employers accountable when they fail to provide safe working conditions."

 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 1,056 construction workers died on the job in 2022, with 423 of those fatalities related to falls from elevation, slips or trips. 

 

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

 

Visit OSHA's website for information on developing a workplace safety and health program. Employers can also contact the agency for information about OSHA's compliance assistance resources and for free help on complying with OSHA standards.

 

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit OSHA’s website to learn more.

 

 

The National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a recent investigation report it was not necessary to vent and burn tank cars carrying vinyl chloride monomer following the February 2023 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train near East Palestine, Ohio. According to NTSB, the derailment involved 38 mixed-freight railcars, including five tank cars carrying vinyl chloride monomer, a compressed liquified flammable gas. Those five cars were not mechanically breached during the derailment, but a fire ignited during the incident exposed four of them to heat as well as material released from pressure-relief devices. The vinyl chloride monomer in the derailed cars “remained in a stabilized environment…until those tank cars were deliberately breached with explosives,” the report’s abstract (PDF) explains, and the temperature trends observed at the scene “did not indicate that a polymerization reaction was occurring.” This means that the vent-and-burn procedure, which involved deliberately breaching tank cars, was not needed to prevent an explosion, NTSB says.

 

“Burning [vinyl chloride monomer] resulted in a column of black smoke that grew into a persistent cloud,” the NTSB report states. “According to the [Norfolk Southern] system manager for hazardous materials, the cloud likely contained soot particles, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, and a trace of phosgene (a toxic gas).”

 

NTSB found that the local incident commander’s decision to vent and burn the tank cars “was based on incomplete and misleading information provided by Norfolk Southern officials and contractors,” the board’s news release states. According to the report, Norfolk Southern and its contractors did not communicate with the incident commander relevant expertise from the shipper of the cars carrying vinyl chloride monomer. The shipper, Oxy Vinyls, had shared with Norfolk Southern “dissenting opinions and evidence indicating that polymerization was not occurring.”

 

Other safety issues identified during NTSB’s investigation include inadequate training of volunteer first responders and concerns related to written guidance and information about chemical hazards.

 

 

Northridge Construction Corporation was sentenced in federal court for violating a worker safety standard, which caused the death of one of its employees, and for making two false statements obstructing a federal agency’s subsequent investigation.

 

U.S. District Court Judge Joan M. Azrack for the Eastern District of New York sentenced Northridge to pay a fine of $100,000 and serve a five-year term of probation, which will require, among other conditions, increased safety training for Northridge employees. The company pleaded guilty in January.

 

According to court records, in December 2018, during the construction of a shed on Northridge’s property in East Patchogue, New York, one of its employees fell from an improperly secured roof and died. Among other worker safety standards, Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations require always maintaining the stability of a metal structure during construction. An investigation revealed that Northridge failed to adhere to the structural stability standard, and that Northridge employees made false statements to obstruct the ensuing federal inquiry into the death. Northridge supervisor Richard Zagger pleaded guilty in July to related charges and is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 16.

 

Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) made the announcement.

 

The Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General investigated the case.

 

Senior Trial Attorneys Daniel Dooher and Richard J. Powers and Trial Attorney Rachel Roberts of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section are prosecuting the case.

 

 

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According to the National Park Service, what percentage of wildfires are caused by humans every year?