Farm operators and family members are exempt from most federal safety laws and
regulations. However, raising the awareness of farm operators and family members to
both the prohibited and the recommended safe practices is an important goal, and is
one of the challenges for promoters of farm safety.Non-Reporting of Inert IngredientsThe EPA requires that pesticide labels disclose only the product’s active ingre-
dients, that is, those toxic materials that kill the pest, weed, or other target organism.
However, pesticides also contain many other ingredients, called ‘‘inert,’’ which deliver
the active ingredients to the target. Many of these may also be toxic, but the govern-
ment does not require them to be identified on pesticide product labels. Moreover,
states are preempted by the federal government from requiring such labeling for pes-
ticides. In 1998, New York, Connecticut, Alaska, Massachusetts, and other states sub-
mitted a federal petition to the EPA to require full-product labeling of inert
ingredients. Rather than responding to the petition, the EPA referred the matter to
two advisory committees, neither of which has a definite timetable for resolving this
pressing issue. There still have been no recommendations made to the EPA, and none
are expected in the foreseeable future. This is an example of effective lobbying and
political pressure by the agricultural chemical industry.^20Pesticides Become Hazardous WasteAlthough ‘‘inert’’ ingredients are often more toxic than ‘‘active’’ ingredients, the
public consumer and even professional applicators usually have no idea as to their
contamination potential. Furthermore, it appears that some corporations may be
using this avenue as a cheap form of hazardous waste disposal. This egregious policy
came to light in 1991 when an EPA press officer told a reporter that allowing
recycled hazardous waste in pesticides is ‘‘a way of disposing of hazardous materials.’’
Two days later, when the reporter phoned to check the quotation, officials changed it
to ‘‘a way ofusing[italics mine] hazardous materials.’’ Either way, there can be no
doubt that ‘‘recycling’’ hazardous waste into pesticides is a perfectly legal and EPA-
approved way of ‘‘using’’ hazardous wastes.^21 A little-known exemption in the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), the nation’s basic hazard-
ous waste law, allows hazardous wastes to be ‘‘recycled’’ into pesticides as ‘‘inert’’
ingredients.^22The Complete CircleNot long after the above incident, it became evident that corporations were
exploiting this legal loophole. GranTek, Inc., a Green Bay, Wisconsin, firm, takes
contaminated sludges from Georgia Pacific Corporation’s nearby paper mill. They
dry the sludge, pelletize it, and send the pellets to a chemical company in Illinois,
where they are used as the ‘‘inert’’ carrier ingredients for mosquito insecticides.36 | Pesticides