Endosulfan Phase-Out

The insecticide endosulfan, which can be labeled as Endosulfan, Thiodan, Drexel Endosulfan or Thionex®, has been undergoing a phase-out for end-users. The phase-out began on July 31, 2012 for many Florida crops such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, celery, cucumber, lettuce, summer melon (cantaloupe and watermelon), summer squash, non-bearing and nursery stock citrus, collard greens, eggplant, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, strawberry, sweet potato, Christmas trees, and leatherleaf fern. July 31, 2012 was the last date of legal application to these crops, which have for the large part been harvested by 2013. The use of this product is now illegal for all Florida crops except apple, blueberry, pepper, potato, pumpkin, sweet corn, tomato and winter squash. Floridian end-users are able to use endosulfan on these crops (apple, blueberry, pepper, potato, pumpkin, sweet corn, tomato and winter squash) until December 31, 2014. If these same crops are grown in other states, endosulfan may be used in those states until July 31, 2015. Livestock ear tags and some vegetable crops grown for seed have an end-user date of July 31, 2016. Currently, there are tolerance expiration dates that are the same as the end-use date, leaving no time between a possible last application and the tolerance expiration. Under such circumstances, it is possible that a lawful application of endosulfan could result in residues in a crop for which the tolerance has been revoked. In the case of a lawful application, the product would not be in violation if the grower could provide written spray records demonstrating the application occurred before the end-use date. It is clear that if endosulfan is applied on a crop after the labeled expiration date, the applicator would be in violation even if the applicator is applying product purchased before the end-use date. In Florida, endosulfan may now only be applied to the crops whose use ends 12/31/2014. Posted in Chemically Speaking Oct. 2013.