EPA Publishes Updated Registration Review Schedule
This original announcement was published by the EPA on April 10, 2023. Click here for more information.
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing an updated registration review schedule for the next three years to provide a roadmap and advance notice of actions for stakeholders. This update reflects the four-year extension for the registration review deadline provided for in the FY 2023 budget. The deadline for the completion of registration review final decisions is now October 1, 2026, for the pesticides registered before October 1, 2007.
This schedule update also reflects some of the broader policies that EPA is pursuing. For example, the registration review schedules for the rodenticides and many of the herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides are in-line with the Agency’s Endangered Species Act strategies for these pesticide types over the next four years. The schedule is designed to allow EPA to adopt consistent mitigation measures across the chemicals and to improve the efficiency of its registration review work. EPA affirms its plan to continue the review of remaining pesticide cases and issue decisions to protect people, endangered species, and the environment, while providing pesticide users with predictability about the legal status of pesticides in registration review.
In 2007, an amendment to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) formalized a requirement that EPA review each registered pesticide at least once every fifteen years to ensure that it can still be used without unreasonable adverse effect on human health or the environment. During the registration review process, EPA completes draft risk assessments, proposed interim decisions/proposed final decisions, and interim decisions/final decisions. Registration review decisions also require compliance with the Endangered Species Act. Throughout the registration review process, EPA makes its information, assessments and supporting material for each case available to the public through the case’s docket at www.regulations.gov.
When EPA identifies risks of concern to human health or the environment, it imposes pesticide label amendments designed to reduce risk. Mitigation measures can include the cancellation of uses or pesticide registrations, reduced application rates, spray drift restrictions, use of personal protective equipment, and advisory language. If EPA determines there are urgent human or environmental risks from pesticide exposures that require prompt attention, the Agency can take appropriate regulatory action, regardless of the registration review status of the pesticide.
By following the science and making evidence-based decisions that rely on the input of career scientists, EPA will continue to ensure that risk assessments and regulatory decisions reflect the best available public health and ecological science.
The original registration review deadline for the 726 pesticides registered before October 1, 2007, was October 1, 2022. While EPA has completed final or interim decisions for all but 144 of the 726 total pesticide cases, the Agency has been delayed in its ability to issue many final decisions. This delay is due to the demands of focusing resources to respond swiftly to COVID-19 antimicrobial actions, delays in receiving data from registrants, a lack of resources to respond to ongoing and increasing litigation, and the scientific complexity associated with many of the pesticides yet to go through the registration review process. EPA also must comply with the Endangered Species Act obligations and complete cumulative risk assessments before its registration review work can be finalized.
In addition to the 726 cases registered before October 1, 2007, there are 63 cases registered after October 1, 2007, with a registration review deadline prior to October 1, 2026. To date, for these 789 cases, EPA has:
- Completed draft risk assessments for 90% of total number of cases.
- Completed proposed interim decisions or proposed final decisions for 85% of total number of cases.
- Issued interim decisions for 57% of total number of cases.
- Issued final decisions for 20% of total number of cases.
- Of the interim or final decisions, more than 15% of the total number of cases resulted in cancellations of some or all uses.
As the Agency works through the remaining priority registration review actions, it will continue to maintain an open and transparent process by accepting public comments at most stages of the registration review process. In addition, EPA will update the schedule generally on a quarterly basis going forward.
Visit EPA’s website for more information on the registration review process and the updated schedule of upcoming registration review actions.
