Document DDzv0k3eX0jkXzamVEDa0Yb6a

JIM WEAVER 4TH DISTRICT, OREGON COMMITTEES: AGRICULTURE INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS CHAIRMAN: SUBCOMMITTEE ON MINING, FOREST MANAGEMENT AND BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION JOE RUTLEDGE Administrative Assistant Congress oftheUnited States House of ieprtsentatto Washington, B . . 20515 W ASH IN GTO N OFFICE: Longworth House Office B uilding W ashington, D.C. 20515 (202) 225-6416 DISTRICT OFFICE: Federal Building 211 East 7th Avenue Eugene, Oregon 97401 (503) 687-6732 FACT SHEET FEDERAL INSECTICIDE, FUNGICIDE AND RODENTICIDE REFORM ACT H.R. 3818 and S. 1774 The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Reform Act was introduced in the House (H.R. 3818) by Congressmen Tom Harkin and George Brown, and in the Senate (S. 1774) by Senators William Proxmire and Patrick Leahy on August 5, 1983. The FIFRA Reform Act will correct seribus deficiencies in the existing federal pesticide control law. Among other things, the reform legislation will: 1. Improve protection for humans exposed to pesticides, with particular emphasis on persons handling regulated chemicals, farmers and farmworkers, and children and pregnant women; 2. Implement a more protective pesticide registration program at EPA by closing numerous loopholes in the current law which allow safety standards to be circumvented; CO mCQ 3. Ensure adequate enforcement of federal law, and provide legal remedies for persons who have been injured by pesticides; 4. Strengthen public participation in the decision making process at EPA so that all interests are represented before a registration decision is made, as well as after an application is granted; and 5. Guarantee that pesticide products are tested for effectiveness in order to substantiate the manufacturer's claims of performance characteristics. A coalition of 30 public health, labor, environmental, consumer, farm and farmworker groups have endorsed the reform measure. Coalition members maintain that inadequacies in the current law have resulted in numerous cases of contaminated food and drinking water, dangerously high pesticide residues in people's homes, poor worker protection standards, and chemical drift over towns, all of which lead to excessive risk of pesticide exposure, particularly for children and pregnant women. Some of the organizations that support the FIFRA Reform Act include: American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees American Public Health Association Center for Science in the Public Interest Clean Water Action Project Consumer Federation of America Defenders of Wildlife Environmental Defense Fund Environmental Policy Center Environmental Task Force Farmworker 3ustice Fund Food and Allied Service Trades, AFL-CIO Friends of the Earth League of Conservation Voters National Audubon Society National Coalition Against Misuse of Pesticides National Demonstration Water Project National Women's Health Network Natural Reources Defense Council Public Voice for Food and Health Policy Rachel Carson Council Rural Coalition Sierra Club Urban Environment Conference United Farmworkers of America, AFL-CIO