SEPT. NEWS: Novartis Cancels Indoor Diazinon Uses

GREENSBORO, N.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to complete its reassessment of organophosphate products by the end of this year, and diazinon is next in line. Novartis Crop Protection, which produces the popular insecticide, has more reason to be optimistic about the eventual fate of its product than Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, Ind., ever had as it watched EPA reassess chlorpyrifos (Dursban). Whereas Dow AgroSciences ultimately agreed to stop selling Dursban in the pest control market, EPA’s preliminary reassessment found that granular diazinon products have an acceptable margin of safety. "Also, the agency determined that no dietary or ground-water sourced drinking water concerns exist for the product," according to a release from Novartis.

Not all of the news was good for Novartis, however. When EPA requested more data for some uses of the product, the company elected not to support those uses and, instead, to voluntarily withdraw those labels, including all indoor uses.

This action shouldn’t be construed as an indication of diazinon’s future as a whole, however, according to Pat Willenbrock, diazinon market manager and home and garden product manager for Novartis. "After chlorpyrifos, everyone thought, ‘diazinon is next,’ but they’re two different molecules," she explained. "Once people read the preliminary reassessment they realized that we know what we’re talking about. We’re very encouraged about the work we’ve done on diazinon so far."

"It makes sense to look at all the ways individuals may be exposed to pesticides, but [the Food Quality Protection Act] has also greatly multiplied the number of research dollars necessary to support product registrations," noted Willen-brock. "We regret that Novartis has had to make the business decision to no longer support indoor uses of diazinon. Unfortunately, sales in these sectors no longer justify the heavy commitment of resources now required to support any indoor uses."

In turn, the company can put those dollars that would have been used to further research indoor uses of diazinon toward additional research efforts on exterior applications, which represents a considerable portion of diazinon sales.

Novartis has requested a meeting with EPA to continue the dialogue about diazinon, a meeting Willenbrock expects to have scheduled by the end of this month. The company has also developed a website — www.cp.us.novartis/diazinon — to keep PCOs updated on its research and its dealings with EPA.