By Margaret R. Graham

On September 22, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice in the Federal Register (82 Fed. Reg. 44406) announcing the availability of two final Pesticide Registration Notices (PRN):

1. PRN 2017-1:  Guidance for Pesticide Registrants on Pesticide Resistance Management Labeling, which updates PRN 2001-5 and provides guidance for registrants to follow when developing resistance management information to include on their pesticide labels.  It addresses “end-use herbicide, fungicide/bactericide, or insecticide/acaricide products that are intended mainly for agricultural and certain non-crop land areas under commercial or government-sponsored pest management,” and applies in particular to “all field use agricultural pesticide products, as well as pesticides which are labeled for greenhouse production, sod farms, ornamental crops, aquatic vegetation, rights-of way, and pest management along roadways.”
2. PRN 2017-2:  Guidance for Herbicide Resistance Management Labeling, Education, Training, and Stewardship, which “communicates the agency's approach to address herbicide-resistant weeds.”  It is “germane to end-use herbicide products used in agriculture, including commercial turf and sod farms, ornamental production in the open.”  It also applies to “non-agricultural use sites such as golf courses, aquatic vegetation, rights-of-way and vegetation management along roadways.”

These final PRNs reflect consideration of public comments submitted on the draft PRNs.  Also available in the dockets are EPA’s responses to comments on the draft PRNs:  Response to Comments on PRN 2017-1; and Response to Comments on PRN 2017-2.  EPA states that “PRNs are issued by the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) to inform pesticide registrants and other interested persons about important policies, procedures, and registration-related decisions, and to provide guidance to pesticide registrants and OPP personnel.”

More information on PRNs is available on our blog under key phrase pesticide registration notice.