P.M. BRIEFING : Most Pesticide Exports Untracked
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WASHINGTON — The government has skimpy rules for tracking the export of pesticides that are barred from use in the United States and informing the recipient nations of the shipments, a congressional report said today.
The report, written by the General Accounting Office, said the rules now in effect “exempt the majority of unregistered pesticide exports from the notice requirement” on the grounds that they are similar to chemicals that are registered for use domestically.
Rep. Mike Synar (D-Okla.) said foreign governments “are not being notified about 90% of the unregistered pesticides exported from this country.” Synar and the GAO report pointed to the possibility that the lack of information about where the pesticides were being used could hamper detection of harmful residues in food imported by U.S. firms.
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