TITLE:
Scope and Application of the FIFRA Treated Articles Exemption
AUTHORS:
Lawrence S. Ebner, David A. Webb
KEYWORDS:
Creosote, Wood Preservative, Railroad Crossties, Treated Wood, Registered, FIFRA Treated Article Exemption, Critical Infrastructure
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Transportation Technologies,
Vol.10 No.1,
December
12,
2019
ABSTRACT: This paper discusses the U.S. Environmental
Agency’s potential improper expansion of its authority under the Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the federal pesticide
statute, to regulate not only the registration, labeling, and use of wood
preservatives, but also treated wood products. EPA’s oversight of wood
preservatives under FIFRA is extensive. In recent years, despite EPA’s own
Treated Articles Exemption, 40 C.F.R. § 152.25(a), EPA has moved toward
utilizing wood preservative labeling in a way that could impose restrictions on
the end use of treated wood. Wood preservative registrant and user groups
should be concerned and vigilant about this trend toward regulation of treated
wood. At the same time, they should continue to interact with EPA in a
constructive manner, in part to ensure that EPA respects its own regulatory
boundary between wood preservatives, such as creosote, and treated wood, such
as creosote-treated railroad crossties, which are a key component of the
nation’s transportation critical infrastructure.