Pesticide Misuse

Stories pertaining to the use of a pesticide in a way that violates laws regulating their use or endangers humans or the environment. Many of these regulations are laid out in the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The most common example of pesticide misuse is application inconsistent with the labeling, which could be use of a material in any way not described on the label, changing dosage rates or violating a specific safety instruction. Other kinds of pesticide misuse could include selling or using an unregistered pesticide, or one whose registration has been revoked, the sale or use of an adulterated or misbranded pesticide. It would also be a violation to alter or remove pesticide labels, to sell restricted pesticides to an uncertified applicator, or to fail to keep sales and use records of restricted pesticides. Additionally, this collection examines the, often, legal use of pesticides by large agrochemical companies, especially in Hawaiʻi, that nevertheless endanger the health of the public and the environment, the efforts of the public to curb these practices, and the efforts of these companies to resist restrictions on their pesticide use.