RE: What kind and what amount of information do people need ?

[Sue.Darcey, Pesticide Report <sdarcey@erols.com>]

Steve, greetings.

Samples of the types of questions, as a reporter, I want answers
to, is summarized in my previous post, "Environmental Librarians'
Pesticide Pop Quiz."

In my pesticide information "perfect world", the following information
would be instantly or quickly accessible, either on electronic
databases, or in federal or state EPA libraries or docket rooms:

1) The pesticide adverse effects incident reports that manufacturers
are required to submit every day to EPA.

1a) An (updated daily) list of every pesticide currently registered
by EPA, including the registrant/manufacturers' name and address,
all the brand names of that pesticide, the EPA registration number
for each pesticide, the active and inert ingredients in that
pesticide, and an electronic reference to where I can find basic
toxicity information on that pesticide.

2) An electronic database containing every study that EPA ever
relied on to make a decision that a pesticide is O.K.  to go out
on the marketplace, or that at least tells me where I can go to
find and read the study.

3) EPA draft and proposed pesticide regulations and policy documents,
the instant the ink is dried on these regulations (you now have to
wait 2-3 weeks after the EPA official has signed the proposed rule,
and it appears in the Federal Register, before you are allowed to
see it.  In the case of the pesticide "right to know" grocery
brochure, one and half months elapsed between the time the brochure
was signed, and when it was released to the public.)

4) All the legal briefs and memorandum that go back and forth
between complainant and respondent and judge in all the pesticide
administrative law cases under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide
and Rodenticide Act, at both headquarters and regional offices (you
are now only allowed to see the limited number of pesticide case
briefs filed at headquarters EPA).

5) Minutes of every meeting that goes on behind closed doors at
the EPA Office of Pesticide Program between pesticide trade groups,
pesticide registrants and OPP staff, within two weeks of that
meeting.  Ditto for any meeting held between any environmental
group and EPA staff on any pesticide issues.

6) Copies of all the latest studies and incident information that
EPA Office of Pesticide Programs' Health Effects Division receives
about wildlife/ecological deaths or adverse effects caused by
pesticides.

7) Copies of all the latest memorandums that the OPP Health Effects
Division produces which analyze human pesticide incidents.

8)Access to complaints/briefs and final decisions for every pesticide
toxic tort case filed in a district court, appeals court, and or
U.S.  Supreme Court case, throughout the United States (you only
get the final decisions now)

9) Electronic access to every lawsuit filed by an environmental
group, chemical manufacturer, or trade association concerning
implementation of a pesticide law or regulation filed in the U.S.
District Court, District of Columbia (you now have to go down to
the court and do this in person, and pay .15 per page of legal
brief, or wait for a private company authorized by the court to
copy the whole thing for you.  Alternatively, you have to get down
on your hands and knees before the environmental group, trade
association or EPA office who filed the brief, and beg them for a
copy of it).

10) A copy of the daily meeting/speaking schedule of every EPA
Office of Pesticide Program Office Director, deputy director, OPP
Division head or OPP branch chief at which these officials speak
or participate.  I also would like to see the speaking schedule
for every EPA Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances
official (Assistant Administrator, Deputy Administrator, etc.,)
that concerns pesticides.

11) Copies of any written testimony that the public gives at any
FIFRA SAP meeting, Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee meeting,
or any other pesticide public meeting announced in a Federal Register
notice, within 48 hours, or two business days, after the testimony
is given (EPA OPP is already pretty good about putting its own
statements at public meetings up on its website).

12) From state pesticide lead agencies (usually, state agriculture
departments), I want to see every FIFRA Section 18 "emergency use"
pesticide petition or FIFRA Section 24 "Special Local Needs"
pesticide use petition filed with EPA, any proposed or final
pesticide regulation, and any report of pesticide enforcement
actions or inspections following up on pesticide-related complaints
filed by that state's citizens, up on a website.

13) I want to see similar information to that in #12, plus information
on pesticide enforcement actions, posted on EPA's 10 regional
offices websites.