International regulatory agencies are updating their approaches to the management of potential drift exposure from agricultural spray applications. While databases and models have been developed in the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Australia for specific crop protection scenarios, most have an emphasis on worst-case conditions for drift and only a few included drift mitigation options. Regulatory management scenarios based on worst-case data can lead to over-regulation and the unnecessary loss of agricultural land or utility.
EPA has accepted the SDTF data sets and assisted with development of the drift model. The Agency is in the process of developing appropriate labeling mitigation and policy for the use of the AgDRIFT exposure model in risk assessments. On August 22, 2001, EPA published for comment a draft Pesticide Registration (PR) Notice proposing a series of label statements to manage drift. This PR-Notice has generated a significant number of diverse responses from the agricultural, regulatory and environmental communities. EPA is carefully reviewing these responses, intends to have additional dialog with stakeholders and will issue a revised draft for comment. It is hoped that several issues of concern will be resolved in the next draft PR-Notice. Guidelines are also needed for the appropriate use of drift models in exposure risk assessment. This paper addresses these and other issues related to spray drift regulation, with the hope that future guidelines will be as flexible as possible for changing agricultural practices, encouraging the development and adoption of new application technology. Drift guidelines must be practical, protective, enforceable, and make appropriate and realistic use of data and models for decision-making.
Keywords: Regulations, Drift
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