WASHINGTON, Sept. 15- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking public comment on a petition filed by the environmental advocacy group Save the Frogs to ban the use and production of atrazine.
The September 14, 2011 Federal Register Notice was issued on September 6, 2011 by Richard P. Keigwin, Jr. who is the Director of the Pesticide Re-evaluation Division of the Office of Pesticide Programs, a unit of the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
This petition was submitted on May 6, 2011 during a meeting with Save the Frogs founder Dr. Kerry Kriger. The Save the Frogs petition includes over 10,000 signatures, as well as select statements from the public; and two brief summaries of published literature.
In conjunction with this petition, EPA received nearly 50,000 emails from supporters of the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council requesting that EPA ``immediately take steps to phase out atrazine use in the United States,'' stating that atrazine poses an unreasonable risk to the environment. The emails express concern for impacts on amphibians and other aquatic species as well as concern for potential risks to human health.
The Agency asks that comments on the Save the Frogs petition's request to ban the use and production of atrazine be submitted to docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0586 within 60 days or by Nov. 14, 2011.
The September 14, 2011 EPA Federal Register Final Rule is posted at
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-09-14/html/2011-23515.htm
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