Lawn Care Pesticides

EPA Needs to Assess State Notification Programs Gao ID: RCED-91-208 September 25, 1991

Although no federal requirements exist, about half the states require lawn care companies to provide some kind of notification when applying pesticides to residential lawns. The main notification methods include direct notification of customers, direct notification of neighbors upon request, and the posting of warning signs on treated lawns. In addition, several states maintain lists of people whose health may be affected by pesticide use and who wish to be informed when pesticides are applied near their homes. Limited information is available on the effectiveness of such notification programs. Because the most successful features of these programs are unknown, EPA should assess state notification programs and provide this information to all states--thus helping those states interested in modifying existing programs or those states about to begin notification programs.

GAO found that: (1) state notification requirements vary in terms of who should be provided with information, when the information should be provided, what information should be provided, and whether the information must be requested; (2) 23 states require commercial applicators to provide notification when applying lawn care pesticides on residential sites, and as of April 1991, six additional states were considering requiring notification; (3) the primary notification methods include direct notification to customers, direct notification to neighbors upon request, and the posting of warning signs on treated lawns; (4) none of the 23 states that required notification had formally assessed the notification requirements' effectiveness; (5) EPA stated that they were aware of state notification programs, but lacked sufficient information to determine the programs' effectiveness; and (6) a lawn-care industry trade organization supported states' efforts to require pesticide application notification.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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