Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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EPA may inspect 'natural' repellents

By Jeff Nesmith
COX NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON - When Steven Bessette, a West Palm Beach, Fla., lawyer, was
told by his pregnant wife he no longer could have the house sprayed for
termites, palmetto bugs and other insects, he started looking for
alternatives.

Now no longer practicing law, Bessette heads EcoSMART Technologies, a
company that operates from an office in Alpharetta, Ga., selling
formulations brewed from peppermint oil, thyme and other "natural" products
for controlling farm and home pests.

Hollie Mulhaupt, an Austin, Texas, nurse, said warnings that the popular
bug repellent DEET causes nerve damage prompted her to come up with Texas
Bug Juice, her own mix of natural plant oils to drive away mosquitoes.

On its Web site, her Texas Herbal Body Solutions Co. says the bug repellent
not only can make camping trips and picnics more enjoyable, but also can
help you avoid insect-borne West Nile virus.

Mulhaupt and Bessette are players in the "natural pesticides" industry,
which claims rapid sales growth in the past decade.

Now, the makers of conventional pesticides are asking the Environmental
Protection Agency to require proof that these products actually work.

Currently, the EPA does not regulate "minimum-risk" pesticides produced
from natural products such as peppermint oil, licorice, garlic, lemon
grass, and thyme that are "generally recognized as safe."

As long as labels do not make a specific health claim, or list a specific
disease that a targeted bug or other pest may carry, the EPA doesn't even
require marketers to prove that the substances work.

The Consumer Specialty Products Association, whose members include
manufacturers of conventional chemical pesticides, sent the EPA a petition
in March arguing that a product that claims to kill or repel a pest known
to carry a disease is making a health claim, even if its label does not
specifically refer to the disease.

It asks the EPA to require manufacturers of such products to provide
scientific data showing that the products are efficacious.

Consumers already know ticks spread Lyme disease and mosquitoes carry the
West Nile virus, and may use natural products to protect themselves from
those diseases, the petition notes.

In addition, the claim that Texas Bug Juice can help you avoid the West
Nile virus can legally appear on Herbal Body Solutions' Web site, possibly
moving the claim away from EPA's regulatory reach, the association says.

"This is a public health issue," said Stephen Kellner, vice president and
general counsel of the Washington-based trade group. "We are concerned
about products that mislead people into thinking that they are effective,
when in fact they are not."

Natural product manufacturers say requirements that they produce expensive
scientific data could put them out of business.

Some environmental groups, pleased with the growth of alternatives to
controversial chemical pesticides, agree.

Jennifer Sass of the Natural Resources Defense Council said the EPA
routinely waives efficacy requirements for conventional farm pesticides,
which make up the overwhelming share of the market.

Her group and others, such as Beyond Pesticides and the Glynn Environmental
Coalition of Brunswick, Ga., say the agency should do a thorough review of
the way it regulates all pesticides, not just those based on natural
substances.

Bessette, who says his EcoSMART Technologies contracts with chemical
manufacturers to blend his patented pest-killing formulas, believes big
pesticide manufacturers are out to eliminate growing competition.

"Nobody was concerned about botanicals until we started taking market
share," he said. "Now they want to put as many hurdles between us and the
market as possible."
  
"That's the only reason this petition has been filed," he added.

Patent Office records show Bessette's most recent patent was issued in
September for a blend of benzyl alcohol and phenethyl propionate, both on
the EPA list of minimum-risk substances, for use killing ants, fleas,
beetles, flies, crickets, pill bugs, spiders and quite a few other
creepy-crawlies.

He says field trials by companies that use his EcoSMART formulations have
shown them to be effective.

His customers seem to agree.

Western Exterminator Co. of Anaheim said in a comment on the petition
before EPA that it has tested an EcoSMART product in over 2,500 homes and
found the effectiveness and cost to be "in line with conventional"
pesticides.

Sergeant's Pet Care Products of Omaha, Neb., noted in another comment that
until recently it marketed only conventional pet pesticides.

However, it said it has found that new natural products are "highly
effective and have superior safety profiles" over conventional chemicals.

On the other hand, the Association of State Pesticide Control Officials
urged EPA to approve the new requirements.

"With so much at stake relating to health and people wanting to use 'safe'
products, it appears time that these materials are held accountable to
ensure they actually do protect human and animal health," the organization
said.

NATURAL BUG FIGHTERS

The Environmental Protection Agency exempts the following "minimum-risk
pesticides" from regulation under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and
Rodenticide Act:

Castor oil, cedar oil, cinnamon and cinnamon oil, cloves and clove oil,
corn gluten meal, corn oil, cottonseed oil, dried blood, eugenol, garlic
and garlic oil, geraniol, geranium oil, lauryl sulfate, lemongrass oil,
linseed oil, malic acid, mint and mint oil, peppermint and peppermint oil,
2-phenethyl proprionate, potassium sorbate, putrescent whole egg solids,
rosemary and rosemary oil, sesame and sesame oil, sodium chloride, sodium
lauryl sulfate, soybean oil, thyme and thyme oil, white pepper, and zinc
metal strips.

--Cox News Service