News

Pesticide drift rating available

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is launching a new voluntary Drift Reduction Technology (DRT) program for pesticides.  The goal is to reduce pesticide drift, reducing costs and protecting neighbors.  EPA says up to $640 million is lost each year to pesticide drift.

With DRT, manufacturers can test technologies including nozzles, spray shields and drift reduction chemicals for drift reduction potential.  The manufacturers could then label their products using four DRT ratings: one, two, three or four stars depicting at least 25 percent drift reduction.

Manufacturers interested in participating may now submit data, EPA will evaluate and if appropriate, assign a star-rating.  It is up to the company as to whether they want to use the rating on the label.  EPA will also post the ratings on www.epa.gov/DRT.  The ratings could appear on labels as early as the fall of 2015.

Additional information including how to test technologies is available at www.epa.gov/DRT