NewsBits

Dr. Steven Bradbury Keynotes Plenary Session on New Directions for Pesticides and Product Stewardship at the 2010 TPSA Conference

Friday, April 23, 2010

Contact:
Kevin Neal, TPSA President
Phone: 765-494-1585
E-mail: nealk@purdue.edu

St. Louis, MO - Dr. Steve Bradbury, Acting Director, U.S. EPA Office of Pesticide Programs, presented the first keynote address of the 10th Annual Conference of The Pesticide Stewardship Alliance (TPSA) Feb. 21-23, 2010. Dr. Bradbury replaced Mr. Steve Owens, EPA Assistant Administrator, on the program due to a last-minute scheduling change. In his presentation entitled “New Directions at EPA for Pesticides and Product Stewardship,” Dr. Bradbury demonstrated his broad knowledge of the myriad pesticide issues facing federal and state regulators. His talk covered the following topics:

• Priorities set by U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson
• Better integration of federal, state and tribal programs in the implementation and regulation of environmental protection measures
• Ongoing initiatives by EPA to be a more effective gateway to the pesticide market and innovator of chemical management programs
• Transparency of risk assessments and proposed regulatory decisions for public
  comment
• Proposed changes to regulations and policies for the Worker Protection Standard, endangered species, pesticide containers, spray drift, the Clean Water Act, and pesticide applicator certification and training programs
• The need to improve readability of pesticide labels and consider "web-based" labeling

The presentation was followed by responses from a panel of representatives from State Lead Agencies and private industry.

Over 140 conferees from across the U.S. and six foreign countries participated in the meeting which was held in beautiful Savannah, GA. The range of topics addressed in Dr. Bradbury’s keynote reflects the diverse association membership of TPSA with professionals from academia, private industry, and governmental agencies.

TPSA is headquartered in St. Louis, MO. Its mission is to promote and support improvements in stewardship of pesticides and agricultural plastics in the U.S. and internationally.

For more information about the association and to view Dr. Bradbury’s presentation and others from the annual meeting, visit TPSA’s web page at http://www.tpsalliance.org/10_agenda.html.