U.S. Labeling Deadlines Could Impact Agchem Distributors

On Mar. 26, 2012, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a final rule that amended its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to conform to the Globally Harmonized System for the Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) adopted by the United Nations. However, the new HCS 2012 harmonized labeling requirements for certain agricultural chemical products, such as tank-mix adjuvants and plant nutrient blends, could require the manual relabeling and repackaging of millions of end-use product containers and bags due to the unique way in which these products are sold and resold in the marketplace. In the absence of appropriate relief, workers at distributor warehouse facilities could be subject to increased  risks that would far outweigh any health or safety benefits from the new labeling requirements.

Under HCS 2012, product containers “leaving the workplace” must bear the new labels no later than June 1, 2015. However, if a product is labeled by the manufacturer in compliance with current requirements and shipped to a distributor prior to June 1, 2015, distributors will have until Dec. 1, 2015 to distribute those products. Unfortunately, these non-pesticide agricultural chemical products are routinely distributed, returned to the distributor or a distribution center, and redistributed multiple times before they are used. Thus, they will remain in commerce for many years, and certainly well beyond the Dec. 1, 2015 compliance date for distributors.

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Typically, these products are produced in limited batches, on a seasonal basis, or once every two to three years, and commonly cycle through sale, return, and resale events over several growing seasons that could span a period of five years or longer. Moreover, it is common practice for unused and unopened shipping containers and pallets to be returned to the distributor by the purchaser or retail outlet after the growing season has ended. These returned units are once again distributed, intact, to purchasers the following year, and may be returned – unused and unopened – at the end of yet the next growing season.

Thus, in the fall of 2015, distributors of agricultural chemical products are likely to be receiving returned shipping containers and pallets comprised of products that were labeled and shipped by the manufacturer in 2015 or even before then. Consequently, distributors will have warehouses full of returned product with labeling that does not comply with HCS 2012.

In order to redistribute these products after Dec. 1, 2015 under the new rule, all end-use product containers will need to be relabeled with HCS 2012-compliant labels, a very costly and labor intensive endeavor that, where even feasible, would have to be performed by warehouse employees by hand. This task would involve the dismantling of shrink-wrapped pallets, the removal of sealed cases of product from pallets, cutting or ripping open cases of product, removal of individually labeled containers from cases, and the replacement of existing labels on individual containers with new labels.

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This activity would destroy the integrity of the original shipping pallets and containers. Very few, if any, distribution or warehouse facilities have the sophisticated and automated equipment, personnel or space necessary to conduct such a complex operation effectively. With the Dec. 1 deadline fast approaching, unless some appropriate relief is granted, distributors will be faced with the arduous task of dismantling pallets and shipping containers, and relabeling, and repackaging millions of agricultural chemical product containers and bags.

In response to this pending disaster, Council of Producers & Distributors of Agrotechnology (CPDA) members developed a possible solution patterned after an approach taken by EPA when that agency was faced with an almost identical situation. In 2008, EPA adopted the term “released for shipment” in an amendment of the 2006 labeling rule because the term in the original rule, “distributed or sold,” would have prohibited the sale or distribution of any product that did not bear the new compliant label after a certain date. Thus, as written, it would have required the relabeling of hundreds of thousands of labeled pesticide containers already in distribution or destroying those products. The term “released for shipment” refers to the date the product is packaged and labeled in the manner in which it will be distributed or sold. Individual product containers fitted with compliant labels at the time they are “released for shipment” are allowed to remain in commerce without relabeling until dissipated in the marketplace. In making this revision, EPA recognized the benefits that would accrue in terms of protecting worker safety and reducing chemical exposure risks by not requiring the relabeling and repackaging of products shipped before the compliance date.

CPDA President Dr. Susan A. Ferenc said, “We’ve urged OSHA to adopt ‘released for shipment’ or a similar such term that would ameliorate the need to re-label millions of individual agricultural chemical products already in distribution. This type of approach would provide an appropriate measure of relief that takes into account how these products are manufactured, stored, distributed and redistributed in the agricultural marketplace over a period of time that could span many years. Most importantly, warehouse and distribution center employees would not be needlessly subjected to the potential risks they might encounter if required to re-label and repackage these products by hand.”

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