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Don’t use this stuff on your lawn, EPA says

Posted on April 25th, 2008 – 3:32 PM
By James Shiffer

miraclegro2.jpgThis week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took the unusual action of ordering perhaps the best-known lawn chemical company to remove products from store shelves. The “stop sale, use or removal” order affects Scotts Miracle-Gro Co.’s “Garden Weed Preventer + Plant Food” and “Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n’ Feed All Purpose Plant Food Plus Weed Preventer.” The EPA doesn’t know if the stuff is dangerous, but the agency’s Midwestern regional office says the pesticide registration number, 62355-4, is invalid. The EPA news release quotes Region 5 Administrator Mary A. Gade: “A manufacturer such as Scotts cannot ignore the important legal requirement of registering its pesticides. This is a serious violation of EPA’s system for protecting people and the environment from the potential harmful effects of pesticides.” Company officials in Ohio told the Columbus Dispatch newspaper that the recall involves 1 million units of the product and would cost $5 million to $10 million. The company on Thursday blamed the registration problem on an employee who has since been fired, and the company announced it was improving its commitment to obeying federal pesticide laws. The same news release indicated that a criminal investigation was underway.

If you think you bought some of this stuff, you’re not supposed to use it or throw it in the trash. You can get more info at the EPA’s special web site or call (888) 838-1304 or (800) 858-7378.

4/29 UPDATE: The EPA announced it was ordering the recall of two additional Scotts pesticides, for different reasons: “Scotts Bonus S Max Southern Weed & Feed And Fire Ant Killer,” “Scotts Turf Builder Max Plus 2 Weed & Feed And Crabgrass Preventer” and related pesticide products, identified by EPA registration numbers 538-301 and 538-299 listed on their packages. Unlike the other recalls, these products were registered, but were “misbranded” because “its label makes false or misleading claims, or does not provide required warning or caution statements that protect public health and the environment.”

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Dangerous products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “Don’t use this stuff on your lawn, EPA says”

  1. Jennifer Says:
    April 25th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    Wow. The EPA’s actually doing something to “Protect”? Amazing.

  2. kim Says:
    April 26th, 2008 at 10:53 am

    The article states: “The EPA doesn’t know if the stuff is dangerous”…”but the agencys Midwestern regional office says the pesticides registration # is invalid”. So the bottom line is the paper work was not done to update the chemicals registration #. THEY STILL DO NOT KNOW IF IT IS SAFE OR NOT!!!!! AND THEY DON’T CARE.

  3. concerned consumer Says:
    April 26th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

    It is about time that The Scott’s Company is reprimanded on their practices. This shows real arrogance on their part to put this product out knowing the registration number was subject, this type of practice is soon going to hurt not only us but the environment. To blame the problem on one person within the company is just asinine. I have also heard that they had bird seed recalled (reason unknown), is this going to be a trend with all their products. I think as consumers we should pressure the retailers that carry these products to act swiftly in taking these products off the shelves, and think twice when purchasing products from The Scotts Company in the future.

    Concerned Consumer

  4. Alex Fillmore Says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 7:47 am

    I live on a metro lake, and when I heard about this, I immediately dumped all my Scotts products into the lake to be safe. Thank you EPA for watching out for us!

  5. Russell Gosselin Says:
    November 8th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

    I’ve used Scotts Bonus S Max Southern Weed & Feed And Fire Ant Killer thlast two seasons.
    I scaterred it in November and again in February. It worked GREAT anf for the first time beautiful grass AND my ankles have healed from all of the fire ant bite scars.
    I believe EPA should get off the ego trip and hire people from the real world. What can I replace this product with EPA???

  6. Russell Gosselin Says:
    November 8th, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    I’ve used Scotts Bonus S Max Southern Weed & Feed And Fire Ant Killer the last two seasons.
    I spread it in November and again in February. It worked GREAT and for the first time beautiful grass AND my ankles have healed from all of the fire ant bite scars from previous years.
    I believe EPA should get off the ego trip and hire people from the real world. What can I replace this product with EPA???
    It’s like FDA recalling tomatoes from everywhere and punishing everyone when they don’t have a clue as to where the problem was!!!

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