Migrant Clinicians Network et al. v. EPA

Reference :

21-70719

Complaint date :

March 25, 2021

Status :

Final judgment

Place of jurisdiction :

United States, San Francisco

Plaintiffs types :

Environmental NGOs, Farm/rural workers, Medical doctors, Justice

Plaintiffs names :

Migrant Clinicians Network, Beyond Pesticides, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida (ECOSWF), Farmworker Association of Florida, Farmworker Justice, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)

Defendants :

EPA, Michael S. Regan

Lawyers for Health and Environmental Justice :

Hannah Connor, Carrie Apfel, Dominique Burkhardt, Margaret T. Hsieh, Sarah Fort, Francis W. Sturges, Jr.

Case nature :

Administrative

Specificities :

Annulment

Type(s), Product(s), Active substance(s) :

Streptomycin

Requests :

challenging the EPA's approval of the antibiotic streptomycin as a pesticide

Name of the Court :

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals of San Francisco, United States

Jurisdiction level :

No description

Decision date :

December 13, 2023

Decision nature :

Positive

Decision content :

PETITION FOR REVIEW GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART; VACATED AND REMANDED.

Legal basis :

No description

Court Ruling :

Link to the ruling

Summary :

On December 13, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit partially granted a petition filed by several environmental groups and farmers' unions to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authorization to use the antibiotic streptomycin sulfate as a pesticide to combat certain bacterial plant diseases affecting lemon trees.

In 2015, two companies (Geo Logic Corporation and AgroSource) submitted an application to the EPA to amend the registration of streptomycin in order to market this substance for pesticidal use on lemon plantations. On January 11, 2021, the EPA published a decision unconditionally authorizing the use of streptomycin on lemon trees for a period of 7 years. In March 2021, the plaintiff associations and unions petitioned the EPA to suspend this new authorization. At the time, the agency acknowledged that the streptomycin registration did not comply with the conditions set by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but refused to overturn its decision on the grounds of equity, having asserted that several thousand registrations also violated the ESA. The case therefore went to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The Court of Appeals held that the EPA's assessment was incomplete in that it failed to take into account the risks posed by pollinator exposure to the substance. The Court also noted that the EPA had not provided a sufficient explanation to justify labelling streptomycin-based products as "preventative" against certain plant diseases.

Scientific references :

No scientifice reference for this case.