The Nation - News from Jan. 17, 1988

Dinoseb, a pesticide that causes birth defects, has been approved for use in the Pacific Northwest until present inventories of the chemical are exhausted. The Environmental Protection Agency ordered an emergency ban of the chemical in October, 1986, to protect female farm workers of childbearing age who were likely to be using it. At the request of growers in the Northwest, who complained they had no alternative, the agency later agreed to permit limited use in Washington and Idaho as long as women of childbearing age were not permitted to apply it. The new agreement provides that dinoseb may be used this year and in 1989. Only 285,000 gallons of dinoseb are labeled for those limited uses.