The Nation - News from March 31, 1988

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has overruled a hearing examiner and banned use of the insecticide diazinon on golf courses and sod farms in an effort to protect birds, the EPA said. Agency Administrator Lee M. Thomas said the major manufacturer, Ciba-Geigy Corp. of Greensboro, N.C., had “failed to show by a preponderance of the evidence that even a single acre of turf will be destroyed if diazinon is canceled. . . . “ EPA spokesman Al Heier said it was the first time EPA had acted against a pesticide solely to protect birds, though the harm to birds was one reason DDT was banned in 1972. Chief Administrative Law Judge Gerald Harwood in January upheld Ciba-Geigy’s contention that the benefits of use under additional restrictions outweighed the risk to birds.