EPA sets a deadline for pesticide makers

The Enviromental Protection Agency says makers of 34 pesticides have 90 days to demonstrate or promise to demonstrate the safety of their products. Failure to do so, said EPA officials, would result in the suspension of EPA approval of the sale of those compounds.

The pesticides came from a group of 140 chemicals that are now on the market and are thought to be hazardous to humans. After a long-term investigation, the EPA found the 801 tests by the private Industrial Bio-Tech Laboratories (IBT) on these substances to be invalid.

Officers of the now-defunct IBT are standing trial in a Chicago federal court on charges of criminal misrepresentation of data.