Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Dow Corning/Aegis get slapped

Dow Corning Corp. and Aegis Environmental Management Inc. of Midland, Michigan violated federal rules on the sale and export of pesticides. A $268K penalty has been assessed against the companies as part of a settlement. Dow and Aegis have been selling and exporting pesticides without proper labeling.

The Feds collected labels and shipping records from samples of pesticides packaged, labeled and released for shipment from a Dow Corning facility in Midland destined for Korea, Thailand, Columbia, Peru, Taiwan, Belgium and Japan. The labels were written entirely in English and lacked translation of key pesticide information into the predominant language of the countries receiving the products.

Imagine not being able to read the directions on a bottle of bugkiller that you are putting on your garden vegetables. How much do you use, what's safe and what isn't, how often do you apply it? Seems like a silly thing until you realize that the folks in South America spraying vegetables are shipping them back here for you to buy at your local grocery store. Not so funny now, is it?

No comments: