US (OR): OMRI responds to ODA advisory on Azatrol ban

On June 28, 2017, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) issued a Pesticide Advisory (including a “stoppage of sale” order) for two OMRI Listed products: Azatrol Hydro Botanical Insecticide and Azatrol EC Insecticide. The ODA issued the advisory based on the detection of active ingredients within the products which were not present on the product labels. According to the ODA, these ingredients included permethrin, bifenthrin, cypermethrin, cyfluthrin and chlorpyrifos. At this time, the products identified in the ODA’s Pesticide Advisory are listed by OMRI. Any changes to the status of these or any other OMRI Listed products will be communicated through OMRI Drop Notices to certifiers and quarterly updates to OMRI subscribers. The remainder of this letter applies to all OMRI Listed products, and it is not specific to the products mentioned above.

OMRI’s focus is on the compliance of products to the National Organic Program (NOP) and Canada Organic Regime (COR) standards. The scope of OMRI’s review does not require verification of product compliance to other federal, state or local regulations, such as relating to product safety and specific labeling requirements; however OMRI’s policies may overlap with other regulations in some instances. Section §1.8 of the OMRI Policy Manual states that:

"OMRI cannot guarantee that the products it reviews meet all other applicable legal requirements and recommends that product suppliers and users contact appropriate governing officials to determine which laws and regulations apply to specific products."

This policy does not mean that OMRI is unresponsive when evidence from an outside source indicates that a product may have been misrepresented. OMRI’s policies and procedures ensure that evidence of product misrepresentation is compared to product information submitted during reviews, which can lead to OMRI opening an investigation on a product. If OMRI conducts an investigation on any listed product, that product remains listed during the investigation in order to ensure that OMRI Listed suppliers are treated fairly and receive due process within our established policies and procedures. Investigations may require suppliers to submit additional documentation or undergo site inspections, and OMRI may collect samples to be analyzed by an independent laboratory. This process may take several months. Section §2.5 of the OMRI Policy Manual states:

If OMRI has reason to believe that an applicant or an OMRI Listed® supplier has misrepresented their product, its ingredients, manufacturing process, or intended uses in the supplier’s or applicant’s communications with OMRI, OMRI will conduct an investigation as described in §2.10.2. Such an investigation may lead to delisting of an OMRI Listed product as described in §2.11, or denial of OMRI Listed status for an applying product if the product is found to be noncompliant with OMRI standards, as well as delisting of all of the supplier’s currently listed products.

OMRI cannot disclose the status or findings of an investigation outside of a final status decision. Whether or not an individual company or product is under investigation is also confidential. For more information on OMRI’s confidentiality policy, see §1.6 of the OMRI Policy Manual.

For more information on the ODA’s pesticide advisory, please follow the link below: http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/Pesticides/Documents/CannabisPesticideAdvisories/Azatrol.pdf

For more information:
OMRI
PO Box 11558, Eugene, OR 97440-3758 USA
T: 541.343.7600
F: 541.343.8971
www.omri.org