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iii iiiiiiiiiiiii iii • • "Does the completion of the 270 reseazch studies give 2,4-D a "clean bill of health?" The answer to that is both yes and no. Certainly, from We standpoint of science, 2,4-D is io better shape now than it has ever been. Anti-pesticide advocary groups, however, will continue to attack it, if for ao reason other than its high visibility position. Its widespread use make it just too large a target to ignore. The thrusts of the attacks will be different, however. Not only are we now beginning to see attacks on EPA's re-registration program, but attacks on the studies themselves, on the basis that since they were funded by the industry, as required under the program, they are inevitably tainted and should not be rnnsidered seriously.... The fact that most of the studies are ~t performed by industry or Task Force members, but are contracted out to independent laboratories which have EPA's confidence and a proven ability to follow EPA's extraordinary stringent Goad Laboratory Practices (GLPs), is apparently of no consequence. It's a bit ironic that the same advocacy groups who initially, strongly supported the EPA re-registration program, now seem to be attacking the results In We case of 2,4-D, Wey simply do not like We outcome." 2,4-D Passes EPA Re-Registration Muster Ed note: On July 31 in Portland the 2.4-D Symposium: "Presenting the Facts on Public Health. Environmental Fate, Toxicology and Epidemiology" took place, where experts on this topic from around the country presented accurate scientiFc information from more than 270 studies conducted on 2.4-D since 1988, as required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. One of the key individuals at the symposium was Donald L. Page, who prepared the following article especially for Washington wheat producers and other readers of Wheat Life. In the near future another article 6y Page will appear n=garding "2. 4-D -Science and Public Perception. " BY DONALD L. PAGE, Executive Director, Industry Task Force II on 2,4-D Research Data' Aa important milestone was reached in recently in the long and sometimes turbulent history of the herbicide 2,4-D. The last of the more than 270 research studies required for the registration of 2,4-D, at a total cost approaching $30- million, have been submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The data package for 2,4-D, already the most thoroughly researched herbicide, is now state-of the-art. But what do these studies show, and what's the outlook for the most widely used herbicide in the world? Apart from the hundreds of unpublished proprietary studies required by various regulatory agencies around the world, there aze thousands ofpeer-reviewed, published studies on 2,4-D in the