The EPA’s new limits focus on the application issues and do not address volatilization, herbicide experts and farmers said

EXCERPT: Specialists… say the weed killer is risky because they can vaporize and drift across fields, a process called volatilization. “Nothing in these new restrictions addresses volatility, and that’s still an issue,” said Aaron Hager, a weed scientist and professor at the University of Illinois.
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U.S. experts doubt EPA curbs on Monsanto, BASF herbicides will halt crop damage

Emily Flitter, Tom Polansek
Reuters, 13 Oct 2017
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-agriculture-dicamba/u-s-experts-doubt-epa-curbs-on-monsanto-basf-herbicides-will-halt-crop-damage-idUSKBN1CI21K

U.S. weed specialists doubted on Friday that new federal restrictions on the use of a controversial weed killer, sold by Monsanto Co and BASF, will prevent recurrences next year of crop damage linked to the chemical.

The impact of the rules limiting sprayings of dicamba herbicides, announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), may affect Monsanto’s biggest-ever biotech seed launch - soybeans engineered to resist the chemical.

The EPA’s new limits focus on the application issues and do not address volatilization, herbicide experts and farmers said.

Monsanto proposed the changes and won support for them from the agency, according to a company statement.

Growers across the U.S. farm belt said this summer that dicamba affected areas other than where it was sprayed on the Monsanto soybeans, called Xtend, damaging millions of acres of crops that could not tolerate the herbicides.

Monsanto has blamed much of the damage on improper application of dicamba. Specialists, though, say the weed killer is risky because they can vaporize and drift across fields, a process called volatilization.

“Nothing in these new restrictions addresses volatility, and that’s still an issue,” said Aaron Hager, a weed scientist and professor at the University of Illinois.

Under EPA’s guidelines, only certified pesticide applicators, or people under their supervision, will be allowed to spray dicamba formulations manufactured by Monsanto and BASF next year.

That restriction may not do much to reduce crop damage related to sprayings, though, because many farmers and commercial applicators are already certified, experts said.