The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator issued an order suspending the registration of the pesticides heptachlor and chlordane under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
Velsicol Chemical Corp., located in Oklahoma, is the sole manufacturer of these pesticides and brings this action, contending that the evidence does not support the administrator's contention that the continued use of these chemicals poses an imminent hazard to human health. Velsicol and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) contend
(1) that the EPA's laboratory tests on mice and rats do not ‘‘conclusively'' show that either chemical is carcinogenic;
(2) that mice are too prone to tumors to be reliable test subjects; and
(3) that human exposure to these chemicals is insufficient to create a risk. Nonetheless, human epidemiology studies on both chemicals provide no basis for concluding that either pesticide is safe.
The administrator based part of his claim on residues of these chemicals found in soil, air, and the aquatic ecosystem over long periods of time and on the presence of these chemicals in the human diet and human tissue. Does FIFRA apply in this situation? Explain.