FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, February 2, 1998
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-5571
DOT 19-98
CAMPAIGN AGAINST ON-BOARD PESTICIDE
SPRAYING
A SUCCESS, SECRETARY SLATER SAYS;
20 COUNTRIES STOP PRACTICE;
OTHERS TO BE LISTED ON THE INTERNET
The Department of Transportation’s four-year effort to halt the spraying of insecticide on aircraft while passengers are on board has achieved dramatic success, Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater said today.
Since beginning the effort in early 1994, 20 countries have dropped the required spraying of all arriving flights. Now, only two countries with direct service from the United States -- Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago -- require spraying with passengers on board. (Six countries now allow spraying when planes are empty and two countries have no direct service to the U.S.)
"Safety is President Clinton’s highest transportation priority," Secretary Slater said. "We are pleased that these nations, along with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), have agreed that routinely exposing air travelers to airborne pesticides is unnecessary, but should be carried out only on aircraft arriving from countries that pose a threat to public health, agriculture or the environment."
WHO and ICAO, agencies of the United Nations, have called for an end to the routine on-board spraying of pesticides.
Consequently, it was announced that while the department will not pursue a previously proposed rule requiring airlines and travel agents to notify persons before they buy tickets if the country to which they are traveling required spraying, it will provide consumers with an up-to-date list of such countries through the Internet. The information may be found at http://ostpxweb.dot.gov/.
In early 1994, 24 countries required the spraying of all arriving flights. Now, only four still have the requirement. The four countries maintaining the requirement are Grenada, Kiribati, Madagascar and Trinidad and Tobago. Of these, only Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago are served by direct flights to the United States. The six countries allowing the spraying of empty planes are Australia, Barbados, Fiji, Jamaica, New Zealand and Panama.
Countries and territories that dropped the spraying requirement at the urging of DOT are Argentina, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Cape Verde, Chile, Congo (Republic of), Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Seychelles, St. Lucia and Yemen.
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