Department of Pesticide Regulation

RECOMMENDED PERMIT CONDITIONS FOR SULFURYL FLUORIDE (PROFUME) FOR NONRESIDENTIAL FACILITIES

The Office of Administrative Law approved the emergency regulation, effective on April 4, 2005, designating Sulfuryl Fluoride as a California restricted material. Sulfuryl Fluoride is now listed in Title 3, California Code of Regulations section 6400(e), Restricted Materials.

The Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) recommends the following permit conditions be used for Sulfuryl Fluoride commodity fumigations to prevent the risk of acute and seasonal exposures from the off-site movement of Sulfuryl Fluoride to persons living near fumigation facilities. The Sulfuryl Fluoride product registered for commodity fumigation is ProFume Gas Fumigant, EPA Registration No. 62719-376-AA.

Permit issuance: Title 3, California Code of Regulations section 6420 allows nonagricultural use permits to be issued to the facility operator, the pest control operator, or both parties. When there is storage or processing of a fumigated commodity and the application is performed by a pest control operator, both the facility operator and the pest control operator have different duties with respect to the permit conditions. To be held responsible for their respective duties, both must be issued written permit conditions through the permitting process. In many cases the pest control operator is the sole certified applicator. If that is the case, the permit may be issued to the facility operator on the condition that only a licensed pest control operator is allowed to possess or use restricted materials.

Licensing issues: The Department has been working with the Structural Pest Control Board in an effort to clarify the types of pest control allowed to be performed under the agricultural pest control license versus the structural pest control license. Until then, please require pest control operators to work only under an agricultural pest control operator's license and use the recommended permits conditions.

On an interim basis, DPR requests for ProFume commodity fumigations, county agricultural commissioners issue permits using DPR´s suggested permit conditions for methyl bromide commodity fumigations.

Please refer to DPR´s current commodity fumigation guidelines used for issuing restricted material permits for methyl bromide commodity fumigations dated "August 8, 1994" which can be found in enforcement letter ENF 01-48. The methyl bromide commodity fumigation guidelines include: (1) the suggested permit conditions for methyl bromide commodity fumigations, (2) work site plan, (3) final permit conditions, and (4) reference manual.

For nonresidential facilities fumigations, please use the ProFume specific recommended permit conditions found in Enclosure 1. Nonresidential facilities include "enclosed areas" such as buildings, grain mills, silos, warehouses etc.

Enclosure 1, Roman numeral II specifies the "Recommended Permit Conditions for ProFume" for nonresidential facility fumigations that conform with the following conditions: (1) less than or equal to 4,500 lbs of ProFume used, (2) the buffer zone requirement can be satisfied, (3) the minimum aeration "exhaust stack" height and aeration timing requirements can be met.

For ProFume fumigations of nonresidential facilities that do not meet conditions in Enclosure 1, Roman numeral II (e.g., more than 4,500 lbs of ProFume are used or minimum exhaust stack height cannot be met), please use either:

1. The fumigation guidelines for "enclosed areas" that have already been established in Suggested Methyl Bromide Restricted Material Permit Conditions for Commodity Fumigation, or
2. The procedure for "Requesting Alternative Conditions from DPR" found in the Reference Manual for Methyl Bromide Commodity Fumigations. (See Enclosure 2 for adapting Methyl Bromide commodity fumigations conditions to Profume).

If you have any questions, contact the Enforcement Branch Liaison assigned to your county.

cc:  Douglas Y. Okumura, Assistant Director
       Scott T. Paulsen, Chief Enforcement Branch
       John S. Sanders, Ph.D, Chief Environmental Monitoring Branch
       Charles Andrews, Chief Worker Health & Safety Branch
       Barry Cortez, Chief Registration Branch
       Brian Bret, Dow AgroSciences LLC
       Bryan Stuart, Dow AgroSciences
       Gary Patterson