New Instructions & Permit for Use of 2,4-D

Incidents of spray drift damage attributed to 2,4-D have been reported for a number of years, and as of 3 October 2018, APVMA (Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority) have issued new 2,4-D label instructions and old labels have been suspended. Users of 2,4-D must comply with the new label instructions, even if they are using products with the old labels.

The APVMA has issued permit PER 87174 "The New Instructions" to allow persons to possess, have custody of, supply, and/or use 2,4-D products currently on farm and in retail outlets. Supply at the point of retail sale must occur with the new instructions being provided with each container supplied.

A copy of the permit can be found here. 

These changes affect about 220 products, and the new instructions for use include:

• a requirement not to spray in inversion conditions and additional information on recognising inversion conditions
• downwind mandatory no spray zones for both aquatic and terrestrial off target vegetation (including sensitive crops, gardens, landscaping vegetation, protected native vegetation or protected animal habitat)
• a requirement to use nozzles producing droplets no smaller than the Very Coarse spray quality categroy
• mandatory record keeping requirements, and
• advisory statements about spray application over summer.

The new requirements do not change or restrict other aspects of the currently approved use patterns and should not affect availability of the product.

You can read more on the APVMA website here