Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 18, 1993 TAG: 9303180295
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
ORKIN DROPS AD CLAIMS
Orkin Exterminating Co. Inc. has agreed to stop making advertising claims that its lawn-care pesticides are safe and "practically nontoxic" without scientific evidence, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday.The FTC announced a proposed consent decree that would bar the Atlanta-based company from claiming, without scientific evidence to back up assertions, that its lawn-care products are as safe as most household products.
The company offers a service in which pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer are sprayed periodically on a home owner's lawn to kill weeds and bugs.
Environmental groups have criticized lawn-spraying services, contending that toxic chemicals can cause serious health problems for children, animals and people sensitive to pesticides.
Some municipalities around the country have passed ordinances requiring that warning signs be posted on lawns after they have been sprayed with chemicals.
The FTC complaint cited several statements Orkin made in advertising brochures for the lawn-care service. The agency charged that those statements were not backed up by scientific evidence.
Orkin claimed that the chemicals are "environmentally safe, biodegradable products that are neither harmful to you nor your soil."
The company also claimed that the chemicals are "practically nontoxic" and "have a lower toxicity rating than many common household products like suntan lotion or shaving cream."
Orkin will be required to produce competent scientific evidence "any time it makes any claim about the safety or degree of risk to human health or the environment of any pesticide it uses in residential lawn care services," the FTC said.
The proposed consent decree will be submitted for public comment during a 60-day period. After that, the FTC will vote whether to make the consent decree final.
In 1988, Orkin was convicted of killing an elderly couple in Galax, Va., through bad fumigation techniques. Last November, the U.S. Justice Department's Environmental Crimes Section took the unusual step of asking U.S. District Judge James Turk to place Orkin back on probation.
The government argued that Orkin had continued the same pattern of regulatory violations that led to the deaths of the Galax couple in 1986. The government supported its argument with a list of 360 violations of pesticide safety laws committed by Orkin in 17 states.
Orkin countered that most of the violations were minor and that none had occurred in Virginia. The company said it was doing all it could to "minimize the inevitable risks associated with the application of fumigants."