EPA lists six paraquat registrations for voluntary cancellation, Syngenta's among them; comments due Dec. 9

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will publish a notice on November 9 that lists six paraquat products for voluntary cancellation at their makers’ request, among them Syngenta Crop Protection’s Paraquat Concentrate ES^[1]. The same notice lists 15 other registrations for cancellation or label changes, including the end of oxamyl use on bearing apple, cherry, peach and pear orchards^[1]. Comments run 30 days from publication^[1].

What the notice lists

The notice, FR Doc. 2026-22769, was filed for public inspection on November 6 under docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2026-0067^[1]. It is a routine FIFRA filing. The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) lets a registrant ask at any time to cancel a registration or drop uses from its label. EPA must first publish the request and take comment for 30 days^[6]. The six paraquat dichloride registrations listed, with their stated paraquat content, are^[1]:

• Syngenta Crop Protection: Paraquat Concentrate ES (45.6%)
• RedEagle International: two products, registration 85678-74 (44.5%) and RE Paraquat Concentrate (44.54%)
• Willowood Paraquat: Willowood Paraquat Technical (47.1%)
• US Raymat Ag: Paraquat Manufacturing Concentrate (43.13%)
• Generic Crop Science: GCS Paraquat Technical II (45.64%)

The notice does not give a reason for any request, and it does not say how many paraquat registrations would remain^[1].

Other full cancellations on the list are two BASF pendimethalin herbicides, Pendulum 3.3 EC and Pre-M 3.3 EC Turf; an Amvac azoxystrobin product; a Marman glyphosate product; and two Texas special local need registrations held by Bayer CropScience, Baythroid XL (beta-cyfluthrin) and Leverage 360 (imidacloprid and beta-cyfluthrin)^[1]. Two Washington special local need labels for Drexel Simazine 4L are also listed^[1]. UPL asked to cancel Oryzalin Technical and requested 18 months to sell existing stocks^[1].

Five registrations from three companies would lose uses rather than be cancelled outright. Adama would drop cranberries from two fluensulfone 480EC labels^[1]. Albaugh would drop bearing apple, cherry, peach and pear orchard uses from Oxamyl 42% MUP and Oxamyl Technical^[1]. Central Garden & Pet would drop termite, sheep and goat uses from a permethrin product^[1].

FIFRA normally requires a 180-day comment period when a cancellation would cut availability of a pesticide registered for a minor agricultural use^[6]. The registrants in this notice asked EPA to waive that period, so the notice provides 30 days^{[1, 6]}.

When do the cancellations take effect, and what happens to existing stocks?

Nothing changes on November 9. EPA says it intends to grant the requests when the comment period closes, unless it gets substantive comments that call for more review or a registrant withdraws^[1]. It would then publish a cancellation order, and the publication date of that order is the effective date^[1].

The previous cycle shows how long that can take. A notice published February 19, 2026, led to a cancellation order effective August 6^[3]. That order reported four comments, one of them about paraquat, which was not on that list; EPA said it would not respond to it there^[3].

The existing-stocks terms EPA expects to include are^[1]:

• Registrants of the six paraquat products and the other full cancellations: may sell and distribute for 1 year after the order, then only for export or disposal.
• UPL’s Oryzalin Technical: 18 months after the order.
• Products losing uses, including the oxamyl orchard uses: 18 months to sell under the old label once EPA approves the amended label.
• Everyone else: dealers, distributors and growers may generally sell, distribute and use existing stocks “until supplies are exhausted,” provided the use follows the label that came with the product.

In the field

Paraquat is a non-selective Group 22 contact herbicide. South Dakota State University (SDSU) Extension lists its farm uses as burndown ahead of planting and of cover crops, weed and sucker control in orchards, and pre-harvest desiccation of soybeans and sunflowers^[8]. It is a restricted-use pesticide with the most severe toxicity signal word on its label^{[8, 9]}.

For row-crop growers, the larger supply change came earlier in the year. Syngenta announced on March 3, 2026, that it would end global production of Gramoxone by June 30. Sales would stop when supplies ran out or by December 31, whichever came first. SDSU Extension reported that Syngenta cited competition from smaller manufacturers as the main reason^[8]. SDSU also noted that other companies still made paraquat, and that 13 products other than Gramoxone with paraquat as the active ingredient were registered in South Dakota^[8]. EPA’s June notice had already listed one Syngenta Texas label, Gramoxone SL 2.0, for cancellation^[2].

In California the herbicide is on its way out. The state Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) began reevaluating paraquat in November 2024 and set a June 5, 2026, deadline for manufacturers to submit new health data^[7]. Registrants began cancelling in April instead, and the last one cancelled on August 6^[7]. Syngenta’s Gramoxone SL 3.0 was among the first, cancelled in the state effective April 1, according to RFD-TV^[11]. Dealers there may keep selling cancelled product for up to two years after each cancellation date^[7]. The Almond Board of California told growers that paraquat’s post-emergence use in almonds has declined but that its different mode of action still helps against weeds that are getting harder to kill. The board advised growers who rely on it to review herbicide programs, mowing and mode-of-action rotation as supplies shrink^[9].

For orchards outside the paraquat question, the oxamyl change is the line to watch. After the amended Albaugh labels are approved, those two products could no longer be labeled for bearing apples, cherries, peaches or pears, though stocks already sold could still be used under the old label^[1]. Cranberry growers would lose a fluensulfone use on two Adama labels^[1]. Texas growers who use either Bayer product under the state special local need labels would be buying from existing stocks once an order issues^[1].

In Washington and Sacramento

EPA’s own paraquat review is not finished. Its 2021 interim registration review decision led to label mitigation in 2022^[10]. Petitioners led by the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation challenged that decision in the Ninth Circuit (No. 21-71287). The court put the case on hold a second time on April 28, 2025, on a Syngenta motion that EPA supported^[5]. According to a 2025 status report filed for EPA, a vapor pressure study had produced “greater uncertainty about paraquat’s potential to volatilize,” and EPA had decided a field volatility study was needed^[5]. DTN reported that Syngenta submitted the vapor pressure study in January 2024. EPA also intends to finish Endangered Species Act and endocrine assessments before a final decision^[10].

In June 2026, EPA said it had required manufacturers to run that field study under real farm conditions. It promised to publish the data and an updated risk analysis for public comment and to hold a roundtable with scientists, farmworker and community advocates and others^[4]. Administrator Lee Zeldin framed the move as making manufacturers show current uses are safe in real-world conditions^[4].

The two sides read the same record differently. California’s environmental secretary, Yana Garcia, credited communities that had worked to end paraquat use, and DPR said its preliminary assessments pointed to possible thyroid effects, birth defects and harm to birds^[7]. The Almond Board described California’s outcome as cancellations by registrants rather than a ban, and warned that replacement herbicides in the pipeline face uncertain approval timing^[9]. Syngenta, which faces thousands of product liability suits alleging a link to Parkinson’s disease, lost a bid for U.S. Supreme Court review of one jurisdiction question in October 2025^[10].

What to watch

• November 9, 2026: Official publication of FR Doc. 2026-22769^[1].
• December 9, 2026 (this report’s count): Comments and withdrawal requests due^[1].
• December 31, 2026: Syngenta’s outside date for Gramoxone sales^[8].
• After the comment period: An EPA cancellation order, which starts the one-year registrant sell-off clock^[1]. The February notice took until August 6 to reach that stage^[3].
• Open: When EPA will release field volatility data and hold its roundtable. It promised both in June and has not dated either^[4].