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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana has banned the sale, distribution and use of DuPont’s Imprelis herbicide after finding that it damaged scores of trees and ornamental plants.
The Office of Indiana State Chemist at Purdue University, which administers state law involving pesticides, said Monday that it is notifying lawn-care companies and other professional users that the herbicide’s registration in Indiana has been canceled.
In July, IBJ reported that Indianapolis-based golf course manager R.N. Thompson Golf LLC was leading a class-action lawsuit against DuPont because it suffered "catastrophic tree loss” after applying Imprelis.
Indiana’s actions follow a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order in August requiring DuPont to stop selling and distributing Imprelis. The step Indiana took was necessary to prohibit other parties from selling and using it in the state, the office said.
The herbicide was intended to control a variety of broadleaf weeds such as ground ivy and wild violet on lawns, golf courses, parks, cemeteries, athletic field and sod farms.
But Imprelis became the target of complaints in Indiana in the spring from lawn care providers and customers who suspected it was damaging trees—mainly evergreens—and ornamental plants near where it was applied.
The state chemist’s office said it has investigated about 400 complaints since June.
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