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TEXAS FIRM SENTENCED FOR FIFRA VIOLATIONS
Release Date: 11/04/99
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FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1999
TEXAS FIRM SENTENCED FOR FIFRA VIOLATIONS
Friendly Systems Inc. of Irving, Texas, was sentenced on Oct. 27, in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen, S.D., for its July conviction on three counts of violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Friendly was fined $450,000, which will be suspended if the company pays $150,000 into a special fund to be used for the health care needs of Sioux Indian children on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Friendly was also
placed on five years probation and ordered to pay $9,375 restitution to the Federal Crime Victims Assistance Fund and $1,282.39 to the Rosebud Sioux Head Start Program. Friendly illegally sold the pesticides Tisan and DDS-164 to tribal programs for sanitizing children’s toothbrushes, a use that is inconsistent with their FIFRA registrations. These pesticides are registered and labeled for the purpose of sanitizing floors and silverware. Friendly sold the pesticides in November 1995 and October 1996 to the Rosebud Head Start Program and to the Badlands Head Start Program in February and March 1997. Many of the approximately 100 children who were exposed to the pesticide by brushing their teeth with toothbrushes dipped in pesticide developed medical problems, including blisters and burns in their mouths. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and was prosecuted by
the U.S. Department of Justice.
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