Pesticides are used worldwide to control destructive plants and animals and are partially responsible for greater crop production, a decreased incidence of debilitating diseases such as malaria, and generally improved standards of living. Over 1.4 billion pounds of pesticides are produced annually, with approximately 1,400 active ingredients formulated into some 40,000 end-use products.¹ Development of these products and the necessary support data often requires many years of effort and an investment of millions of dollars. Information on formulas and processes can allow a company to enter the market at substantially lower costs and to gain an overhelming competitive advantage in a given market. Thus, companies generally consider the data they develop to be trade secrets and go to great lengths to maintain their confidentiality.²

This desire for secrecy, however, runs afoul of the disclosure and use requirements of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA),³ which provides that certain data must be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before the product can be marketed.⁴ EPA can use this information in one of two ways to which industry objects. Public disclosure of the data, often in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act,⁵ is understandably a major concern of the submitters. In addition, internal use of one submitter's data by EPA in order to process another's registration application gives a windfall to the latecomer that tends to deter the filing of new applications.