No. HB 443
Filed under Occupational.
Products Liability Actions Under the Florida Pesticide Law; Prohibits pesticide-related products liability action for failure to warn if pesticide's label meets specified conditions.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDA failure-to-warn lawsuit over an EPA-registered pesticide may not be brought or maintained if the pesticide's label meets any one of three conditions: EPA approval, consistency with the latest EPA human-health risk assessment, or consistency with EPA's carcinogenicity classification.
Because EPA approval of the label is one of the three conditions on its own, and virtually every lawfully sold pesticide's label is EPA-approved, the shield reaches nearly any registered pesticide sold with an approved label.
The shield only blocks failure-to-warn claims; it does not touch other products-liability theories, such as design-defect or manufacturing-defect claims, under this part of the pesticide law.
The one exception requires the EPA itself, not a court or jury, to determine that the manufacturer knowingly withheld, concealed, misrepresented, or destroyed material health-risk or cancer data to get or keep the label's approval.
AIA products liability action based on failure to warn may not be brought or maintained over an EPA-registered pesticide if its label is EPA-approved, consistent with the most recent EPA human-health risk assessment, or consistent with EPA's carcinogenicity classification -- any one of the three is enough.
AIOne of the three qualifying conditions, standing alone, is that the EPA approved the pesticide's label, a condition nearly every lawfully marketed, federally registered pesticide already satisfies, without needing to also show consistency with any risk assessment or carcinogenicity finding.
AIThe shield does not protect a manufacturer that the EPA itself determines knowingly withheld, concealed, misrepresented, or destroyed material health-risk or carcinogenicity information to obtain or keep the label's approval; the determination must come from the EPA, not from the court hearing the case.
AIThe bar applies only to products liability actions based on a failure to warn. It does not by its terms extend to other liability theories, such as design-defect or manufacturing-defect claims, under this part.