Scotts Pesticide Recall Leads To Firing
April 30, 2008 Scotts has fired a rogue employee who violated federal requirements for pesticide registration, an action that resulted in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order for a nationwide recall.
The EPA ordered Scotts, a Marysville, Ohio-based company, to immediately stop selling and distributing products with invalid registration numbers listed on packages. One mislabeled Scotts product is Miracle Gro Shake ‘n Feed All Purpose Plant Food Plus Weed Preventer, and another is marketed under the name “Scotts Lawn Service Fertilizer.”
“Over the last several days, we learned that one of our former employees deliberately circumvented company policies, caused invalid product registration forms to be submitted to federal and state regulators and then hid those actions from co-workers and managers,” says Jim Hagedorn, Scotts chairman and CEO. “We sincerely apologize to the EPA, our retail partners, our consumers and our shareholders.”
Compliance with government regulation is not optional, Hagedom added, and Scotts has initiated a series of proactive steps–starting with the employee’s firing–aimed at strengthening the company’s product registration practices and procedures with state and federal regulatory agencies.
To that end, Scotts has engaged an independent consulting firm to review its regulatory compliance processes and procedures. Richard Shank, the former director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency who joined Scotts this year as its chief environmental officer, will assist in the effort.
“This year marks our 140th anniversary and our relationship with our stakeholders has always been based on trust,” Hagedorn says. “We cannot and will not allow that trust to be compromised and we will continue to work with the government on their investigation.”
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