Design for the Environment Antimicrobial Pesticide Pilot Project: Moving Toward the Green End of the Pesticide Spectrum

December 23, 2009

Quick Resources

What is the Conventional Reduced Risk Pesticide Program?

One of the more frequent questions the public asks of EPA’s Pesticide Program involves recommendations for products that are more toward the green end of the pesticide spectrum. Consistent with federal law, the Agency’s traditional response to these queries has only been to remind consumers to Read the Label First. But since September 2008, EPA has been working with the Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee to develop an easy-to-identify means for consumers to answer that question at the point of purchase. Modeled after EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) program, the 36-month Design for the Environment Antimicrobial Pesticide Pilot Project will allow the use of a DfE logo on qualifying antimicrobial pesticide labels.

Pesticide registrants wishing to take part in this program should follow the instructions to apply for the DfE Logo on Antimicrobial pesticide labels (6pp, 139.63 K, about PDF).

On this page:

What the DfE Logo Means on Antimicrobial Product Labels
Authorized Use of the DfE Logo
EPA Asks for Public Input on How This Pilot Project Can be Improved
List of Authorized DfE Products Aids Compliance and Enforcement

What the DfE Logo Means on Antimicrobial Product Labels

By their very nature, most pesticides have the potential to pose hazards to human health or the environment. This is particularly the case if the label instructions are not followed precisely. Because of this, EPA cannot say that any registered pesticide is safe under all circumstances. However, if you see the DfE logo on an EPA-authorized antimicrobial pesticide label, you can be assured that the product: is in the least-hazardous classes (i.e. III and IV) of EPA’s acute toxicity category hierarchy (PDF) (18 pp, 933.36k, About PDF); is unlikely to have carcinogenic or endocrine disruptor properties; is unlikely to cause developmental, reproductive, mutagenic, or neurotoxicity issues; has no outstanding “conditional registration” data issues; mixtures, including inert ingredients, have been reviewed and are accepted by EPA; does not require the use of Agency-mandated personal protective equipment; has no unresolved or unreasonable adverse effects reported; has no unresolved efficacy failures (associated with the Antimicrobial Testing Program or otherwise); has no unresolved compliance or enforcement actions associated with it; and has the identical formulation as the one identified in the DfE application reviewed by EPA.

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Authorized Use of the DfE Logo

Antimicrobial pesticides that meet the requirements for including the DfE logo on the product label are only authorized to display the logo. No other claims, terms, words, or images implying safety are allowed unless expressly authorized by EPA. If you see a pesticide product that appears not to comply with this authorized use, please contact EPA’s Regional Office in your area to report potentially illegal products.

EPA Asks for Public Input on How This Pilot Project Can be Improved

The Agency intends to accept comments on the Design for the Environment Antimicrobial Pesticide Pilot Project during the duration of the project. If you have comments or suggestions about the project or how it might be improved, please contact Michael Hardy (hardy.michael@epa.gov) in the Office of Pesticide Programs.

List of Authorized DfE Products Aids Compliance and Enforcement

State pesticide regulatory agencies and EPA’s Regional pesticide enforcement offices have requested that a comprehensive list of all pesticide products certified by the Agency as qualifying for inclusion of the DfE logo on the label be made available online. With the rise in popularity of portable devices that have internet capabilities, this list allows enforcement investigators and even the general public to determine if a pesticide product displaying the DfE logo is, in fact, authorized by EPA to do so. List of Products Authorized Use of the DfE Logo(PDF) (2 pp, 76.06k, About PDF).