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Pesticide Product Labels
Resources
Pesticide product labels provide critical information about how to safely handle and use pesticide products. A critical aspect of registering a pesticide product is the approval of the product label. The information on this page is intended to help the pesticide registrant and the public better access, understand, and use information about pesticide labels. EPA has several projects underway to improve pesticide labels as well as to streamline the development and distribution of labels. All these topics are discussed below.
- Information about Pesticide Labels
- Publications Related to Reading Pesticide Labels
- Regulation of Pesticide Labels
- Projects to Improve Pesticide Labels
Information about Labels
Find answers to frequently asked questions about labeling, images of specific labels, and information about a web-distributed labeling system under development on the following linked pages.
- Pesticide Labeling Questions and Answers - Questions posed by the public, registrants, and state regulators about pesticide labeling and EPA's answers to the questions appear on this page.
- Pesticide Labeling Consistency - Please view this page to learn about EPA's established processes for dealing with labeling consistency questions from manufacturers, applicators, states, and others.
- Pesticide Product Label System (PPLS) - EPA has released an improved PPLS version. PPLS is a collection of over 170,000 historic and current labels. PPLS allows you to search for information by product name, company name, and EPA Reg. Number. All labels are now text-searchable PDFs. In addition, we have included information describing when a pesticide product has been transferred from one company to another.
- Web-Distributed Labeling - A new web-distributed labeling system, now in development, will allow users to visit the official pesticide labeling Web site or call a telephone number to obtain the detailed use instructions that previously were attached to product containers.
Publications Related to Reading Pesticide Labels
EPA has developed several publications for the public to highlight the importance of reading pesticide labels and following the directions. Copies can be ordered from the National Service Center for Environmental Publications. They are available for viewing or downloading here:
- Protect Your Kids brochure (PDF) (2 pp, 1.0 MB, About PDF) (EPA 740-F-00-001)
- Protect Your Pet brochure (PDF) (2 pp, 1.0 MB, About PDF) (EPA 740-F-00-002)
- Protect Your Garden brochure (PDF) (2 pp, 1.0 MB, About PDF) (EPA 740-F-00-003)
- Protect Your Household brochure (PDF) (2 pp, 1.0 MB, About PDF) (EPA 740-F-00-004)
- Why Read Labels? (PDF) (2 pp, 585k, About PDF) (EPA 735-F-02-015)
Regulation of Pesticide Labels
Details regarding label regulation are available on these linked pages.
- Electronic Submission of Studies and Labels for Registering Pesticide Products - Manufacturers can now electronically submit studies and draft labeling for registration.
- Endangered Species Protection Bulletins: Bulletins Live! - If your pesticide product label directs you to the Bulletins Live! Web site, you are required to follow the pesticide use limitations found in the Bulletin for your county, pesticide active ingredient and application month.
- The Label Review Manual - The goal of the Label Review Manual is to improve the quality and consistency of labels. The manual can be useful for state label reviewers, registrants and other individuals interested in producing readable, unambiguous pesticide labels.
- Labeling of Pesticide Products Under the National Organic Program - The notice on this page describes how registrants can obtain EPA approval of label language indicating that all ingredients in a pesticide product and all uses of that pesticide meet the criteria defined in the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Organic Program Rule.
- Implementing NAFTA Labels - The North American Free Trade Agreement TWG implemented a project to allow for jointly registered pesticide products that allows for products to be purchased in one country and imported into the other under specified conditions.
- Own Use Import Program - Own Use Imports" refers to the practice by growers who use pesticides, to bring pesticides into the USA for their own purposes but not to sell or resell the pesticides. The OUI program was created as a short-term process to allow for such imports, until a better and long-term process could be started.
- Pesticide Labels and the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) - The Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals promotes standard criteria for classifying chemicals based on health, physical, and environmental hazards, using pictograms, hazard statements, and signal words.
- Pesticide Registration (PR) Notices - PR Notices are issued by the Office of Pesticide Programs to inform pesticide registrants and other interested persons about important policies, procedures and regulatory decisions.
Projects to Improve Pesticide Labels
EPA and its partners are working together to improve pesticide labels. Links to past and ongoing projects are available here.
- Design for the Environment Antimicrobial Pesticide Pilot Project – A logo on qualifying antimicrobial pesticide labels allows consumers in the marketplace to answer one of the more common questions the public asks of EPA’s Pesticide Program: How can I find products that are more toward the green end of the pesticide spectrum? The 36-month pilot project runs through June 2013.
- Factual Statements for Antimicrobial Products -- A 36-month pilot project beginning January 25, 2010, will allow qualifying antimicrobial pesticides to include certain factual statements on product labels. Pesticide registrants wishing to take part in this program should follow the instructions for the Factual Statements Pilot Project. This pilot was developed in cooperation with the Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee, in an effort better inform consumers of certain aspects of pesticide products.
For background on the Factual Statements pilot and the public process used to develop it, please see the Pesticide Product Labeling Workgroup Web pages covering Comparative Safety Statements. - Fogger Labeling Changes to Improve Residential Safety
- PPDC Consumer Label Improvement Workgroup - The Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee label improvement workgroup was formed in late 2004 to continue activities that had been undertaken by the Consumer labeling Initiative, since it was recognized that there is still room for improvement in consumer labels. This workgroup completed its work in 2006.
- Consumer Labeling Initiative - In the Consumer Labeling Initiative, EPA and stakeholders conducted consumer research to learn how to improve household pesticide and cleaning product labels. The redesigned, simpler labels resulting from CLI appear on products in stores, and the campaign lives in EPA's efforts to promote "Read the Label First!"