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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) announced on July 27th that it will make available the most recent 10 years of pesticide incident reports to the public in a searchable database.
The database will be updated every month.
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”) governs the registration, distribution, sale, and use of pesticides in the United States. With certain exceptions, a pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, or intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant, or any nitrogen stabilizer. Pursuant to FIFRA EPA is responsible for registering or licensing pesticide products for use in the United States.
EPA states that the information from its Incident Data System (“IDS”) will allow users to access data on pesticide exposure incidents such as:
- Incident date
- Reason for the report (e.g., adverse effect, product defect)
- Severity of the incident
- Location of the incident
- Pesticide product
- Description of the incident
EPA does qualify that it does not verify raw data for accuracy or completeness and therefore considers this a limitation for which users should be aware.
EPA interprets a pesticide incident as any exposure or effect from a pesticide’s use that is not expected or intended. Examples may involve:
- People
- Domestic animals
- Wildlife
- Environment
EPA undertakes a periodic review of pesticide registrations (includes pesticide incidents) at least every 15 years. The purpose of such review is to ensure that the registered pesticides still meet the statutory standard of no unreasonable adverse effects. Such analysis may result in label changes to address any identified risk of concern.
EPA states that the IDS will include two sets of data:
- Incidents that were submitted to EPA with a description of the incident
- Incidents that were submitted in aggregate
A copy of the EPA news release referencing the IDS can be downloaded here.
