Registrations & Approvals: U.S. Pesticide Regulation
In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates
pesticides under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act
(FIFRA), and pesticide residues in human foods and animal feeds under the
Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA). According to EPA,
“a pesticide
is any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing,
destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.”
In accordance with
U.S. law, before selling or distributing a pesticide product, a person must
register the product with EPA. During the registration process, EPA reviews required toxicology and
environmental effects data on a pesticide along with its proposed label,
which describes how the pesticide will be used. This determines if the
product meets FIFRA’s registration standard of “no unreasonable adverse
effects on humans or the environment.”
In addition, a pesticide
whose usage produces residues in or on food and
animal
feed must have a
tolerance or an exemption from the tolerance
requirement (the legal limit
for a pesticide chemical residue in or on food). A tolerance will only be
established if EPA determines that the chemical residue of a pesticide is
“safe” at a certain level.
States have substantial authority in the
regulation of pesticides and obtaining
state registrations is crucial to
bringing a federally registered product to market. Once a
federal
registration is issued, registration must be obtained from every state and
territory where the product will be distributed or sold. State registrations
must also be maintained in every state a product is registered, requiring
companies to comply with each state’s regulatory requirements every time renewals
are due.
Our consultants have expertise in all aspects of the
pesticide registration process, including the preliminary negotiation of
data requirements,
designing and monitoring regulatory studies, preparing
risk assessments, developing
product labels and assembling applications. We
have industrial experience in product development,
data development,
Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) compliance, product and
residue analysis, and the
interpretation of data results. TSG’s highly skilled team of regulatory and
scientific experts allows us to provide full registration guidance
throughout the entire process, at the state, federal and international
level.
Pesticide
Regulation Handbook:
To order a copy,
please click
here
