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What
is a pesticide?
Broadly defined, a pesticide
is any agent used to kill or control any pest (1,
2). Pests can be insects, rodents or birds,
unwanted plants (weeds), fungi, or microorganisms such as bacteria
and viruses. Though often misunderstood to refer only to insecticides,
the term pesticide also applies to herbicides, fungicides, microbiocides,
rodenticides and various other substances used to control pests.
Under United States law, a pesticide is also any substance or mixture
of substances intended for use as a insect or plant growth regulator,
insect mating disruptor or egg sterilant, defoliant, or desiccant.
Many household products are pesticides, such as cockroach sprays
and baits, rat poisons, pet flea collars, products that kill mold
and mildew, and kitchen disinfectants.
 Definition of Terms
More About "Inert"
Ingredients
Definition
of Terms
In evaluating pesticide
information, several distinctions associated with pesticides are
quite important.
- Active ingredients
are the
specific chemicals contained in a pesticide product that
are designed to kill a particular pest. By law, the active ingredient
must be identified by name on the label together with its percentage
by weight.
- "Inert" ingredients
are commonly mixed with the active ingredients to create a formulated
pesticide product. See below for more information on "inert"
ingredients.
- Formulated pesticide
products are the form of the pesticide that is available to
the consumer, grower, or pest control applicator, and may take
the form of sprays, bait stations, fly strips, flea collars, dusts,
etc.
More
About "Inert" Ingredients
Inert ingredients include
solvents, emulsifiers, spreaders, and other substances mixed into
pesticide products to increase the effectiveness of the active ingredients,
make the product easier to apply, or to allow several active ingredients
to mix in one solution. An inert ingredient is simply any ingredient
in the product that is not intended to affect a target pest (3).
Inert ingredients can be as much as 99% of pesticide products. Both
U.S. EPA and California Department of Pesticide Regulation require
pesticide manufacturers to identify inert ingredients in their products
but do not disclose this information to the general public because
the pesticide industry considers product formulations trade secrets,
protected by law.
Many inert ingredients have
adverse health effects and may themselves be used as pesticides.
In fact, at least 382 chemicals on the U.S. EPA list of pesticide
inert ingredients are or were once registered as pesticide active
ingredients (4). Eight inert ingredients are
considered by U.S. EPA to be "of toxicological concern" and another
75 are "potentially toxic." The U.S. EPA strongly encourages registrants
(manufacturers and companies who buy and repackage pesticides for
market) to substitute less toxic substances for these hazardous
inerts in pesticide products. Nevertheless, a large but unknown
quantity remain in use (5).
While the identity of
specific "inerts" in a particular pesticide product is
not available to the public, it is possible to estimate the quantity
of inert ingredients released into the environment using California
Pesticide Use Reporting (PUR) data. In 1998, a total of 215 million
pounds of pesticide active ingredients and 134 million pounds of
inert ingredients were applied in California. Pesticide products
used in urban areas typically contain more inerts than agricultural-use
pesticides.
References:
- What
is a Pesticide?, U.S. EPA. Viewed on December 19, 2010.
- What
is a Pesticide?, California Department of Pesticide Regulation. Viewed on April 8, 2005.
- Other
Ingredients in Pesticide Products, U.S.
EPA. Viewed on December 19, 2010.
- S.
Marquardt, C. Cox, and H. Knight, Toxic
Secrets: "Inert" Ingredients in Pesticides 1987-1997,
Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides and Californians
for Pesticide Reform (San Francisco, 1998). Viewed on December 19, 2010.
- List
of Other (Inert) Pesticide Ingredients,
U.S. EPA. Viewed on December 19, 2010.
Top
of page
Last updated
December 19, 2010
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