Sources & Methodology

Created in 2000 by Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North America, the PesticideInfo database combines publicly available data to create an interactive, searchable database of every chemical and product related to pesticide use and application. This tool brings together a diverse array of information on pesticides from many sources, providing human toxicity (chronic and acute), ecotoxicity and regulatory information and more for about 15,300 pesticide active ingredients and their transformation products, including solvents and other additives used in pesticide products.

Information is most complete for pesticides registered for use in the United States, and use data is most extensive for California which requires pesticide use reporting. PAN works with experts at the Pesticide Research Institute (PRI) and PAN International to ensure the accuracy of our data and update the datasets at least annually. Below is an overview of our primary data sources.

Toxicity Data: Most of the toxicity information comes directly from official sources such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), World Health Organization (WHO), National Toxicology Program (NTP), National Institutes of Health (NIH), International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) and the State of California. In each revision, the following datasets are updated:

• California Proposition 65 list of carcinogens, reproductive and developmental toxicants
• California Toxic Air Contaminant list
• Endocrine disruptors (Our Stolen Future and the Danish Endocrine Disruptor lists)
• IARC cancer list
• EPA cancer list
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) Carcinogens
• World Health Organization (WHO) Acute Hazard list

Visit the Human Health section of the Resource Library for more information on specific pesticide health impacts.

Ecotoxicity Data: The updated version of PesticideInfo includes information on whether each chemical is toxic to bees and aquatic organisms as well as whether it bioaccumulates and persists in the environment. These data are part of the PAN International HHP designation (see details on HHP List data sources in section below). We also rank each pesticide’s groundwater contamination potential, through a process described in detail on our Water Pollution page in the Resource library. We also include specific parameters for each chemical from the National Drinking Water Standards. In each revision, the following datasets are updated:

• California groundwater contaminant list
• PAN International HHPs List
• Physical properties for CA groundwater contamination potential (maintained by the University of Hertfordshire)

Visit the Environmental Effects section of the Resource Library for more details, and the Ecotoxicity Resources page for step-by-step instructions for searching EPA’s comprehensive ECOTOX database.

Regulatory status: The regulatory status of a particular chemical (active or cancelled) for the U.S. is taken directly from EPA’s Pesticide Product Information System (PPIS), product data, and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s list of active ingredients. Pesticides that are listed under the Stockholm or Rotterdam conventions are listed as such, and EU regulatory status will be included for active ingredients going forward. Pesticides that are on PAN International’s HHPs list are designated as such, and pesticides that have been banned in any country are marked as being listed on the PAN International Bans list, which is also represented in the interactive Global Ban Map. In each revision, the following datasets are updated:

• California pesticide registration lists
• PAN International HHPs List
• PAN Consolidated List of Global Bans
• Rotterdam Convention (PIC) list
• Stockholm Convention (POPs) list
• European Union pesticide registration data
• U.S. pesticide registration lists

See the California Pesticide Use Reporting Data section on this page and the Regulations and Treaties section of the Resource Library for more information.

Usage data: Pesticide use in California reflects Pesticide Use Reporting data which has been collected since 1991 (see details below). The U,S, Geological Survey (USGS) has compiled county-level data for estimated pesticide usage nationwide since 1993; this data is reflected in the “Usage” tab for each chemical, and can also be explored in the USGS Maps page. California pesticide use information is updated regularly as the Department of Pesticide Regulation makes data available.

Product data: This database of pesticide active ingredients is integrated with the EPA product database, which provides information on formulated products (the form of the pesticide that growers and consumers purchase for use) containing active ingredients.

The following are specific examples of data included in PesticideInfo from this dataset.

Product registration number: EPA assigns a unique product identifier to each registered product. The first set of numbers before the hyphen (up to six digits) identifies the registrant or company that registered the pesticide with U.S. EPA. The set of numbers after the first hyphen (up to five digits) identifies the product, and the last set of numbers (up to six digits), if present, indicates the distributor of the pesticide product.

Product registration status: The product status field indicates the registration status of the product, either active or cancelled. A pesticide that is actively registered by EPA can legally be used in the U.S., except in states where state law is stricter than federal law and prohibits the use of the pesticide. A product with a cancelled registration is no longer legally available for sale in the U.S. There are several possible reasons a product registration might be cancelled:

• EPA determined the product to be unsafe to use because of its toxicity and banned all further uses of the product, or
• The manufacturer voluntarily withdrew the product from active registration. This may occur because:
  • The manufacturer has registered a “new and improved” product for similar uses and cancels the registration of the old one.
  • There are potential problems with toxicity or environmental hazards and it seems likely EPA will not approve further use. To cut losses and time invested in attempting to register the product, voluntary withdrawal is often the most cost-effective option.
  • The manufacturer is not making enough profit off of the product to maintain the registration

“Products containing this chemical:” EPA maintains a list of formulated pesticide products that contain each pesticide active ingredient. Note that often a company will register a single product and then sell the same product under many different brand names. The complete list of related products is shown in the “Overview” tab on each product information page

Formulation: This field indicates the formulation of the product, i.e., how the active ingredient is prepared for use in a pesticide product. Formulation types include: technical chemical, formulation intermediate, dust, granular, pelleted/tableted, wettable powder, wettable powder/dust, crystalline, microencapsulated, impregnated materials, water dispersible granules, emulsifiable concentrate invert-emulsifiable concentrate, flowable concentrate, soluble concentrate, ready-to-use solution, oils (no added pesticide), pressurized gas,pressurized liquid, pressurized dust, and solid agar.

Restricted Use Products (RUPs): EPA restricts use of some pesticide products because they are acutely toxic to humans or beneficial insects; have been shown to cause worker illnesses, groundwater contamination, bird or fish kills; or their drift damages other crops. RUPs can be used only by certified and licensed applicators, and then only under specific conditions. A list of Restricted Use Products is published by the EPA that also includes information on banned pesticides. While this list is limited in that it does not clearly specify whether all products containing a chemical are banned or restricted, the summary of chemicals with changes in restricted use status is helpful. New additions to this list are frequent, with approximately five new restricted use products added each month.

Percent active ingredient: The percent of the chemical in the formulated product, also called percent AI (active ingredient) is listed in the “Toxicity” tab for each product. Some products may have more than one active ingredient. The remainder of the formulated product is composed of other or “inert” ingredients.

Users may also be interested in exploring EPA’s Pesticide Product Label System (PPLS) database with photographs of pesticide product labels (in TIFF format), as well as correspondence between EPA and the registrant regarding label updates.

Newly registered pesticides: Each update includes any new chemicals that have been registered for use in the U.S., and their associated information including:

• Chemical classifications
• Chemical synonyms
• Chemical use types
• Chemical volatilities

Data accuracy: The fact that most of the data are available in electronic form nearly eliminates the possibility of data entry errors, so if our official data sources are correct, the PAN data are too. Interestingly, we have found that these official lists themselves have a number of errors. The fact that we are comparing multiple lists allows us to find and correct errors in identifying numbers, chemical classifications and use types. Because of this extensive cross-comparison between data sets, errors and inconsistencies are quickly found and corrected.

Data detail and definitions: We believe our data set of summary pesticide information to be the best that is publicly available. Where we’ve interpreted the original information to create summaries or comparisons, we have clearly documented our methods so the technique is transparent and the user can judge for themself the validity of the approach. See the Data Detail and Definitions page in the Resource Library for additional information and links.

California has required agricultural pesticide use reporting since 1991, and makes this data available to the public. The data can be searched by all combinations of crop, chemical, and geographic location. The most recent seven years are automatically displayed, but a “See more years” function allows users to view their search results for any period beginning in 1991.

We obtain the California pesticide use data directly from the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR). and do a number of data processing steps to present the data and summarize the information. Before creating summaries, all records marked as outliers by DPR are excluded from the raw data. The following describes some potential errors and points of confusion in presentation of California pesticide use data.

Treated vs. Planted Acres: There are two reported acreage figures in the PUR data: ‘Acres Treated’ and ‘Acres Planted’. The difference is best explained through an example: If a farmer has a 100-acre field and sprays 50 acres, then the Acres Planted will be 100 and the Acres Treated will be 50. If a farmer sprays 50 of their 100 acres three times, then the Acres Planted will remain at 100 acres, but now the value of Acres Treated will be 150.

Location Identifiers: An additional source of error may occur if growers report their fields in different ways between reports. For example, if grower X, growing almonds (site code 3001) on 20 acres, reports a site locator ID of “A 1” in one pesticide use report and “A-1” in a second pesticide use report, this appears as two different locations.

Errors in site codes are less common than other errors because there are only a limited number of site codes in use, typically 220 in a given year. The small number makes it less likely that an incorrect value will accidentally be entered. A notable exception to this is the incorrect use of a site code to identify the subtype of a crop. For example, there are two site codes for tomatoes in the PUR data, one for fresh market tomatoes and a second for processing tomatoes. In the early years of PUR reporting, the distinction between these two types of tomatoes was not clear, and many growers used incorrect site codes.

Site locator IDs are the most unreliable part of the location identifier in the PUR data. Because site locator IDs are not consistently formatted, it is very common for site locator IDs to be entered in several ways. One solution is to strip out common mistakes. In our data we remove all spaces, dashes, and hyphens in the site locator ID field. In addition, we convert all G’s to 6’s, Z’s to 2’s, and D’s to 0’s. This data cleanup technique was developed by Professor Lynn Epstein at UC Davis.

Cropping season: Calculating acreage planted using the techniques described above works for crops that have one crop per year and are planted and harvested in the same year. When multiple crops of the same commodity are grown in one year, it appears as if just a single crop was grown. As a result, this technique underreports acreage. For crops with a growing season that spans two calendar years, calculating planted acreage using this technique can result in up to a twofold error in reported acreage. Both of these problems can only be addressed by knowing the planting and harvest dates for each crop, data that are not currently collected under the PUR system. Fortunately, most crops are grown once per season and are planted and harvested in the same year. Some notable exceptions are carrots, garlic, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, lettuce (head and leaf), broccoli, onions, asparagus, strawberries, and spinach.

Evaluating Accuracy: To evaluate the accuracy of the Acres Planted determined from the PUR data, we take the following steps:

1. Compare PUR Acres Planted across all years reported and look for extreme changes in acreage.
2. Note any known changes in crop trends like, for example, an increase in planted almond acres, or failure of a particular crop due to disease or extreme weather events.
3. Compare apparent changes in acreage with three other PUR data fields that should change in a similar pattern: pounds of pesticide applied, the number of locations treated and the number of applications made.
4. Consider the fact that because of the way the PUR data are collected, PUR acreage estimates are never reliable for certain crops as noted above.
5. Compare PUR Acres Planted to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Acres Harvested, when these data are available.

To identify a “most toxic” set of pesticides, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North America created the term PAN Bad Actor. These pesticides are at least one of the following:

• Known or probable carcinogens, as designated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), U.S. National Toxicology Program, EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) cancer list, or the state of California’s Proposition 65 list.
• Reproductive or developmental toxicants, as designated by Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reproductive and developmental toxicant lists, and the state of California’s Proposition 65 list.
• Neurotoxic cholinesterase inhibitors, as designated by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, EPA, and/or PRI expert evaluation of chemical structure (for organophosphorus compounds).
• Known groundwater contaminants, as designated by the state of California (for actively registered pesticides) or from historic groundwater monitoring records (for banned pesticides).
• Pesticides with high acute toxicity, as designated by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), or U.S. EPA.

Note that because the acute toxicity of a product is dependent on the concentration of the active ingredient, the acute toxicity rating (i.e., the U.S. EPA Acute Hazard Warning Label) of the product (not the pure active ingredient) is used to determine PAN Bad Actor Product status in the Acute Toxicity category. For all other categories, the Bad Actor properties of the individual chemicals are applied to the product.

See the Resource Library for more detailed information on the individual categories above.

The PAN International List of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) was initially developed by PAN Germany in 2009, in response to a need identified through participation in the FAO/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Management. Listing criteria include acute toxicity, long term health effects, environmental hazards, and status under global pesticide-related conventions.

Long term health effects evaluated include endocrine disruption, carcinogenicity, and reproductive/developmental toxicity. Environmental criteria include toxicity to bees and aquatic organisms, persistence in the environment, and ability to bioaccumulate.

The PAN HHPs list is currently based only on classifications by recognized authorities, including the World Health Organization (WHO), U.S. EPA, the EU Commission and the Pesticide Property Database maintained by the University of Hertfordshire. The HHP list is updated annually by PAN International experts, and hazard criteria are updated periodically, most recently in 2018. For more details see the Highly Hazardous Pesticides page in the Resource Library.

PesticideInfo includes a “drift prone” rating for all pesticides in the database. This is derived from the chemical’s vapor pressure (VP), the physical property that most affects its ability to drift.

VP increases with temperature, and the higher the vapor pressure, the more volatile the chemical. Vapor pressure is a good predictor of the volatility of the chemical and allows determination of which pesticides might be prone to evaporate from leaf and soil surfaces, and drift off-site after application.

Vapor pressures are expressed using a variety of units, including pascals (Pa), millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), pounds per square inch (psi), and atmospheres (atm). Typically, pesticides with vapor pressures greater than 10-6 mm Hg can readily volatilize and drift away from the application site. Some conversion factors are given below:

• 1 Pa = 1 kg/m-s2
• 1 Pa = 7.5 x 10-3 mm Hg (Torr)
• 1 kPa (kiloPascal) = 1000 Pa = 7.5 mm Hg (Torr)
• 1 mPa (milliPascal) = 0.001 Pa = 7.5 x 10-6 mm Hg (Torr)
• 1 atm = 101.325 kPa (kiloPascal)
• 1 atm = 14.70 psi
• 1 atm = 760 mm Hg (Torr)

Vapor pressure data were obtained from one of the following sources:

• The ARS Pesticide Properties Database U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Services.
• Physical Properties Database, California Department of Pesticide Regulation, available on request from CDPRWeb@cdpr.ca.gov.
• Materials Safety Data Sheets for the pure compounds.

For more information on drift and drift-prone pesticides, see the Pesticide Drift page in the Resource Library.

The 2020 update of PesticideInfo features a new Pesticide Maps section which includes the following three mapping tools:

USGS map: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains county-level maps presenting annual agricultural use of more than 500 pesticides in the United States. USGS officials combine farm survey pesticide use data with harvested-crop acreage data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to obtain county-level pesticide use estimates nationwide (except California data which is drawn from pesticide use data collected by the CA Department of Pesticide Regulation). Maps are available for every year since 1993, and a graph accompanies each map showing annual national use by major crop for the mapped pesticide.

Global Ban Map: This interactive map shows where pesticides are banned around the world. Users can search by pesticide to learn which countries have implemented a ban, or by country to find out which pesticides have been banned in each nation. PAN International regularly updates the data this map is based on; for more information on this data source see the Banned Pesticides page in our Resource Library.

CA Township Map: Tracking California has created the Agricultural Pesticide Mapping Tool, a user-friendly way to visualize California’s Pesticide Use Reporting data, which has been collected at the county and township level since 1991. Users can explore the history and current scope of pesticide use across the state with this mapping tool, searching by geography, specific pesticide, or pesticide category (e.g. carcinogens, fumigants, toxic air contaminants).

The Parent/Related Chemical groupings provide the user with information about related chemicals. Many compounds in the database are chemically similar to each other; however, typically only one of a group of similar compounds has been evaluated for its toxicological properties. We call this compound the “parent.” In many (but not all) cases, other related chemicals will have similar toxicological effects and/or similar chemical reactivity.

We formally group similar compounds to make it possible for the user to:

• Know which compounds are chemically similar
• View the toxicological properties of the parent compound when evaluating a related compound

The “Chemical Type” classification (organophosphorus compounds, urea compounds, etc.) is one way of broadly categorizing chemicals. By creating Parent/Related Chemical rollup categories, we have taken this classification scheme to a finer level of detail. (See below for one example — the triazine herbicides.)

Chemical Groups: All chemicals in a group are related to the parent in one or more ways. One cannot be certain that a compound is toxicologically similar to its parent without submitting it to a battery of tests. However, one can make reasonable assumptions based on understanding what happens when it enters the environment or the human body. A compound may, for example, be transformed into the parent compound through some physiological or environmental process, or a portion of the molecule may be identical or nearly so to the parent. EPA uses this knowledge of toxicological similarity when it registers a group of chemicals, such as “2,4-D and derivatives,” “maleic hydrazide and salts,” “2,4,5-T/Silvex,” “pentachlorophenol, salts and esters,” and others.

The logic we’ve used for combining chemicals into rollup groups are outlined below.

Parent: Compounds labeled with a “P” are the parent compound of the group. The parent chemical was chosen on the basis of available toxicity information, where chemicals with the maximum amount of toxicity information were assigned to parent status. Where no toxicity information was available for any member of a group, we assigned parent status to the least derivatized member of the group for organic compounds (e.g., benzoic acid would be the parent instead of methyl benzoate), the sodium salt (for compounds with a common anion), or the chloride salt (for compounds with a common cation). These are general guidelines because the groups are rarely so easy to categorize. For some groups with no obvious parent, assignment of parent status was arbitrary.

Group 1: Salts, esters and/or complexes of the parent chemical, e.g., glyphosate and glyphosate isopropylamine salt; 2,4-D and 2,4-D butoxyethyl ester. Alternatively, the parent compound itself is an ester or salt, and related compounds are other esters or salts.

Group 2: Derivatives of the parent chemical, other than esters, made by substitution of a functional group or groups.

Group 3: Compounds or complexes of the same highly toxic metal as the parent compound. There are distinct groupings for different types of arsenic, mercury, cadmium, tin, lead, selenium, antimony and hexavalent chromium compounds.

Group 4: Compounds or complexes of the same less-toxic metals or non-metallic elements as the parent compound. There are distinct groupings for copper, zinc, iron, silver, iodine and other inorganic compounds.

Group 5a: Transformation or breakdown product of the parent chemical, e.g. DDE is the transformation product of DDT. This category is also used for cases where the parent chemical is the transformation product and the related chemical is a precursor to it. For example, carbon disulfide is the transformation product of sodium tetrathiocarbonate and is listed as the parent chemical.

Group 5b: Oxygen analogs of a phosphorothioate parent chemical. These compounds are a special sub-category of parent chemicals and their transformation products. Metabolism of the phosphorothioates results in the formation of the oxygen analogs, which are more toxic than the parent phosphorothioates themselves.

Group 6: Optical, geometric, or structural isomer of the parent chemical.

Group 7: Inorganic strong acids, weak acids, strong bases, weak bases, and their salts.

Group 8: California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s (DPR) “other related” chemicals. For example, “DDVP” and “DDVP, other related”.

Group 9: Bacteria and viruses used as microbial pesticides that are either a) the same genus and species as the parent, b) the same genus and the same mechanism of action as the parent, or c) the same mechanism of action as the parent.

Group 10: Different forms of the same chemical element or mineral, for example graphite vs. diamond or crystalline silica vs. amorphous silica.

Group 11: Natural materials and related compounds derived from these natural materials, including vegetable based compounds such as soybean oil, olive oil, canola oil, etc.; natural products and their essential oils such as oil of lemongrass, 3,7-dimethyl-6-octen-1-ol acetate and citronellol; and inorganic compounds such as clam shells and oyster shells.

Group 12: Unidentified chemicals or mixtures with the same brand name or use.

Group 13: Mixture of compounds with one compound in the mixture being the parent compound. For example, benfuracarb is a mixture of two similar, but slightly different chemicals. Alternatively, the parent is a mixture and the group members are compounds in that mixture.

Group 14: Pheromones and derivatives with the same carbon chain length.

Group 15: Parent is a mixture of compounds. Related substances are also mixtures with structures similar to the parent mixture.

Group 16: Polymer of parent compound.

Group 17: An analytical method or a device for dispensing a chemical.