Release overview
Comprehensive coverage of pesticides now available!
- More than six billion pounds of pesticides are applied annually worldwide, with more than one billion pounds applied in the United States
- ChemMeta now tracks the science investigating the safety of nearly 4,500 fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and rodenticides
- Check out the more than 3,200 hypotheses of bodily injury associated with exposure to pesticides ChemMeta has identified thus far
Pesticides
With this release, ChemMeta now includes all pesticides registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). FIFRA defines a pesticide as a product that (1) prevents, destroys, repels, or mitigates a pest; (2) is used as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant; or (3) is a nitrogen stabilizer.
Before a pesticide can be sold or distributed in the United States, it must be registered with the EPA. The applicant must show that using the pesticide in accordance with its label “will not generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.” This includes demonstrating that the pesticide does not pose unreasonable risk to human health during application or as a result of consuming residue on food. FIFRA prohibits the sale and distribution of unregistered, adulterated, or misbranded pesticides and the use of any registered pesticide in a manner inconsistent with its labeling.
ChemMeta derives its inventory of pesticides from the Pesticide Product Information System (PPIS) maintained by EPA. The PPIS contains information concerning all pesticide products registered in the United States. Among other data fields, the PPIS includes the registrant name and address, chemical ingredients, toxicity category, product names, distributor brand names, site/pest uses, pesticidal type, formulation code, and registration status. As of this release, ChemMeta has identified 4,488 pesticide chemicals from the PPIS.
Users can access ChemMeta’s pesticide content by selecting “Pesticides” in the top right hand corner of any ChemMeta page (1). As of this release, ChemMeta has identified 3,225 hypotheses of bodily injury for 907 pesticide chemicals within this inventory. The remaining pesticide chemicals in the inventory have “no relevant literature” investigating hypotheses of bodily injury at this time.
