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Pesticide News Story: EPA Clarifies Prohibitions on Unregistered Cleaning Products
For Release: April 7, 2010
EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs has published a Web page that articulates and gives examples of some claims on cleaning products that require the products to be registered as pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. This Web page was prompted by several cases of non-compliance in the regulated community, especially among cleaners sold in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) product lines. Several enforcement actions are underway.
Unregistered cleaning products are not permitted to make pesticidal claims. Some basic rules about product labeling and advertising:
- Claims cannot be made to remove or wash away pest habitat, breeding sites, food sources, or “contamination” where “contamination” may be pest habitat, breeding ground or food source.
- Claims cannot be made for the direct removal of the pest, or for the removal of the pest through physical means such as drowning or suffocation.
- Claims cannot be made for the removal of “germs” or biofilms.
- Unregistered cleaning products may not bear depictions of pest habitat, such as a nest, hive, or spider web.
- Unregistered cleaning products in IPM product lines must be marketed in separate sections from registered pesticides in catalog or Web sites.
These prohibitions apply to all media and to manufacturers, distributors or other middlemen, as well as pest control operators and other service providers.
For more information, please see the Fact Sheet on the Web site.