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Product Standards EPA Pesticides and CPSC Consumer Products
I. Overview The federal government is primarily responsible for setting standards for products in commerce that may impact health and safety. These standards reduce the dangers posed by these products by banning their use in housing, requiring safer designs, or specifying label requirements.
EPA regulates pesticides and does not allow them to be sold or used with prior approval. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regulates most other consumer products related to housing but requires only compliance with general requirements. In response to specific problems, CPSC adopts specific standards to address the problem such as banning lead containing paint. HUD sets standards for formaldehyde in wood in manufactured housing. The HUD label has been widely used as a voluntary standard beyond manufactured housing.
II. EPA Pesticide Registration The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets product standards for pesticides. A pesticide is broadly defined as any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest. Pests are living organisms that occur where they are not wanted or that cause damage to crops or humans or other animals. Therefore, a pesticide includes herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Products which contain certain low-risk ingredients, such as garlic and mint oil, have been exempted from Federal registration requirements, although State regulatory requirements may still apply.
No pesticide can be sold without first being registered by EPA pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). For a pesticide to be registered, EPA must affirmatively determine that the product does not pose an unreasonable risk to human health and the environment when used consistent with the label. The label becomes the law that must be followed when used the pesticide. Anyone, even a consumer, who does not follow the product label are violating the law.
Through the registration process, EPA can restrict the sale or use of a pesticide including its use in housing. It can require that only licensed pest control operators use the pesticides by classifying it as a “restricted use” pesticide. During the past few years, EPA has removed once common pesticides such as chlorpyrifos and diazinon from consumer use and restricted access to the products.
In May 2008, EPA took the unusual step of limiting the use and sale of rodenticides because of pervasive misuse. More than 3000 children required treatment for accidental exposure to a type of rodenticide that acts as an anticoagulant in mammals. These second generation anticoagulants kill rodents with just one feeding and persist in body tissues. EPA required that all rodenticide bait products be sold to consumers only in tamper resistant bait stations. Loose bait such as pellets would be prohibited.
See www.epa.gov/pesticides for more information.
III. CPSC Hazardous Substances Laws The Consumer Product Safety Commission sets product standards pursuant to the Consumer Product Safety Act and the Federal Hazardous Substance Act. The CPSC has adopted mandatory products standards for the following items related to housing, furniture, and appliances:
For a complete list sorted by product, go to www.cpsc.gov/businfo/reg1.html.
It also requires labeling of products and bans products containing hazardous substances if they could injure a child.
See www.cpsc.gov for more information. |
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