Incident Reporting by Pesticide Manufacturers/ Registrants

Pesticide registrants are required to inform us about harmful effects of their products under federal law:

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), section (6)(a)(2): “If at any time after the registration of a pesticide the registrant has additional factual information regarding unreasonable adverse effects on the environment of the pesticide, the registrant shall submit such information to the Administrator.”

Adverse effect information they must report includes:

• New information derived from scientific studies (e.g., unexpected levels of toxicity).
• Reports of incidents of harmful effects resulting from the use of their pesticide products.

EPA considers incident information submitted by registrants and all others in evaluating the safety of pesticide products.

How to Report Incidents

Voluntary Incident Reporting Forms and Instructions. We accept any information format that meets the requirements of the regulations. We are providing these forms, which were developed by pesticide registrants and trade association representatives, as a convenience.

For More Information

Federal regulations on registrant reporting requirements:  40 CFR part 159

EPA’s Pesticide Registration Notices (PR Notice) provide technical guidance on what, when, and how registrants are to report:

• PR Notice 98-3: Guidance on Final FIFRA Section 6(a)(2) Regulations for Pesticide Product Registrants (1998). PRN 98-3 provides guidance topics including the role of agents, aggregate reporting of incidents, definitions of incident severity categories, waiver requests and property damage incidents.
• PR Notice 98-4: Additional Guidance on Final FIFRA Section 6(a)(2) Regulations for Pesticide Product Registrants (1998). PRN 98-4 provides guidance on topics such as the definition of “registrant’, reporting timeframes and required information.
• PR Notice 2000-8: Reportability of Attorney's Opinions and Conclusions under 40 CFR Part 159 and FIFRA Section 6(a)(2) (2000). PRN 2000-8 contains EPA's opinion about the reporting of attorney professional legal judgments.