The Federal Act of 1947

W. G. Reed.

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act regulates the marketing in interstate commerce of economic poisons insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, and herbicides. Products intended for trapping, destroying, repelling, or mitigating insects or rodents, or destroying, repelling, or mitigating fungi, are also subject to the act.

The law was enacted June 25, 1947, and became fully effective June 25, 1948. It replaced and expanded the protection afforded by the Insecticide Act of 1910. The old act regulated only insecticides and fungicides and became effective at a time when such products were comparatively simple, consisting mainly of paris green, pyrethrum, bordeaux mixtures, and like goods.

The purpose of the 1947 Act is to protect the public in the use of economic poisons, many of which are dangerous and all of which are subject to limitations in application. Products subject to the Act must be registered with the United States Department of Agriculture prior to introduction in interstate commerce. Provision is made for testing products as they are encountered in the regular channels of trade to determine whether they are in compliance with the law. Those that are found to be in violation may be seized by the Government to remove them from the channels of trade. The manufacturer may be prosecuted if such action is warranted.

To furnish necessary information to the users of economic poisons and guide them in using such materials safely and effectively, the Act provides that every product must have attached to it a label showing:

1. The name and address of the manufacturer or person for whom manufactured.

2. The name, brand, or trade-mark under which the article is sold.

3. The net contents.

4. An ingredient declaration.

5. An appropriate warning or caution statement, when necessary, to prevent injury to man, animals, vegetation, and useful invertebrate animals.

In addition, labels on highly toxic products must contain the word POISON in red, the skull and crossbones, and a statement of an antidote. Adequate directions for use must accompany each product.

It is unlawful to market in interstate commerce any economic poison that has not been registered with the Department or one that is misbranded or adulterated. A product is adulterated if its strength or purity falls below the professed standard or quality as expressed on its labeling or under which it is sold, or if any substance has been substituted wholly or in part for the article, or if any valuable constituent of the article has been wholly or in part abstracted. An economic poison or device is misbranded if its labeling bears any statement, design, or graphic representation relative thereto or to its ingredients which is false or misleading in any particular. An economic poison is misbranded:

1. If it is an imitation of or is offered for sale under the name of another economic poison.

2. If its labeling bears any reference to registration under the Act.

3. If the labeling accompanying it does not contain directions for use that are necessary and, if complied with, adequate for the protection of the public.

4. If the label does not contain a warning or caution statement which may be necessary and, if complied with, adequate to prevent injury to living Man and other vertebrate animals, vegetation, and useful invertebrate animals.

5. If the label does not bear an ingredient statement on that part of the immediate container and on the outside container or wrapper, if there is one, through which the ingredient statement on the immediate container cannot be clearly read, of the retail package which is presented or displayed under customary conditions of purchase. (The Secretary of Agriculture may permit the ingredient statement to appear prominently on some other part of the container, if the size or form of the container makes it impracticable to place it on the part of the retail package which is presented or displayed under customary conditions of purchase.)

6. If any word, statement, or other information required by or under authority of this Act to appear on the label or labeling is not prominently placed thereon with such conspicuousness (as compared with other words, statements, designs, or graphic matter in the labeling) and in such terms as to render it likely to be read and understood by the ordinary individual under customary conditions of purchase and use.

7. If in the case of an insecticide, fungicide, or herbicide when used as directed or in accordance with commonly recognized practice it shall be injurious to living man or other vertebrate animals, or vegetation, except weeds, to which it is applied, or to the person applying such economic poison.

One of the most important provisions of the law is the one that requires insecticides and other economic poisons to be registered with the United States Department of Agriculture prior to introduction into interstate commerce. This gives the public additional protection and assists manufacturers and distributors in complying with other provisions of the law. To obtain registration, an application, together with information concerning the composition and proposed labeling, must be submitted to the Department. The material is carefully scrutinized by specially trained scientific personnel in the various fields involved, and if the product, its labeling, and other material appear to be in compliance with the law, a registration notice is issued.

Occasionally proposed labeling contains recommendations for uses about which there is little or no published information. In such instances the applicant is requested, if he has not already done so, to furnish a full description of the tests that have been made with the product and the results thereof upon which the claims are based. That information is reviewed; if it appears to warrant the claims and the product and its labeling are otherwise in compliance with the law, the product is registered. If it does not appear that the article is such as to warrant the proposed claims, or if it and the labeling or other material required to be submitted do not comply with the law, the applicant is notified of the deficiencies and given an opportunity to make necessary corrections. If he then insists, in writing, that such corrections are not necessary and requests that the article be registered, the law requires that it be registered under protest. In general, manufacturers and distributors have cooperated in making whatever changes in formulations or labeling the Department has considered necessary. Also, because of the higher penalties that are imposed under the law if a person or firm is found guilty in court of marketing a misbranded or adulterated product that has been registered under protest, few requests for this type of registration have been received.

BEFORE A NEW economic poison is offered for registration and general distribution, usually experiments by qualified people have been carried on to determine how it can be used safely and effectively. Frequently laboratory and field tests are conducted over a period of several years before enough information can be obtained to prepare adequate directions for use and appropriate precautionary labeling. During this period of research and investigation, materials may be transported in interstate commerce without legal restrictions if they are intended solely for experimental use by or under the supervision of a Federal or State agency authorized by law to conduct research in the field of economic poisons or by others if a permit from the Department has been obtained before shipment.

To obtain an experimental permit, the shipper or person making the delivery is required to submit a signed application showing: The name and address of the shipper and place or places from which the shipment or shipments will be made; the proposed date of shipment or proposed shipping period, not to exceed 1 year; the identification of material to be covered by the permit; the approximate quantity to be shipped and types of tests that will be made; whether the product is to be sold or delivered without cost; that the economic poison is intended for experimental use only; and the proposed labeling, which, besides other statements, must state that the product is for experimental use only.