Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management
How To Find Ingredients in Pesticide Products
Beyond Pesticides offers resources below to evaluate the health and ecological effects of specific chemical exposure from ACTIVE INGREDIENTS in pesticide products, as well as regulatory information and supporting scientific documents. Because various pesticide products can contain more than one active ingredient, it is important to READ the LABEL to determine chemical components.
With 192 different active ingredients and counting, it is essential to establish the connection between the use of these chemicals and their respective hazards.
View the step-by-step guide on how to search for the active ingredient(s) in pesticide products below:
- Go to U.S. EPA's Pesticide Product and Label System and enter the product name. The generic product name may vary.
- After searching, click on the chemical ingredients tab or the link for the most recent label to find Active Ingredients.
Chemical List Label List
If one selects the chemical ingredients tab, skip to Step 4 . If not, proceed to step number 3 - To find the active ingredient(s) on the label, search for the page in the document containing the date of registration. Usually, the active ingredients section occurs within the first few pages of the label document.
- Return to the Beyond Pesticides Gateway and search for the active ingredient name in the yellow box to the right or from the list below.
Cypermethrin
Includes alpha-cypermethrin
General Information
- Fact Sheets: Synthetic Pyrethroids.pdf, Cypermethrin.pdf
- Product Names:
- Chemical Class: Synthetic pyrethroid insecticide
- Uses: Agricultural use as a foliar application on food and feed crops including cotton, pecans, peanuts, broccoli, and sweet corn, livestock and horses. industrial, commercial, and residential sites; soil residual termiticide.
- Alternatives: Organic lawn care, Least-toxic insecticides, Organic Agriculture
- Beyond Pesticides rating: Toxic
Health and Environmental Effects
- Cancer: Possible (10)
- Endocrine Disruption: Yes (36)
- Reproductive Effects: Yes (13)
- Neurotoxicity: Yes (4)
- Kidney/Liver Damage: Yes (4)
- Sensitizer/ Irritant: Yes (6)
- Birth/Developmental: Yes (6)
- Detected in Groundwater: Not documented
- Potential Leacher: Not documented
- Toxic to Birds: Not documented
- Toxic to Fish/Aquatic Organisms: Yes (8)
- Toxic to Bees: Yes (8)
Residential Uses as Found in the ManageSafe™ Database
- Ants
- Carpenter Bees
- Centipedes
- Chiggers
- Fleas
- Wasps and Yellowjackets
- Termites
- Spiders
- Chinch Bugs
- Cockroaches
- Bagworms
- Bed Bugs
- Carpenter Ants
- Fire Ants
Additional Information
- Regulatory Status:
- EPA Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) signed (1/2008)
- Supporting information:
- Daily News Blog entries (Beyond Pesticides)
- Asthma, Children and Pesticides (Beyond Pesticides)
- NCAP Cypermethrin Factsheet (Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides)
- Extoxnet Cypermethrin Factsheet (Extension Toxicology Network)
- PAN Pesticides Database: Cypermethrin (Pesticide Action Network)
- Studies:
- Common Pesticides Poison Homes (Beyond Pesticides)
- Comparison of residents' pesticide exposure with predictions obtained using the UK regulatory exposure assessment approach.. Galea KS, MacCalman L, Jones K, Cocker J, et al. 2015. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol.73(2):634-43.
- Cypermethrin alters the status of oxidative stress in the peripheral blood: relevance to Parkinsonism.. Tripathi P, Singh A, Agrawal S, et al. 2014. J Physiol Biochem. 70(4):915-24.
- Cypermethrin induced pathological and biochemical changes in reproductive organs of female rats.. Sangha GK, Kaur K, Khera KS. 2013. J Environ Biol. 34(1):99-105
- Cytotoxicity induced by cypermethrin in Human Neuroblastoma Cell Line SH-SY5Y.. Raszewski G, Lemieszek MK, Łukawski K. 2016. Ann Agric Environ Med. 23(1):106-10.
- Developmental neurotoxic effects of two pesticides: Behavior and neuroprotein studies on endosulfan and cypermethrin.. Lee I, Eriksson P, et al. 2015. Toxicology. 335:1-10.
- Dopaminergic system modulation, behavioral changes, and oxidative stress after neonatal administration of pyrethroids.. Nasuti C, Gabbianelli R, Falcioni ML, et al.2007. Toxicology. 229(3):194-205.
- Evaluation of the Toxic Potentials of Cypermethrin Pesticide on Some Reproductive and Fertility Parameters in the Male Rats. Elbetieha, A, Da'as, SI et al. 2001. Arch Environ Contamn Tox. 41(4):522-528
- Five office workers inadvertently exposed to cypermethrin. Lessenger JE. 1992. J Toxicol Environ Health 35: 261-267
- In vitro-in vivo correlations for endocrine activity of a mixture of currently used pesticides.. Taxvig C, Hadrup N, Boberg J, et al. 2013. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol.272(3):757-66
- Individual and combined effect of chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin on reproductive system of adult male albino rats. . Alaa-Eldin EA, El-Shafei DA, Abouhashem NS. 2016. Environ Sci Pollut Res. doi:10.1007/s11356-016-7912-6
- Genetic Polymorphisms of Pesticide-Metabolizing Enzymes and Transporters in Agricultural Workers and Thyroid Hormone Levels. Sirivarasai, J., Chanprasertyothin, S., Kongtip, P. and Woskie, S. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 14, p.3435.
- Individual and joint effects of glyphosate and cypermethrin formulations on two human cell lines. Coalova, I., March, H., de Molina, M.D.C.R. and Chaufan, G., 2023. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 461, p.116398.
- Occurrence of pesticide residues in indoor dust of farmworker households across Europe and Argentina.. Navarro, I., de la Torre, A., Sanz, P., Baldi, I., Harkes, P., Huerta-Lwanga, E., Nørgaard, T., Glavan, M., Pasković, I., Pasković, M.P. and Abrantes, N., 2023. Science of The Total Environment, p.167797.
- Organic farming reduces pesticide load in a bird of prey. Fuentes, E. et al. (2024) Organic farming reduces pesticide load in a bird of prey, Science of The Total Environment. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724029255.
- Pre-Conception And First Trimester Exposure To Pesticides And Associations With Stillbirth. Furlong, M. et al. (2024) Pre-conception and first trimester exposure to pesticides and associations with stillbirth, American Journal of Epidemiology. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/aje/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/aje/kwae198/7714541.
- A Comprehensive Review on Pesticide Residues in Human Urine. Hakme, E., Poulsen, M. and Lassen, A. (2024) A Comprehensive Review on Pesticide Residues in Human Urine, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Available at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.4c02705.
- Advances and future prospects of pyrethroids: Toxicity and microbial degradation. Singh, S. et al. (2022) Advances and future prospects of pyrethroids: Toxicity and microbial degradation, Science of The Total Environment. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969722016540.
- Subacute oral toxicity of combinations of selected synthetic pyrethroids, piperonyl butoxide, and tetramethrin in rats. Yavuz O, Aksoy A, Das YK, et al. (2013). Subacute oral toxicity of combinations of selected synthetic pyrethroids, piperonyl butoxide, and tetramethrin in rats. Toxicology and Industrial Health. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0748233712469651
- Exposure to multiple pesticides and neurobehavioral outcomes among smallholder farmers in Uganda. Samuel Fuhrimann, Andrea Farnham, Philipp Staudacher, Aggrey Atuhaire, Tiziana Manfioletti, Charles B. Niwagaba, Sarah Namirembe, Jonathan Mugweri, Mirko S. Winkler, Lutzen Portengen, Hans Kromhout, Ana M. Mora, Exposure to multiple pesticides and neurobehavioral outcomes among smallholder farmers in Uganda, Environment International, Volume 152, 2021, 106477, ISSN 0160-4120, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2021.106477.