Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management

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:

1. Go to U.S. EPA's Pesticide Product and Label System and enter the product name. The generic product name may vary.
   
2. 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
   
   
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.
   
   
4. 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. 
   
   

Updates from the Daily News Blog

Literature Reviews Add to Wide Body of Science Connecting Pesticides to Parkinson’s Disease
April 23, 2025

Pesticide Exposure in the Womb Increases ADHD Risk
August 25, 2010

American Bird Conservancy Petitions EPA to Ban Import of Food Containing Deadly Pesticide Residues
August 6, 2009

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Dichlorvos (DDVP)

General Information

• Fact Sheet: DDVP.pdf
• Product Names:

  Spectracide Bug Stop Pest Strip (Spectrum Brands)
  Hot Shot No-Pest Strip (Spectrum Brands)
  Rockland C-EM-DIE (Value Gardens Supply), formulated with Piperonyl butoxide, Pyrethrins
  Vapona (Value Gardens Supply)
  Sentry Collar (Sergeant's Pet Care Products) 

• Chemical Class: Organophosphate insecticide
• Uses: Agricultural sites, commercial, institutional and industrial sites; in and around homes; on pets,in greenhouses; mushroom houses; storage areas for bulk, packaged and bagged raw and processed agricultural commodities; food manufacturing/processing plants; animal premises; and non-food areas of food-handling establishments Target pests are flies, gnats, mosquitoes, chiggers, ticks, cockroaches, armyworms, chinch bugs, clover mites, crickets, cutworms, grasshoppers, and sod webworms.
• Alternatives: Organic Agriculture, Least-Toxic Insect Control, Least-Toxic Pet Care
• Beyond Pesticides rating: Toxic

Health and Environmental Effects

• Cancer: Possible (10), Yes (21)
• Endocrine Disruption: Not documented
• Reproductive Effects: Yes (22)
• Neurotoxicity: Yes (4)
• Kidney/Liver Damage: Yes (4)
• Sensitizer/ Irritant: Yes (4)
• Birth/Developmental: Not documented
• Detected in Groundwater: Not documented
• Potential Leacher: Yes (4)
• Toxic to Birds: Yes (8)
• Toxic to Fish/Aquatic Organisms: Yes (8)
• Toxic to Bees: Yes (4)

Residential Uses as Found in the ManageSafe™ Database

• Cockroaches

Additional Information

• Regulatory Status:
  • EPA Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) signed (7/2006)
  • Beyond Pesticides' OP cumulative risk RED comments
• Supporting information:
  • Daily News Blog entries (Beyond Pesticides)
  • Extoxnet pesticideFactsheet (Extension Toxicology Network)
  • PAN Pesticides Database: Dichlorvos (Pesticide Action Network)
  • PAN UK Organophosphate Factsheet (Pesticide Action Network UK)
• Studies:
• Effects of a mixture of pesticides on the adult female reproductive system of Sprague-Dawley, Wistar, and Lewis rats. Pascotto VM, Guerra MT, Franci JA, et al. 2015. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 78(9):602-16
• Home pesticide use and childhood cancer: A case-control study. Leiss, J., et al. 1995. American Journal of Public Health 85:249-252
• Incident Diabetes and Pesticide Exposure among Licensed Pesticide Applicators: Agricultural Health Study, 1993–2003. Montgomery et al. American Journal of Epidemiology 2008 167(10):1235-1246
• Effects of Dichlorvos on cardiac cells: Toxicity and molecular mechanism of action. Salem, I.B., Boussabbeh, M., Da Silva, J.P., Saidi, N.E., Abid-Essefi, S. and Lemaire, C., 2023. Chemosphere, 330, p.138714.
• Predicting the relationship between pesticide genotoxicity and breast cancer risk in South Indian women in in vitro and in vivo experiments . Sasikala, S. et al. (2023) ‘Predicting the relationship between pesticide genotoxicity and breast cancer risk in south Indian women in in vitro and in vivo experiments’, Scientific Reports, 13(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-023-35552-3.
• Pesticide-Induced Inflammation at a Glance. Lopes-Ferreira, M. et al. (2023) ‘Pesticide-induced inflammation at a glance’, Toxics, 11(11), p. 896. doi:10.3390/toxics11110896.
• Maternal exposure to the mixture of organophosphorus pesticides induces reproductive dysfunction in the offspring. Yu, Y., Yang, A., Zhang, J., & Hu, S. (2013). Maternal exposure to the mixture of organophosphorus pesticides induces reproductive dysfunction in the offspring. Environmental toxicology, 28(9), 507–515. https://doi.org/10.1002/tox.20741
• Persistence of aerially-sprayed naled in coastal sediments. Bamiduro, G. J., Kumar, N., Solo-Gabriele, H. M., & Zahran, E. M. (2021). Persistence of aerially-sprayed naled in coastal sediments. The Science of the total environment, 794, 148701. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148701
• Field Assessment of Naled and Its Primary Degradation Product (Dichlorvos) in Aquatic Ecosystems Following Aerial Ultra-low Volume Application for Mosquito Control. Smith, C.D., Hladik, M.L., Kuivila, K.M. et al. Field Assessment of Naled and Its Primary Degradation Product (Dichlorvos) in Aquatic Ecosystems Following Aerial Ultra-low Volume Application for Mosquito Control. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 84, 307–317 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-023-00981-8
• Acute toxicity and risk assessment of permethrin, naled, and dichlorvos to larval butterflies via ingestion of contaminated foliage. Hoang, T. C., & Rand, G. M. (2015). Acute toxicity and risk assessment of permethrin, naled, and dichlorvos to larval butterflies via ingestion of contaminated foliage. Chemosphere, 120, 714–721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2014.10.040
• Mosquito control insecticides: a probabilistic ecological risk assessment on drift exposures of naled, dichlorvos (naled metabolite) and permethrin to adult butterflies. Hoang, T. C., & Rand, G. M. (2015). Mosquito control insecticides: a probabilistic ecological risk assessment on drift exposures of naled, dichlorvos (naled metabolite) and permethrin to adult butterflies. The Science of the total environment, 502, 252–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.09.027
• Monitoring the aquatic toxicity of mosquito vector control spray pesticides to freshwater receiving waters. Phillips, B. M., Anderson, B. S., Voorhees, J. P., Siegler, K., Denton, D., TenBrook, P., Larsen, K., Isorena, P., & Tjeerdema, R. S. (2014). Monitoring the aquatic toxicity of mosquito vector control spray pesticides to freshwater receiving waters. Integrated environmental assessment and management, 10(3), 449–455. https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.1534
• Use of butterflies as nontarget insect test species and the acute toxicity and hazard of mosquito control insecticides. Hoang, T. C., Pryor, R. L., Rand, G. M., & Frakes, R. A. (2011). Use of butterflies as nontarget insect test species and the acute toxicity and hazard of mosquito control insecticides. Environmental toxicology and chemistry, 30(4), 997–1005. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.462
• Impaired mitochondrial energy metabolism and neuronal apoptotic cell death after chronic dichlorvos (OP) exposure in rat brain. Kaur, P., Radotra, B., Minz, R. W., & Gill, K. D. (2007). Impaired mitochondrial energy metabolism and neuronal apoptotic cell death after chronic dichlorvos (OP) exposure in rat brain. Neurotoxicology, 28(6), 1208–1219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2007.08.001
• Nigrostriatal neuronal death following chronic dichlorvos exposure: crosstalk between mitochondrial impairments, α synuclein aggregation, oxidative damage and behavioral changes. BK, B., Bal, A., Kandimalla, R.J. et al. Nigrostriatal neuronal death following chronic dichlorvos exposure: crosstalk between mitochondrial impairments, α synuclein aggregation, oxidative damage and behavioral changes. Mol Brain 3, 35 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-6606-3-35