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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.
Pyrethrins
General Information
- Fact Sheet: Synthetic.Pyrethroids.Factsheet.pdf
- Product Names:
- Chemical Class: Pyrethrin insecticide
- Uses: Pre-harvest and postharvest uses on many agricultural crops; livestock animals and premises; commercial and industrial facilities and storage areas where raw and processed food/feed commodities are stored or processed; wide area mosquito abatement use in areas which include aquatic areas; and residential settings. Targets many different types of insects and arthropods including ants, worms, beetles, mites, flies, gnats, spiders, weevils, caterpillars, grubs, moths, ticks, lice, wasps, aphids, midges etc.
- Alternatives: Organic Agriculture, Least-toxic mosquito control
- Beyond Pesticides rating: Toxic
Health and Environmental Effects
- Cancer: Likely (16)
- Endocrine Disruption: Not documented
- Reproductive Effects: Likely (84)
- Neurotoxicity: Not documented
- Kidney/Liver Damage: Not documented
- Sensitizer/ Irritant: Yes (4)
- Birth/Developmental: Not documented
- 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 (57)
Residential Uses as Found in the ManageSafe™ Database
- Ants
- Bed Bugs
- Carpenter Ants
- Cockroaches
- Fleas
- Head Lice
- Spiders
- Carpenter Bees
- Chiggers
- Mosquitoes
- Wasps and Yellowjackets
- Bagworms
- Carpet Beetle
- Centipedes
- Ticks
- Aphids
Additional Information
- Regulatory Status:
- EPA Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) signed (6/2006)
- Beyond Pesticides' Pyrethrins RED comments.
- Supporting information:
- Asthma, Children and Pesticides (Beyond Pesticides)
- NCAP Pyrethrins Factsheet (Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides)
- Extoxnet Pyrethrins Factsheet (Extension Toxicology Network)
- PAN Pesticides Database:Pyrethrins (Pesticide Action Network)
- Scorecard Pyrethrins Factsheet (The Pollution Information Site)
- Studies:
- Acute Illnesses Associated With Pesticide Exposure at Schools, Alarcon, W. et. al. 2005. Journal of the American Medical Association. 294 (4):455-465
- A Longitudinal Approach to Assessing Urban and Suburban Children's Exposure to Pyrethroid Pesticides. Lu C, Barr DB, Pearson M, Bartell S, Bravo R.. 2006. Environ Health Perspect. 114(9):1419-23.
- A mode of action for induction of thyroid gland tumors by Pyrethrins in the rat.. Finch JM, Osimitz TG, Gabriel KL, et al. 2006. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol.214(3):253-62
- Fatal asthma in a child after use of an animal shampoo containing pyrethrin. Wagner, SL. 2000. West J Med 173: 86-87
- Oxidative stress of glyphosate, AMPA and metabolites of pyrethroids and chlorpyrifos pesticides among primary school children in Cyprus. Makris, K.C., Efthymiou, N., Konstantinou, C., Anastasi, E., Schoeters, G., Kolossa-Gehring, M. and Katsonouri, A., Environmental Research, 212, p.113316.
- Effects of prenatal and infant daily exposure to pyrethroid pesticides on the language development of 2-year-old toddlers: A prospective cohort study in rural Yunnan, China. Chen, S., Xiao, X., Qi, Z., Chen, L., Chen, Y., Xu, L., Zhang, L., Song, X. and Li, Y. NeuroToxicology.
- Gut microbiota dysbiosis involves in host non-alcoholic fatty liver disease upon pyrethroid pesticide exposure. Li, M., Liu, T., Yang, T., Zhu, J., Zhou, Y., Wang, M. and Wang, Q., 2022.Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 11, p.100185.
- Exploratory analysis of the association between pyrethroid exposure and rheumatoid arthritis among US adults: 2007-2014 data analysis from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Guo, X., Li, N., Wang, H., Su, W., Song, Q., Liang, Q., Sun, C., Liang, M., Ding, X., Lowe, S. and Sun, Y., 2022. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, pp.1-11.