On April 15, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcement end-product performance data requirements for products claimed to be effective against certain pests. 87 Fed. Reg. 22464. This action officially integrates the already existing actions of the EPA product performance standards requirements for certain invertebrate pests in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The EPA says this action also increases the efficiency of its approvals process and will save filers time and money.
Product performance standards are intended to make it easier for pesticide registrants to know the efficacy data required by the EPA to demonstrate that a pesticide product is performing as claimed. By adding these requirements in the CFR, the EPA says it intends to help ensure that the data submitted meets EPA’s scientific needs and standards and meets a requirement of the 2018 Environmental Protection Act. improving the registration of pesticides (PRIA 4). The EPA notes as part of the agreement between pesticide stakeholders and public interest groups reflecting the environmental and agricultural worker safety communities in the development of the PRIA, “PRIA 4 specifically establishes a new maintenance fee set aside of up to $500,000/year to develop and finalize regulations and guidance on product performance data requirements for certain invertebrate pests of significant public health importance Specific to this rule, PRIA 4 requires the EPA to finalize product performance data requirements by September 30, 2021, for certain pesticides intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate specified invertebrate pests of significant public health or economic importance.
This final rule includes product performance data requirements for the invertebrate pest categories specified in PRIA 4, which EPA says it intends to meet the regulatory requirement. The EPA notes that this final rule covers certain invertebrate pests in addition to those specified in PRIA 4 because of their public health, economic, or ecological importance (eg, wood-destroying insects).
The EPA says it believes this final rule will save filers about $17,000 per data packet submitted to the EPA by reducing waste and unnecessary testing, and will reduce labor hours by 4,683 hours per year, including 4,515 hours due to reduced workload associated with data generation and 168 hours. hours of reduced paperwork with the application process.
This Final Rule codifies product performance data requirements to support the registration of products claiming efficacy against three categories of invertebrate pests:
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Those identified as being of significant public health importance (for exampleticks, mosquitoes, cockroaches);
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Xylophagous insects (for example, termites); and
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Some invasive invertebrate species (for exampleAsian longhorned beetle).
The EPA states that the latter two categories are pests considered to be of significant economic or ecological importance.
The final rule goes into effect on June 14, 2022.
Remark
Codification of product performance data requirements for invertebrate pests should increase transparency for registrants regarding the efficacy data they would typically need to generate and submit for products to make labeling claims against. these specific pests. Registrants of the products in question should monitor these requirements closely.
