Although most consumers would like to know when they are exposed to hazardous chemicals, the EPA s current pesticide labeling regulations do not require pestide manufacturers to disclose all hazardous chemicals in pesticide products. Bug repellants, flea and tick controls, lawn care products, and large scale farming products, are packaged with labels that falsely describe many of the product s chemical contents as inerts . Two years ago, the attorney-generals from New York, Alaska, Connecticut, Guam, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin, along with 260 non profit consumer and environmental groups, petitioned the EPA to adopt regulations that would require pesticide manufacturers to disclose all ingredients in their products, just as labels on food and drug products must do. The EPA still has not acted on that petition. Pesticide product labels currently list only active ingredients.
Active ingredients are the chemicals intended to kill the pest the product targets.
Other ingredients, including solvents, surfactants, dilutents, and carriers fall under the general label, inerts. Contrary to what the name implies, most inerts are not benign, and may even be more hazardous than the active ingredient. Inerts may make up well over half of pesticide products. There is no health-related justification for manufacturers not identifying inert ingredients on pesticide labels. While the EPA claims that most inerts are of unknown toxicity, many of these same chemicals are listed by the EPA as hazardous substances under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act.