During recent years, use of active ingredient in the U.S. has remained relatively stable at 1.1 billion pounds. The volume of pesticides used for agricultural purposes also remained steady at approximately three-fourths of the total use.
Herbicides are the leading type of pesticides, in terms of both user expenditures and volume used.
Atrazine and metolachlor are the two most widely used pesticides in U.S. agricultural crop production. In 1993, EPA registered 21 new uses and 20 new chemicals. The EPA attributes the increase to improvements in the registration process and industry's expedient submission of data. In order to improve and increase the availability of information regarding national pesticide use patterns, EPA has expanded its surveying activities to include more non-agricultural uses. Survey results will be published in late 1994.