On June 12, 2026, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced proposed revisions to its enforcement response regulations. The initiative proposes to increase fines, revise the criteria for referring violations to enforcement, re-define violation types, and make other clarifications or amendments to enforcement procedure. The last major substantive update to the regulations took place in 2006. Purpose and Substance of Proposal DPR states that the proposed action...
Pesticide Law and Policy Blog® covering developments in conventional, biocidal, antimicrobial, and other pesticide product issues
The U.S. Supreme Court issued one of the most significant pesticide law decisions in years on June 25, 2026, holding in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) expressly preempts state-law failure-to-warn claims that would require pesticide labels to include warnings beyond those required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Court's 7-2 decision is expected to have far-reaching implications for pesticide manufacturers,...
In a significant move toward modernizing chemical safety assessments, on June 2, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced two major actions aimed at replacing traditional, animal-based testing with advanced scientific alternatives, typically known as New Approach Methods (NAM), for chemical assessments under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). EPA is also introducing a streamlined process for researchers,...
On June 5, 2026, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) issued California Notice 2026-05 announcing the availability of the semiannual report summarizing the reevaluation status of pesticide products during the period of July 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025. All pesticides sold or distributed in the United States must be registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before they can be used. DPR evaluates all pesticides before they can be sold or used in...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) has initiated the rollout of its new pesticide application submission service within its MyPeST application. EPA plans to replace the Pesticide Submission Portal (PSP) within its Central Data Exchange (CDX) for pesticide submissions with the expanded MyPeST platform for all customer interactions. The rollout will occur in three Phases -- with Phase I going into effect on July 3, 2026. All data submitters,...
The Association of American Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO) FIFRA 25(b) Workgroup has released updated guidance intended to aid registrants in developing product efficacy data to support claims on products that qualify for the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Section 25(b) minimum risk exemption when seeking state registration. Under FIFRA Section 25(b), as detailed in Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (40 C.F.R. Section 152.25(f)), the U.S. Environmental...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has activated its Emerging Viral Pathogen (EVP) Guidance for Antimicrobial Pesticides (Guidance) in response to hantavirus, which had been considered to be a rare disease caused by an infection from some hantaviruses (including Andes Virus). According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hantaviruses are a family of viruses that cause serious illness and sometimes death in people worldwide. The viruses are spread by infected...
Public attention surrounding hantavirus outbreaks often focuses, understandably, on the immediate health risks associated with rodent exposure. Recent reports tied to a cruise vessel outbreak of hantavirus have once again highlighted the complex relationship between human health, confined environments, sanitation practices, and pest management. Yet beyond the headlines, such outbreaks also serve as a reminder of the often-overlooked role that pesticide regulation, and more specifically, the...
On May 1, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it released the draft Fungicide Strategy (Strategy) as part of EPA’s obligations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). According to EPA, the draft Strategy identifies “practical, science-based” protections to safeguard more than 1,000 federally endangered and threatened species, while preserving flexibility for states, growers, and applicators...
A February 18, 2026, Executive Order (EO) from President Trump, entitled “Promoting the National Defense by Ensuring an Adequate Supply of Elemental Phosphorus and Glyphosate-Based Herbicides,” concerns phosphorus’ use as a critical mineral in fertilizers for crop production (and the manufacture of explosives, among other things), and the role phosphorus plays in the production of the herbicide glyphosate, also used in crop production. Glyphosate is indeed important due to the way the...