CITE

Pesticide And Agrichemical Industry Information

Presented by Bruce McKay, Ph.D.

You can contact me with your questions or suggestions by sending an e-mail message.

My business is:

  1. Providing information about actual or planned changes to pesticide product registrations.
  2. Providing information about current pesticide product registrations.
  3. Providing information about data submitted in support of pesticide product registrations.

    4. This index page is arranged in sections: Permanent and Transitory items.

    Look for the and flags to find recent updates or additions.

    Permanent Items

    EPA-OPP. Pesticides Home Page
    EPA's new format, as of 2003. For a detailed list of links go to the A-Z Index page.

    Regulatory, Registration, and Industry News
    Here is a list, with links, to useful Web sites

    Label Review Manual,3rd Edition. And Q&A About Labels
    EPA's instructions to its reviewers of pesticide labels. 19 Chapters. View/Download as HTML (chapter-by-chapter) or PDF (entire manual).
    In addition, link to, among others, Questions to EPA-OPP and the Agency's responses.

    Confidential Statement of Formula (CSF): Preparation Hints
    EPA help site about Biochemicals, but many hints for avoiding problems are applicable to all pesticide products.

    Electronic Submission of Labels and Studies for Pesticide Registation
    How-to, hints, formatting, etc., etc. Updated by EPA June 2008. Now includes forms, instructions on converting other formats to PDF, etc.
    Just in case. Australia's APVMA documents for electronic submissions.

    Pesticide Models
    EPA site with links to individual sites for models.

    EPA/USDA/FDA Test Methods And Related

    EPA Dockets
    Information about regulatory actions.

    EPA's Risk Assessment Portal
    Agency site with collection of Guidance documents, models, etc.

    EPA-OECD Harmonized Test Guidelines
    Link to the index page for access to all OPPTS Guidelines. Links to various OPPTS sites.

    EPA's GLP and SOP Guidelines

    EPA Compliance And Enforcement
    Starting point for actions and documents.

    Child-Resistant Packaging For Pesticides
    EPA-OPP Web site which has all the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

    Plant Incorporated Protectants: Current EUPs
    U.S. EPA's consolidated list of currently active PIP EUPs.

    CDPR. Toxicology Review Summaries On-Line
    California provides a succinct summary of tox studies for pesticidal active ingredients. Saves rummaging Federal Register pesticide petition notices, etc. Updated on a regular basis.

    EPA Guidance/Interpretive Documents
    Select by any of several criteria (e.g., OPPTS) and get back a list of non-binding guidance documents issued by EPA since Jan. 1, 1999. Check it out

    Pesticide Product Labels And MSDSs
    Links to free-of-charge sites on the WWW.

    EPA's Pesticide Label Site
    Eventually every label for every product ever registered and every significant label change will appear on the EPA site. Be certain to read about limitations of the collection.

    State Registrations
    NPIRS (National Pesticide Information Retrieval System) at Purdue University has a free-of-charge site which offers searching for pesticide products registered by individual States. Very useful.

    ISO Approved Common Names
    Alan Wood publishes an invaluable site, "Compendium of Pesticide Common Names". Much more than just names. Updated often, and you can receive e-mail notices. Make use of. Go to: Compendium.

    ISO has published a revised version, ISO 257:2004, of its rules and procedures for "Pesticides and other agrochemicals - Principles for the selection of common names"

    Linked List Of Common Names
    Alan Wood has generously provided an HTML file which lists all names as of 16 February 2006. This file, iso_name.htm, is arranged alphabetically; clicking on a name will take you to the relevant page on Alan's site.
    I have extracted common names from the above HTML file. This delimited text file, iso_name.txt, can be Opened/Imported by spreadsheet/database and then searched.
    Chemical Activity and EPA PC Codes
    Delimited text file, isoactv1.txt, has the 1506 primary chemical names and all associatted activity (sub)classifications.
    Delimited text file, isoactv2.txt, has counts of chemicals for each activity (sub)classification.
    Delimited text file, isocode.txt, has chemical name and where that name is an EXACT match for a name in EPA-OPP's PPIS files, EPA-OPP's PC code number.

    Crop And Non-Crop Chemical Companies On The WWW
    Links to (some) pesticide product company sites.

    International Sites On The WWW
    A selected, but I trust useful, list of sites for information on pesticides and agriculture outside the United States. Updated and revised irregularly, so you'll just have to look.

    International Maximum Residue Limits
    Link to USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) site with a searchable database of MRLs. Also check out the FAS Home Page for potentially other interesting stuff.

    Registration/Regulatory Affairs Consultants
    Information, supplied by the principals, about individuals and companies conducting registration and regulatory affairs consulting services on a contract basis.

    Pesticide Formulation Devlopment Labs & Consultants
    Information about individuals and facilities offering their services for development and/or evaluation of pesticide product formulations (added: Focus Formulation and Consulting).

    Pesticide Process Chemistry/Engineering. Consultants
    Need help with pesticide AI production, or related? Here are consultants I've found. Know of others(?), send them my way for a free listing.

    Pesticide Chemical Usage and Crop Statistics
    Links to federal and state sites containing reports about amounts of pesticides used in the United States, and about other crop statistics.

    Pesticide Contract Formulators/Packagers On The WWW
    Companies I've found with Internet sites.

    Federally Registered Pesticides. PAN Database
    PANNA (Pesticide Action Network North America) offers an excellent on-line database for identifying products using multiple criteria. In addition PANNA provides toxicology and environmental information for active ingredients.

    Anti-Pesticide Action Groups
    Every company involved with pesticide products should be aware of what is being said and done outside the industry. Plus, they often have the first scoop on what's new in the industry. Here are several source links.

    Resistance Action Committees
    RACs do more than track developing resistance to insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. One of their services is classification of pesticidal actives by chemical type and mode of action. {In the event you're worried: RACs are sponsored and promoted by major pesticide registrants.}

    Pesticide Product Inert Ingredients
    NCAP (Northwest Coalitionfor Alternatives to Pesticides) site. Inerts in products, obtained via FOIA requests. Arranged by product active ingredient.

    Pesticide Statistics And Trends
    Miscellaneous Facts and Information

    California's Pesticide Registrations: Annotated Access Tutorial
    CDPR's set of data files about registered pesticide products are formatted as Fixed-width text files, the same as for EPA-OPP's PPIS data files.
    This 9 page/screen Acrobat file, cdprprod.pdf, takes you from CDPR's home page for registrations through making an Access database table of Currently Active Registrations...(August 27)

    Access Visual Tutorial: Find And Count Nufarm's Registrations. Short
    Files below were created with the freeware program Wink.
    5 screens version as Shockwave Flash, ppiscnt2.swf.
    5 screens version as PDF, ppiscnt2,pdf.
    See next entry about this, that, and the other. Use above to see one of the rapid ways to get an answer, tediously shown and described below...(August 13)

    Access Visual Tutorial: Find And Count Nufarm's Registrations
    Files below were created with the freeware program Wink.
    This Shockwave Flash file, ppiscnt1.swf, shows cursor movements as I go through an Access database. Alas, rendering makes the text unreadable (at least with what I have).
    This Acrobat file, ppiscnt1.pdf, has readable text (increase magnification to 100% or more if not clear), but only the Next screen button works, and alas the Button jumps over some screen shots. Use Acrobat's Previous and/or Next buttons to move between screen shots.
    Wait for files to load. Most screens have explanatory text about what I'm doing. Simple idea (soon to be posted is the efficient short version): Use EPA-OPP's PPIS data files, once in an Access database, to ask: What are Nufarm's current registrations and, once having found out Nufarm uses 10 EPA Co. No., how many registrations to each Company Number...(August 13)

    US Registrations/Registrants/AIs: Ready-to-Search
    Access database below is my day-to-day, Version 2. You ought be able to tell your Version to "Open" the "Convert" to your Version, then do more than I've set up.
    Zip file, ppis_tut.zip (2.6MB) when extracted will return the Access 2 database ppis_tut.mdb (6.8MB).
    Database has four of the 30 data tables I regularly use. Data is from EPA-OPP's July update to Web-posted PPIS data files. Table formats are those I use, regardless of EPA-OPP's arrangement.
    Tables are:
    Current/Former Registrants/Subregistrants (30,859)
    Current approved registrations (17,085)
    Actives in approved registrations (all on one line) (17,080)
    All Transferred registrations (15,073)
    Database has ten Ready-to-Run queries which make Table of Results:
    (Sub)Registrants named "Nufarm"
    (Sub)Registrants in Missouri
    Count Registrations-per-Registrant, sort by Total
    Count Registrations-per-Registrant, sort by Registrant Name
    Get Transfers in Year 2008
    Get approved registrations where AI information not yet in PPIS files
    Get Percentage AI for Metsulfuron-methyl as Sole Active Ingredient
    Get total Percentage AIs where Metsulfuron-methyl is in a Combination product
    Get all TGAI (Tech Grade Active Ingredients)
    Get all registrations 1st approved in Years 2007 and 2008
    Problems with your Version of Access? Question(s) about asking other questions with EPA-OPP's PPIS data files? Send me a message...(July 30)

    Access and PPIS. Annotated Visual Tutorials

    Back to the beginning, then moving forward. Acrobat PDF files. On-screen annotations. Check here for additions. NB: I use Access version 2. Other versions have the same standard functions but Microsoft changes names, locations, and button pictures. Comments/suggestions are welcomed.

    PPIS: Introduction. What is in EPA's PPIS (Pesticide Product Information System) data files? What are Fixed-Width files? What help does EPA provide for understanding and using the monthly updated files? In this lesson, accs_001.pdf, a few screen shots from the PPIS Web site ought provide insight.
    FORMULA.TXT: Examining In Detail a PPIS data file. This file, accs_002.pdf: Registration Number, PC Code Number, and Percentage Active Ingredient. Open the file with Word. Look at EPA's description of what is on each line and where to find it. Put in some spaces in Word to easily see the pieces.
    Formula.txt: Interlude. Open in Excel 97. In case you though PPIS Fixed-width text (*.txt) files are something special, even though Word is happy to Open. How about telling Excel 97 to go get the text file. No annotations as the operations/how-to are just the usual clicks in Excel. Take a look at accs_003.pdf, for about 6 screen shots.
    Formula.txt. REG_NR #1. REG_NR (product registration number) is SO IMPORTANT I look at it separately for a while. Create an Access database file then Design (make) a Table to hold REG_NR to be extracted from formula.txt. NB: Do Design , etc. tedious stuff in Access ONCE, Save as a Template, then COPY | Rename ever after (I've being using the same PPIS database template every month since May 2003 when EPA revised formats of PPIS data text files). accs_004.pdf.
    Formula.txt. REG_NR #1a. Have a Table to hold the REG_NR. Since PPIS is Fixed-Width formatted I need to create an Import Specification. Specs just tell Access "Go grab this piece and stuff it here". accs_005.pdf
    REG_NR #2: Separate Pieces. Stuffing REG_NR into a single Field (above) results is not most useful. Better is one of several options: Import Company Number and Product Number parts into separate Fields. Here, Design a Table, write an Import Specification, then import the separate parts, using formula.txt file. accs_006.pdf
    REG_NR #2a. Have Company and Product numbers in separate Fields. Useful for some Queries about PPIS data. Also convenient is a Field with the complete product registration number. Here, add a Field to the Table used in #2 above. It will be EPA Reg. No. in product label format (e.g., 279-3275). Will use the VERY IMPORTANT/INVALUABLE/CAN'T-LIVE-WITHOUT Access function: Build. LEARN TO USE BUILD!!!! Once over the initial "looks scary", you'll see just how simple are Builds (little more than point and click). accs_007.pdf
    FORMULA.TXT: Import/Get All. Now, from PPIS formula. txt: Company Number; Product Number; PC_Code Number; Percentage Active. Then, using Build (yes, you really do use it over and over), convert Percentage Active from the PPIS file version (0420035) to a more understandable decimal version (42.0035). accs_008.pdf
    My Access Database For PPIS. 7 screen shots (annotated), showing Tables, Queries, and Reports I use every day for my own use, and use every month to tell people "New Registration Approvals". accs_009.pdf
    Access: Everything Else. Whether for PPIS or PPLS or CDPR or ..., there are only these tasks: Design Tables, write Import Specifications (if Fixed-width data files; no need for Delimted text files), construct Queries. Yah-de-yah, the same tasks/operations over and over and over. Drag-and-drop, double-click, etc., etc.
    Advanced Access? REG_NR Not As A Number. Because EPA says REG_NR is a Number doesn't mean you have to use/believe. Here I: Design a Table where REG_NR is Imported as Text (all 11 digits); have Co_Nr, Prod_Nr, and EPA Reg Nr in the Table. Import REG_NR as Text, then in 1 Query extract Co_Nr and Prod_Nr. Finally, to show Table Design is not immutable, switch REG_NR's Data Type from Text to Number. 10 screens. accs_010.pdf
    PPIS. Storing/Using Old as Access. Even though your company wants to know "What is anyone/everyone doing now", there are reasons to keep old PPIS file sets in Access, or any other database. What to keep? Up to you. Here are two screens , annotated, which show (1) my Access Directory file folders and, (2) the old PPIS file databases I keep, and use. accs_011.pdf
    PPIS. Why 18 Files and So Convoluted?. Why can't/won't EPA just put everything about products in one file which you could use with Excel? Same reason everyone else in the world uses a relational database. Simple example. Which would you rather do: Update a name on one line of one file, or Update the name on 376,903 lines of one file. A real world PPIS example. As of January 2000, PPIS company.txt file has the entry: Co. No. 100 is named NOVARTIS CROP PROTECTION. In the Janaury 2000 PPIS separate files, Novartis had: 179 active registrations; 205 Active Ingredient-Reg_NR; 5152 Pest-on-Label-Reg_Nr; 371,367 Site-on-Label- Reg_Nr. A few years on the company decided SYNGENTA was a much niftier name. So, everything, including Company Name, in one file? Set data entry clerks to work, changing Company Name in 376,903 entries for ONLY currently active registrations (oh, and a few thousand more for the registration support studies in PDMS, and tolerances, and data compensation files, and...). OR, in the company.txt file at Co. No. 100, change Novartis to Syngenta, and be done with it in a few seconds.
    Pesticide Products. How Does NPIRS Do That? NPIRS is familiar to many ( either via fee or free Web searching). If you ask the simple question of NPIRS "What about FMC's current Registrations for Permethin", NPIRS cranks up its Oracle (super heavy duty, industrial strength relational database program). Even though I've never seen the data files NPIRS gets from EPA I can guess what they ought look like, since they ought be Fixed-width text files as are posted on EPA's Web site. Here is how I'd answer the question with Access 2, accs_012.pdf . Only 3 screen shots.
    PPIS. Import Specifications For Access. 8 screen shots, annotated. My Access Template Database file, reused/renamed each month for new EPA posted files. Show the database begins with empty Tables. How-to-Import (Get External Data) ? 3 of my Import Specifications (which you could of course Copy and Use). Every other PPIS text (*.txt) is done in the same manner. As in Excel I expect, do the same over and over and over. accs_013.pdf
    PDMS, NOT PPIS, But Access. Access is useful for only PPIS, or PPLS? No. pdms_001.pdf, is 3 screens from yet another Access database: U.S. Pending Registration Applications. I.e., extract information about new registration applications to U.S. EPA-OPP, then track, via PPIS, whether or not Approved. PDF file is, as of 1 August 2008: 1st Application in Y2008, Not Yet Approved, By Whom, When. 313 applications lurking.
    NPIRS Shows the Same For Pending? Crank Up Access. Pending Applications for What? No problem. Just another Access Query, which uses an Attached Table from another database file. Temporary Attachment? No problem, I use regularly. pdms_002.pdf
    Excel, Access, Google, Amazon, etc: All Questions Use The Same...
    Should you find Access difficult, recall: The 1st time you used Excel or Word. Perhaps helpful or heartening is: Every program where you can ask a Question uses a few Rules devised more than 100 Years Ago: Is Exactly, And, Or, Not.
    The only additions, admittedly important, are convoluted, and secret, Rules in such as Google searches for "is like or close to". Access has its own: Begins With, Contains, Ends With. These are the Access versions of "is like, is close to". Elsewise, every program which allows you to a Search uses and relies on the same four ideas. All (!!) you have to do is figure out how the program you are using makes you ask the Question.
    {For any who are interested: The 100+ year old rules are the work of George Boole, a mathematician who worked on formalizing the ways in which Logical questions can be described. Essentially, formalizing the dialogues of Aristotle and Socrates, and Plato, and everyone else in the past 2000+ years.}
    Selecting An AI Name: NPIRS. The NPIRS free-of-charge Web site (http:// ceris.purdue.edu) allows you to search for registered products. NPIRS says the site uses PPIS data files. So, no Access database needed. Ask about Pyriproxyfen.
    accs_014.pdf
    PPIS: What Name For PC Code 109701? I say "Permethrin", NPIRS says "Permethrin, mixed cis and trans". Regardless, using Access and PPIS here is more or less how I began my Tbl_AI_Common Name, to convert EPA PC Code number to a singular, preferred name in my reports and posted Excel files. 8 screen shots. accs_015.pdf.

    For further information, or to discuss a specific project, contact Bruce McKay:
    e-mail your request to bmckay@ix.netcom.com (that's bmckay@ix.netcom.com).

    All original materials are copyright © 1996 - 2008 by Bruce M. McKay, and all rights are reserved.

    The URL for this page is http://www.bmckay.com