Welcome to our new and improved PesticideInfo database!
Our hope is that the simpler user interface will make it easy to explore the site’s in-depth datasets with targeted searches, while offering useful features and supplemental tools and information. Below are some tips to guide your experience as you explore the new design.
Chemicals or Products?
Your first choice as a user is to decide if you’re searching for a chemical or product.
A chemical search will focus on active ingredients, which are responsible for the pesticidal action of a product. Information is also available for “inert” additives that increase the effectiveness of a product in some way, including adjuvants and solvents. Some pesticide breakdown products can also be found on the site.
If the “chemical search” radial button is selected, a drop down menu will appear in the search bar as you begin typing the chemical name. Your chemical search will produce a page listing all related results. Click on the active ingredient you are interested in to find data on the chemical’s toxicity, ecotoxicity, usage and regulatory status. Icons near the chemical name show whether it is on the PAN Bad Actor list or has been designated a Highly Hazardous Pesticide (HHP).
In the Advanced Search mode, you can tailor your chemical search by target pest, chemical type, toxicity and/or regulatory status. You can easily modify your search by clearing one or more of the undesired selections and choosing new criteria.
A product search will provide information on formulated pesticide products which a consumer, exterminator, or farmer purchases from a retail outlet or pesticide distributor. A product is composed of active ingredients and other ingredients that are not pesticidal, but serve to dilute the pesticide, make it easier to apply, and/or allow different components to mix properly. All pesticide chemicals are listed as “active ingredients” on the label of pesticide products.
If the “product search” radial button is selected, a drop down menu will appear in the search bar as you begin typing the chemical name. Your search will produce various formulations of the product. Select the product of interest to find detailed information, including registration and restricted use status, manufacturer and distributor names and addresses, toxicity and registered uses (pests and crops).
In the Advanced Search mode, you can tailor your product search by target pest, crop or site of use, product formulation, manufacturer, registration year, toxicity category, regulatory status and more. As with a chemical search, your search can be easily modified by clearing the undesired search parameters and selecting new criteria.
Results of chemical or product searches can be downloaded in excel or pdf format. Every chemical and product results page also includes prominent links to find a list of poisoning symptoms, and external links to report a poisoning to appropriate officials in all U.S. states.
Exploring California Data
The state of California has required agricultural pesticide use reporting since 1991, and this data is made publicly available by the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR). PesticideInfo allows users to easily access and explore this extensive dataset, which is searchable by chemical, crop and county or region (groups of counties determined by DPR).
On the California Pesticide Use landing page, the search bars include drop down menus which will also autofill as you begin to type. You must make a choice in each category to begin your search, and your results will show gross pounds, application rates, and acres treated for the most recent seven years. To see additional years of data, click on the “see more years” button at the bottom of your screen to tailor your search. Use the horizontal scrollbar to explore the historical data.
From your results page, you can click on each county, chemical or crop to find more detailed information. Available data include the top 50 pesticides and top 50 pesticide-using crops for each county, the top crops and counties where each pesticide is used, basic toxicity and regulatory information, and the volume of pesticides used on each crop.
You can also select one of the “shortcut” searches on the California Pesticide Use landing page to find top crops, top pesticides and all pesticide use by county. All California data search results are downloadable in excel or pdf formats.
Pesticide Maps
We are excited to offer a new Pesticide Maps section on PesticideInfo, including an interactive global map to explore national pesticide bans around the world (a dataset maintained by our PAN International partners). Below are brief descriptions of the three mapping tools you will find in this section.
USGS Maps: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains county-level maps presenting annual agricultural use of more than 500 pesticides in the United States. Maps are available for every year since 1993, and a graph accompanies each map showing annual national use by major crop for the mapped pesticide.
Global Ban Map: Use this interactive map to explore where pesticides are banned around the world. Search by chemical to learn which countries have implemented a ban of a particular pesticide, or by country to find out which pesticides have been banned in each nation. You can also view how many of these chemicals are Highly Hazardous Pesticides.
CA Township Map: Tracking California has created the Agricultural Pesticide Mapping Tool, a user-friendly way to visualize California use data and explore the history and current scope of pesticide use across the state. Users can search by geography, specific pesticide, or pesticide category.
Resource Library & Blogs
Our new resource library is searchable by specific topic or general category. The categories include Human Health, Environmental Effects, Alternatives, Regulations & Treaties, Pesticide Industry and Data and Sources. Each resource page includes links to additional information, tools and external resources. We will continue to add new content to the Resource Library and welcome topic suggestions from our users.
Relevant blog content is created by PAN staff and is cross posted at the panna.org Groundtruth blog, which features additional content not found on PesticideInfo. Recent blogs and action alerts will also be featured on search results pages.
Additional Information & Feedback
For additional information on updates, changes in functionality and data sources, see the Overview and Sources and Methodology pages in our About section. The Data and Sources pages in the Resource Library have additional details as well.
For more information about PAN and our work, explore the websites featured on the PesticideInfo home page: panna.org, honeybeehaven.org and whatsonmyfood.org.
We welcome input from users as we continue to improve this site. If you have any problems with functionality or suggestions for improvements or additional features, please contact us using the form below.If you have any problems with functionality or suggestions for improvements or additional features, please contact us using the form on our Overview page.