Understanding EPA Establishment Numbers

An United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establishment number is a unique, site specific registration number assigned to an establishment that intends to produce a pesticide, a device or an active ingredient used to produce a pesticide. There is significance to EPA regulation of pesticides and pest control devices.

• A pest is defined by the EPA as any living organism (for example rodents, insects, bacteria or viruses) that appears where it is not wanted or causes damage to crops, humans or other animals.

• A pesticide is defined by the EPA as a product that “incorporates a substance or mixture of substances designed to prevent, attract, repel, destroy, or mitigate a pest.

• A pest control device “uses only physical or mechanical means to trap, destroy, repel, or mitigate any pest and does not include any pesticidal substance or mixture of substances.”

• Any manufacturing location (i.e. Establishment) that produces either pesticides or pest control devices for sale or use in the USA must be registered with the EPA and receive an EPA Establishment Number. The EPA Establishment Number must appear on the device or on the pesticide package.

• Every pesticide sold in the USA must be registered by the EPA. The unique EPA Registration Number of the product must appear on the package label. Pest control devices are not registered in this fashion, but though the Establishments at which they are manufactured which must be registered.

• EPA oversight of pesticides and pest control devices helps to ensure that efficacy and safety to humans, domestic animals and the environment are all evaluated using legal and scientific criteria before these products are registered and offered for sale.

David Thompson is the Director of Education for GEM Supply, responsible for four Learning Centers in Central Florida. He is also the host of a weekly internet broadcast show, “Beyond Clean with Dave”, which focuses on the messages within the professional cleaning industry: healthy, positive and progressive. Dave can be contacted at DThompson@GCICertified.com