After reflection, and perhaps in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I've decided that perhaps my summer criticism was a little harsh. Or maybe it's the new portal to the site, called Pesticide Chemical Search, that has mellowed my judgement. In any case I think all of us in the pest control industry should have this new web-based application bookmarked on our phones and computers. While not meeting all of our searching needs, it does provide an excellent and unique point of contact to search pesticide labels, toxicology information, and registration history and resources. To check it out, go to:
www.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch
To find pesticide labels for a given chemical, search on the Quicklinks Label Information link to go to the Pesticide Product Label System. If you have a particular active ingredient in mind, simply type in the pesticide common name, like deltamethrin, and you will have one-stop access to all kinds of scientific studies, toxicology information and registration status for that product. When searching on deltamethrin, for example, I clicked on the Science Reviews tab to find 15 otherwise obscure EPA scientific study reports on the compound. This is a good way to brush up on the safety information for a given product before speaking with a customer with chemical safety concerns. This site would also be invaluable for service managers researching what products they want to use in their company.
My only bone to pick with this site during my quick tour this morning was under the Laws and Regulations tab. This site offers a choice to review regulations by business sector, and there is no sector for pest control. That seems like a huge oversight to me. Also, once you visit one of these sub-pages it is hard to get back to the PCS homepage.
But, overall I like the revamped application a lot. There is even a short instructional video on how to use the PCS site. So on this Thanksgiving holiday, thanks to EPA for making government a little more transparent.
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