AgroPages-US EPA launches electronic pesticide label system pilot-Agricultural news

US EPA is working with pesticide registrants to pilot an electronic label system aiming to make pesticide label information easier to find and the approval of pesticide labels more efficient. As part of the SmartLabel pilot, nine pesticide registrants will be developing and submitting pesticide labels to EPA through a fully electronic system, instead of as paper or PDF files.

One of the goals of the SmartLabel system is to make label information more quickly available to the public in an easily searchable format. As a fully electronic system, SmartLabel will make the label approval process more efficient by creating standardized label sections for all pesticide labels. The system will also make it easier to compare previous label versions without losing the necessary flexibility to make a label appropriate for each product.

Nine pesticide registrants: Bayer CropScience, Clorox, Dow AgroSciences, EcoLab, Marrone Bio, Reckitt Benckiser, SePRO, Syngenta and United Industries Corporation will be participating in the pilot which starting December 4, 2014 and expecting to last approximately six months.