US EPA proposes plan for tracking the adoption of bilingual pesticide labels

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing for comment a proposed plan to track the adoption of bilingual labeling of pesticide products. The Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2022 (PRIA 5) amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to require Spanish language translation of the healthy and safety sections of end-use pesticide product labels on a rolling schedule beginning in 2025. PRIA 5 also required that EPA develop, implement, and make publicly available, a plan for tracking the adoption of the bilingual labeling by Dec. 29, 2024. Spanish is the primary language for most American farmworkers. This effort advances environmental justice by making health and safety information on pesticide labels more accessible, fostering better understanding and compliance with label instructions.

Beginning on December 29, 2025, labels for restricted use pesticide products and agricultural use products with the highest toxicity (Acute Toxicity Category I) will be required to bear Spanish language translations for the health and safety sections. Following this first phase, pesticide labels must include these translations on a rolling schedule depending on the pesticide product type and the acute toxicity category, with the most hazardous and toxic pesticide products requiring translation first. All pesticide labels must have translations by 2030. The translations must appear either on the pesticide product container or through a hyperlink or other readily accessible electronic method.

In the proposed plan, EPA would track bilingual label adoptions through a modification to the existing Maintenance Fee Product List form which is required of all active pesticide registrants when they submit their annual pesticide registration fees. For the proposed form, registrants would answer whether they have provided Spanish translations of the health and safety portions for each product label. The responses would then be used to verify which products have implemented PRIA 5 bilingual labeling requirements according to the rolling schedule. As part of the proposed plan, EPA intends to make the information on the progress of bilingual labeling available on the bilingual labeling website.

Upon publication in the Federal Register, the proposed plan will be available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2024-0438 at www.regulations.gov for public comment for 30 days. EPA will review the public comments and develop a final plan for tracking the implementation of bilingual labeling. The agency intends to begin tracking the labels with the issuance of the Maintenance Fee Forms to all of the pesticide registrants in the fall of 2025. For more information, view a prepublication version of the Federal Register notice.

Visit EPA’s Bilingual Pesticide Labeling webpage