The public should pay attention to the certification labels on pest control products before using them, to ensure that people stay safe while combating pests and insects this summer, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said.
The administration said it had requested all pesticide manufacturing companies to submit documents that prove their products’ ingredients and effects. This was done to ensure the safety and quality of the many different kinds of household pest control products found in the market.
So far, 672 types of products have been registered and certified by the administration as environmentally friendly and safe pest control agents.
The public should avoid purchasing pest control products from unknown sources, such as some products sold on the Internet of which the effects have been exaggerated, said Yuan Shaw-ying (袁紹英), director-general of the EPA’s Department of Environmental Sanitation and Toxic Substances.
Yuan added that the administration’s latest inspection of the ingredients of 124 pest control agents resulted in three products not receiving EPA qualification, resulting in a 97.58 percent qualification rate.
The three products failed because their effective ingredients all surpassed the allowed levels of error tolerance, he added.
Yuan said that in last year’s inspection of pesticide products, 426 items out of almost 30,000 tested items did not qualify, accounting for a qualification rate of about 98.5 percent.
“The safest and most effective way to get rid of household pests and insects is to clean up the household environment. Only use pesticides occasionally, when absolutely necessary. People should pay attention to the product labels and choose qualified products registered at the EPA,” Yuan said.
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