2023 -- H 6160

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LC002444

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2023

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A N   A C T

RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY -- PESTICIDE CONTROL

     Introduced By: Representatives Noret, McNamara, Vella-Wilkinson, O'Brien, Baginski,
Corvese, Fenton-Fung, Costantino, Fellela, and Cardillo

     Date Introduced: March 17, 2023

     Referred To: House Corporations

     It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Section 23-25-4 of the General Laws in Chapter 23-25 entitled "Pesticide

Control" is hereby amended to read as follows:

     23-25-4. Definitions. [Effective until January 1, 2024.]

     As used in this chapter:

     (1) “Active ingredient” means any ingredient which will prevent, destroy, repel, control,

or mitigate pests, or which will act as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant.

     (2) “Adulterated” applies to any pesticide if its strength or purity falls below the professed

standards of quality as expressed on its labeling under which it is sold, or if any substance has been

substituted wholly or in part for the pesticide, or if any valuable constituent of the pesticide has

been wholly or in part abstracted.

     (3) “Agricultural commodity” means any plant, or part of plant, or animal, or animal

product, produced by a person (including farmers, ranchers, vineyardists, plant propagators,

Christmas tree growers, aquaculturists, floriculturists, orchardists, foresters, or other comparable

persons) primarily for sale, consumption, propagation, or other use by humans or animals.

     (4) “Animal” means all vertebrate and invertebrate species, including, but not limited to,

man and other mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish.

     (5) “Beneficial insects” means those insects which, during their life cycle, are effective

pollinators of plants, are parasites or predators of pests, or are otherwise beneficial.

     (6) “Board” means the pesticide advisory board as provided for under § 23-25.2-3.

     (7) “Defoliant” means any substance or mixture of substances intended for causing the

leaves or foliage to drop from a plant with or without causing abscission.

     (8) “Desiccant” means any substance or mixture of substances intended for artificially

accelerating the drying of plant tissue.

     (9) “Device” means any instrument or contrivance (other than a firearm) which is intended

for trapping, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest or any other form of plant or animal life

(other than humans and other than bacteria, virus, or other micro-organism on or in living humans

or other living animals) but not including equipment used for the application of pesticides when

sold separately from it.

     (10) “Director” means the director of environmental management.

     (11) “Distribute” means to offer for sale, hold for sale, sell, barter, ship, deliver for

shipment, or receive and (having so received) deliver or offer to deliver pesticides in this state.

     (12) “Environment” includes water, air, land, and all plants and humans and other living

animals in it, and the interrelationships which exist among these.

     (13) “EPA” means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

     (14) “FIFRA” means the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, 7 U.S.C. §

136 et seq., and other legislation supplementary to it and amendatory of it.

     (15) “Fungi” means all nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophytes (that is, all nonchlorophyll-

bearing plants of a lower order than mosses and liverworts) as, for example, rusts, smuts, mildews,

molds, yeasts, and bacteria, except those in or on living humans or other living animals, and except

those in or on processed food, beverages, or pharmaceuticals.

     (16) “Highly toxic pesticide” means any pesticide determined to be a highly toxic pesticide

under the authority of § 25(c)(2) of FIFRA, 7 U.S.C. § 136w(c)(2), or by the director under § 23-

25-9(a)(2).

     (17) “Imminent hazard” means a situation which exists when the continued use of a

pesticide during the time required for cancellation proceedings pursuant to § 23-25-8 would likely

result in unreasonable adverse effects on the environment or will involve unreasonable hazard to

the survival of a species declared endangered by the secretary of the interior under 16 U.S.C. §

1531 et seq.

     (18) “Inert ingredient” means an ingredient which is not an active ingredient.

     (19) “Ingredient statement” means:

     (i) Statement of the name and percentage of each active ingredient together with the total

percentage of the inert ingredients in the pesticide; and

     (ii) When the pesticide contains arsenic in any form, the ingredient statement shall also

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include percentages of total and water soluble arsenic, each calculated as elemental arsenic.

     (20) “Insect” means any of the numerous small invertebrate animals generally having the

body more or less obviously segmented, for the most part belonging to the class insecta, comprising

six (6) legged, usually winged forms, as for example, moths, beetles, bugs, bees, flies, and their

immature stages, and to other allied classes of anthropods whose members are wingless and usually

have more than six (6) legs, as for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and wood lice.

     (21) “Integrated Pest Management (IPM)” refers to a method of pest control that uses a

systems approach to reduce pest damage to tolerable levels through a variety of techniques,

including natural predators and parasites, genetically resistant hosts, environmental modifications

and, when necessary and appropriate, chemical pesticides. IPM strategies rely upon nonchemical

defenses first and chemical pesticides second.

     (22) “Label” means the written, printed, or graphic matter on, or attached to, the pesticide

or device or any of its containers or wrappers.

     (23) “Labeling” means the label and all other written, printed, or graphic matter:

     (i) Accompanying the pesticide or device at any time; or

     (ii) To which reference is made on the label or in literature accompanying the pesticide or

device, except to current official publications of EPA, the United States Departments of Agriculture

and Interior, and the department of health and human services; state experiment stations; state

agricultural colleges; and other federal or state institutions or agencies authorized by law to conduct

research in the field of pesticides.

     (24) “Land” means all land and water areas, including airspace, all plants, animals,

structures, buildings, contrivances, and machinery appurtenant to it or situated on it, fixed or

mobile, including any used for transportation.

     (25) “Nematode” means invertebrate animals of the phylum Nemathelminthes and class

Nematoda, that is, unsegmented round worms with elongated, fusiform, or sac-like bodies covered

with cuticle, and inhabiting soil, water, plants, or plant parts; may also be called nemas or eelworms.

     (26) “Plant regulator” means any substance or mixture of substances intended, through

physiological action, for accelerating or retarding the rate of growth or rate of maturation, or for

altering the behavior of plants or the produce of these but shall not include substances to the extent

that they are intended as plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant inoculants, and

soil amendments. Also, the term “plant regulator” is not required to include any of those nutrient

mixtures or soil amendments as are commonly known as vitamin-hormone horticultural products,

intended for improvement, maintenance, survival, health, and propagation of plants, are not for pest

destruction and are nontoxic and nonpoisonous in the undiluted packaged concentration.

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     (27) “Permit” means a written certificate, issued by the director, authorizing the purchase,

possession, and/or use of certain pesticides or pesticide uses defined in subdivisions (34) and (35)

of this section.

     (28) “Person” means any individual, partnership, association, fiduciary, corporation,

governmental entity, or any organized group of persons whether incorporated or not.

     (29) “Pest” means:

     (i) Any insect, rodent, nematode, fungus, or weed; and

     (ii) Any other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or animal life or virus, bacteria, or other

micro-organism (except viruses, bacteria, or other micro-organisms on or in living humans or other

living animals) which the director declares to be a pest under § 23-25-9(a)(1).

     (30) “Pesticide” means:

     (i) Any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling,

or mitigating any pest; and

     (ii) Any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant,

or desiccant.

     (31) “Pesticide dealer” means any person who distributes within the state any pesticide

product classified for restricted use by EPA or limited use by the director.

     (32)(i) “Private applicator” means any person who uses or supervises the use of any

pesticide for purposes of producing any agricultural commodity on land owned or rented by him or

her or his or her employer or (if applied without compensation other than trading of personal

services between producers of agricultural commodities) on land of another person.

     (ii) “Certified private applicator” means any private applicator who is certified under § 23-

25-14 as authorized to purchase, acquire, apply, or supervise the application of any pesticide

classified for restricted use by EPA or limited use by the director.

     (iii) “Commercial applicator” means any person (whether or not that person is a private

applicator with respect to some uses), including employees of any federal, state, county or

municipal agency, department, office, division, section, bureau, board, or commission, who applies

or supervises the application of any pesticide for any purpose or on any property other than as

provided by the definition of “private applicator”.

     (iv) “Certified commercial applicator” means any commercial applicator who is certified

under § 23-25-13 as authorized to purchase, acquire, apply, or supervise the application of a

pesticide classified for restricted use by EPA or limited use by the director.

     (v) “Licensed commercial applicator” means any commercial applicator who is licensed

under § 23-25-12 as authorized to use or supervise the use of any pesticide not classified for

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restricted use by EPA or limited use by the director on land not owned or rented by him or her.

     (33) “Protect health and the environment” means protection against any unreasonable

adverse effects on the environment.

     (34) “Registrant” means a person who has registered any pesticide pursuant to the

provisions of this chapter.

     (35) “Restricted use pesticide” means a pesticide or pesticide use that is classified for

restricted use by the administrator of EPA, or under § 23-25-6(h).

     (36) “State limited use pesticide” means any pesticide or pesticide use which, when used

as directed or in accordance with a widespread and commonly recognized practice, the director

determines, subsequent to a hearing, requires additional restrictions to prevent unreasonable

adverse effects on the environment including humans, land, beneficial insects, animals, crops, and

wildlife, other than pests.

     (37) “Under the direct supervision” means that on-site supervision of any pesticide

application by an appropriately certified or licensed applicator who is responsible for the

application and is capable of dealing with emergency situations which might occur means, unless

otherwise prescribed by labeling, any pesticide application by a competent person acting under the

instructions and control of an appropriately certified or licensed applicator who is available if and

when needed, and who is responsible for the pesticide applications made by that person, even

though such certified applicator is not physically present at the time and place the pesticide is

applied.

     (38) “Unreasonable adverse effects on the environment” means any unreasonable risk to

humans or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and

benefits of the use of any pesticide.

     (39) “Weed” means any plant which grows where not wanted.

     (40) “Wildlife” means all living things that are neither human nor, as defined in this

chapter, pests, including but not limited to mammals, birds, and aquatic life.

     23-25-4. Definitions. [Effective January 1, 2024.]

     As used in this chapter:

     (1) “Active ingredient” means any ingredient that will prevent, destroy, repel, control, or

mitigate pests, or that will act as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant.

     (2) “Adulterated” applies to any pesticide if its strength or purity falls below the professed

standards of quality as expressed on its labeling under which it is sold, or if any substance has been

substituted wholly or in part for the pesticide, or if any valuable constituent of the pesticide has

been wholly or in part abstracted.

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     (3) “Agricultural commodity” means any plant, or part of plant, or animal, or animal

product, produced by a person (including farmers, ranchers, vineyardists, plant propagators,

Christmas tree growers, aquaculturists, floriculturists, orchardists, foresters, or other comparable

persons) primarily for sale, consumption, propagation, or other use by humans or animals.

     (4) “Animal” means all vertebrate and invertebrate species, including, but not limited to,

humans and other mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish.

     (5) “Beneficial insects” means those insects that, during their life cycle, are effective

pollinators of plants, are parasites or predators of pests, or are otherwise beneficial.

     (6) “Board” means the pesticide advisory board as provided for under § 23-25.2-3.

     (7) “Defoliant” means any substance or mixture of substances intended for causing the

leaves or foliage to drop from a plant with or without causing abscission.

     (8) “Desiccant” means any substance or mixture of substances intended for artificially

accelerating the drying of plant tissue.

     (9) “Device” means any instrument or contrivance (other than a firearm) that is intended

for trapping, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest or any other form of plant or animal life

(other than humans and other than bacteria, virus, or other micro-organism on or in living humans

or other living animals) but not including equipment used for the application of pesticides when

sold separately from it.

     (10) “Director” means the director of environmental management.

     (11) “Distribute” means to offer for sale, hold for sale, sell, barter, ship, deliver for

shipment, or receive and (having so received) deliver or offer to deliver pesticides in this state.

     (12) “Environment” includes water, air, land, and all plants and humans and other living

animals in it, and the interrelationships that exist among these.

     (13) “EPA” means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

     (14) “FIFRA” means the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, 7 U.S.C. §

136 et seq., and other legislation supplementary to it and amendatory of it.

     (15) “Fungi” means all nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophytes (that is, all nonchlorophyll-

bearing plants of a lower order than mosses and liverworts) as, for example, rusts, smuts, mildews,

molds, yeasts, and bacteria, except those in or on living humans or other living animals, and except

those in or on processed food, beverages, or pharmaceuticals.

     (16) “Highly toxic pesticide” means any pesticide determined to be a highly toxic pesticide

under the authority of § 25(c)(2) of FIFRA, 7 U.S.C. § 136w(c)(2), or by the director under § 23-

25-9(a)(2).

     (17) “Imminent hazard” means a situation that exists when the continued use of a pesticide

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during the time required for cancellation proceedings pursuant to § 23-25-8 would likely result in

unreasonable adverse effects on the environment or will involve unreasonable hazard to the survival

of a species declared endangered by the secretary of the interior under 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.

     (18) “Inert ingredient” means an ingredient that is not an active ingredient.

     (19) “Ingredient statement” means:

     (i) A statement of the name and percentage of each active ingredient together with the total

percentage of the inert ingredients in the pesticide; and

     (ii) When the pesticide contains arsenic in any form, the ingredient statement shall also

include percentages of total and water soluble arsenic, each calculated as elemental arsenic.

     (20) “Insect” means any of the numerous small invertebrate animals generally having the

body more or less obviously segmented, for the most part belonging to the class insecta, comprising

six (6) legged, usually winged forms, as for example, moths, beetles, bugs, bees, flies, and their

immature stages, and to other allied classes of anthropods whose members are wingless and usually

have more than six (6) legs, as for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and wood lice.

     (21) “Integrated Pest Management (IPM)” refers to a method of pest control that uses a

systems approach to reduce pest damage to tolerable levels through a variety of techniques,

including natural predators and parasites, genetically resistant hosts, environmental modifications

and, when necessary and appropriate, chemical pesticides. IPM strategies rely upon nonchemical

defenses first and chemical pesticides second.

     (22) “Label” means the written, printed, or graphic matter on, or attached to, the pesticide

or device or any of its containers or wrappers.

     (23) “Labeling” means the label and all other written, printed, or graphic matter:

     (i) Accompanying the pesticide or device at any time; or

     (ii) To which reference is made on the label or in literature accompanying the pesticide or

device, except to current official publications of EPA, the United States Departments of Agriculture

and Interior, and the department of health and human services; state experiment stations; state

agricultural colleges; and other federal or state institutions or agencies authorized by law to conduct

research in the field of pesticides.

     (24) “Land” means all land and water areas, including airspace, all plants, animals,

structures, buildings, contrivances, and machinery appurtenant to it or situated on it, fixed or

mobile, including any used for transportation.

     (25) “Nematode” means invertebrate animals of the phylum Nemathelminthes and class

Nematoda, that is, unsegmented round worms with elongated, fusiform, or sac-like bodies covered

with cuticle, and inhabiting soil, water, plants, or plant parts; may also be called nemas or eelworms.

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     (26) “Neonicotinoids” means any of a class of systemic water soluble insecticides related

to nicotine that affect the central nervous system of insects by selectively binding to the

postsynaptic nicotinic receptors of insects thereby causing paralysis and death. Neonicotinoids

include, but are not limited to:

     (i) Imidacloprid;

     (ii) Acetamiprid;

     (iii) Clothianidin;

     (iv) Nitenpyram;

     (v) Nithiazine;

     (vi) Thiacloprid;

     (vii) Thiamethoxam; and

     (viii) Dinotefuran.

     (27) “Permit” means a written certificate, issued by the director, authorizing the purchase,

possession, and/or use of certain pesticides or pesticide uses defined in subsections (36) and (37)

of this section.

     (28) “Person” means any individual, partnership, association, fiduciary, corporation,

governmental entity, or any organized group of persons whether incorporated or not.

     (29) “Pest” means:

     (i) Any insect, rodent, nematode, fungus, or weed; and

     (ii) Any other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or animal life or virus, bacteria, or other

micro-organism (except viruses, bacteria, or other micro-organisms on or in living humans or other

living animals) which the director declares to be a pest under § 23-25-9(a)(1).

     (30) “Pesticide” means:

     (i) Any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling,

or mitigating any pest; and

     (ii) Any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant,

or desiccant.

     (31) “Pesticide dealer” means any person who distributes within the state any pesticide

product classified for restricted use by EPA or limited use by the director.

     (32) “Plant regulator” means any substance or mixture of substances intended, through

physiological action, for accelerating or retarding the rate of growth or rate of maturation, or for

altering the behavior of plants or the produce of these but shall not include substances to the extent

that they are intended as plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant inoculants, and

soil amendments. Also, the term “plant regulator” is not required to include any of those nutrient

LC002444 - Page 8 of 11

mixtures or soil amendments as are commonly known as vitamin-hormone horticultural products,

intended for improvement, maintenance, survival, health, and propagation of plants, are not for pest

destruction and are nontoxic and nonpoisonous in the undiluted packaged concentration.

     (33)(i) “Private applicator” means any person who uses or supervises the use of any

pesticide for purposes of producing any agricultural commodity on land owned or rented by him or

her or his or her employer or (if applied without compensation other than trading of personal

services between producers of agricultural commodities) on land of another person.

     (ii) “Certified private applicator” means any private applicator who is certified under § 23-

25-14 as authorized to purchase, acquire, apply, or supervise the application of any pesticide

classified for restricted use by EPA or limited use by the director.

     (iii) “Commercial applicator” means any person (whether or not that person is a private

applicator with respect to some uses), including employees of any federal, state, county or

municipal agency, department, office, division, section, bureau, board, or commission, who applies

or supervises the application of any pesticide for any purpose or on any property other than as

provided by the definition of “private applicator”.

     (iv) “Certified commercial applicator” means any commercial applicator who is certified

under § 23-25-13 as authorized to purchase, acquire, apply, or supervise the application of a

pesticide classified for restricted use by EPA or limited use by the director.

     (v) “Licensed commercial applicator” means any commercial applicator who is licensed

under § 23-25-12 as authorized to use or supervise the use of any pesticide not classified for

restricted use by EPA or limited use by the director on land not owned or rented by him or her.

     (34) “Protect health and the environment” means protection against any unreasonable

adverse effects on the environment.

     (35) “Registrant” means a person who has registered any pesticide pursuant to the

provisions of this chapter.

     (36) “Restricted use pesticide” means a pesticide or pesticide use that is classified for

restricted use by the administrator of EPA, or under § 23-25-6(h).

     (37) “State limited use pesticide” means any pesticide or pesticide use that, when used as

directed or in accordance with a widespread and commonly recognized practice, the director

determines, subsequent to a hearing, requires additional restrictions to prevent unreasonable

adverse effects on the environment including humans, land, beneficial insects, animals, crops, and

wildlife, other than pests.

     (38) “Under the direct supervision” means on-site supervision of any pesticide application

by an appropriately certified or licensed applicator who is responsible for the application and is

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capable of dealing with emergency situations which might occur means, unless otherwise

prescribed by labeling, any pesticide application by a competent person acting under the

instructions and control of an appropriately certified or licensed applicator who is available if and

when needed, and who is responsible for the pesticide applications made by that person, even

though such certified applicator is not physically present at the time and place the pesticide is

applied.

     (39) “Unreasonable adverse effects on the environment” means any unreasonable risk to

humans or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and

benefits of the use of any pesticide.

     (40) “Weed” means any plant that grows where not wanted.

     (41) “Wildlife” means all living things that are neither human nor, as defined in this

chapter, pests, including but not limited to mammals, birds, and aquatic life.

     SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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LC002444

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EXPLANATION

BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

OF

A N   A C T

RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY -- PESTICIDE CONTROL

***

     This act would amend the definition of "under the direct supervision" to include a

competent person acting under the control of a certified or licensed applicator who is available

when needed, even though not physically present when pesticide is applied.

     This act would take effect upon passage.

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LC002444

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