TITLE 23
Health and Safety
CHAPTER 23-25
Pesticide Control
SECTION 23-25-4
§ 23-25-4 Definitions.
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 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.
(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 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.
(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.
History of Section.
(P.L. 1976, ch. 191, § 2; G.L. 1956, § 23-41.4-4; P.L. 1979, ch. 39,
§ 1; P.L. 1986, ch. 347, § 1; P.L. 1988, ch. 84, § 22; P.L.
2002, ch. 418, § 1.)
