Mo. Rev. Stat. § 281.220

Current with changes from the 2024 Legislative Session

Section 281.220 - Definitions

As used in sections 281.210 to 281.310, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the following terms mean:

(1)"Active ingredient", an ingredient which will prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate insects, fungi, rodents, weeds, or other pests;

(2)"Adulterated", applies to any pesticide if:

(a) Its strength or purity falls below the professed standard of quality as expressed on the labeling under which it is sold;

(b) Any substance has been substituted wholly or in part for the pesticide; or

(c) Any valuable constituent of the pesticide has been wholly or partially abstracted;

(3)"Animal", all vertebrate and invertebrate species, including but not limited to man and other mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish;

(4)"Antidote", the most practical immediate treatment to counteract the effects of poisoning, including first aid treatment;

(5)"Bacteria", any of a class (Schizomycetes) of microscopic plants having round, rodlike, spiral, or filamentous single-celled or noncellular bodies often aggregated into colonies or motile by means of flagella, living in soil, water, organic matter, or the bodies of plants and animals, and being autotrophic, saprophytic, or parasitic in nutrition;

(6)"Bactericide", any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any bacteria;

(7)"Beneficial insects", those insects which, during their life cycle, are effective pollinators of plants, are parasites, parasitoids, or predators of pests, or are otherwise beneficial;

(8)"Defoliant", any substance or mixture of substances intended for causing the leaves or foliage to drop from a plant;

(9)"Department" or "department of agriculture" means the state department of agriculture, and when by this law the said department of agriculture is charged to perform a duty, it shall be understood to authorize the performance of such duty by the director of the department of agriculture or his duly authorized personnel subject to his instructions;

(10)"Desiccant", any substance or mixture of substances intended for artificially accelerating the drying of plant tissue;

(11)"Device", 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 man and other than bacteria, virus, or other microorganism on or in living men or other living animals, but not including equipment used for the application of pesticides when sold separately therefrom;

(12)"Director", the director of the department of agriculture of the state of Missouri;

(13)"Distribute", to sell, offer for sale, hold for sale, deliver for transportation in intrastate commerce, or transport in intrastate commerce;

(14)"Environment" includes water, air, land, and all plants, men and other animals living therein, and the interrelationships which exist among these;

(15)"Fungicide", any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any fungi;

(16)"Fungus", any nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophyte, that is, any nonchlorophyll-bearing plant of a lower order than mosses and liverworts, as for example, rust, smut, mildew, mold, yeast, and bacteria, except those on or in living men or other living animals, and except those on or in processed food, beverages, or pharmaceuticals;

(17)"General use pesticide", any pesticide, when applied in accordance with its directions for use, warnings and cautions and for the uses for which it is registered, or for one or more of such uses, or in accordance with a widespread and commonly recognized practice, will not generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment;

(18)"Herbicide", any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any weed;

(19)"Inert ingredient", an ingredient which is not an active ingredient;

(20)"Ingredient statement", a statement which contains:

(a) The name and percentage of each active ingredient, and the total percentage of all inert ingredients, in the pesticide; and

(b) If the pesticide contains arsenic in any form, a statement of the percentages of total and water soluble arsenic, calculated as elementary arsenic;

(21)"Insect", 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-legged, usually winged forms, as for example, beetles, bugs, bees, and flies, and to other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs, as for example spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and wood lice;

(22)"Insecticide", any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any insect;

(23)"Label and labeling":

(a)"Label", the written, printed, or graphic matter on, or attached to, pesticide containers, devices, or wrappers;

(b)"Labeling", all labels and all other written, printed, or graphic matter:

a. Accompanying the pesticide or device at any time; or

b. To which reference is made on the label or in literature accompanying the pesticide or device, except to current official publications of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Departments of Agriculture and Interior, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, state experiment stations, state agricultural colleges, and other similar federal or state institutions or agencies authorized by law to conduct research in the field of pesticides;

(24)"Misbranded", a pesticide is misbranded if:

(a) Its labeling bears any statement, design, or graphic representation relative thereto or to its ingredients which is false or misleading in any particular;

(b) It is contained in a package or other container or wrapping which does not conform to applicable federal or state standards;

(c) It is an imitation of, or is offered for sale under the name of, another pesticide;

(d) Its label does not bear the federal registration number assigned to the establishment in which it was produced;

(e) Any word, statement, or other information required by or under authority of sections 281.210 to 281.310 or any federal law to appear on the label or labeling is not prominently placed thereon with such conspicuousness, as compared with other words, statements, designs, or graphic matter in the labeling, and in such terms as to render it likely to be read and understood by the ordinary individual under customary conditions of purchase and use;

(f) The labeling accompanying it does not contain directions for use which are necessary for effecting the purpose for which the product is intended and if complied with, together with any requirements imposed under section 281.240, are adequate to protect the health of the applicator, other humans and the environment;

(g) The label does not contain a warning or caution statement which may be necessary and if complied with, together with any requirements imposed under federal law, is adequate to protect the health of the applicator, other humans and the environment;

(h) Its label does not bear an ingredient statement on that part of the immediate container, and on the outside container or wrapper of the retail package, if there be one, through which the ingredient statement on the immediate container can* be clearly read, which is presented or displayed under customary conditions of purchase, except that a pesticide is not misbranded under this paragraph if:

a. The size or form of the immediate container, or the outside container or wrapper of the retail package, makes it impracticable to place the ingredient statement on the part which is presented or displayed under customary conditions of purchase; and

b. The ingredient statement appears prominently on another part of the immediate container, or outside container or wrapper, as permitted by the director;

(i) The labeling does not contain a statement of the use classification under which the product is registered, if such a classification has been made by the director or the federal government;

(j) There is not affixed to its container, and to the outside container or wrapper of the retail package, if there be one, through which the required information on the immediate container can be clearly read, a label bearing:

a. The name and address of the producer, registrant, or person for whom produced;

b. The name, brand, or trademark under which the pesticide is sold;

c. The net weight or measure of the content; provided, that, the director may permit reasonable variations; and

d. The federal registration number assigned to the pesticide and any other federal or state identification or classification that might be required by rule or regulation;

(k) The pesticide contains any substance or substances in quantities highly toxic to man, unless the label shall bear, in addition to any other matter required by sections 281.210 to 281.310:

a. The skull and crossbones;

b. The word "poison" prominently in red on a background of distinctly contrasting color; and

c. A statement of a practical treatment, first aid or otherwise, in case of poisoning by the pesticide;

(25)"Nematicide", any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any nematodes;

(26)"Nematode", 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;

(27)"Person", any individual, partnership, association, fiduciary, corporation, or any organized group of persons whether incorporated or not;

(28)"Pest":

(a) Any insect, snail, slug, rodent, nematode, fungus, weed; or

(b) Any other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or animal life or virus, bacteria, or other microorganism, except viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms on or in living men or other living animals, which is normally considered to be a pest;

(29)"Pesticide":

(a) Any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest; or

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

(30)"Plant regulator", any substance or mixture of substances intended, through physiological action, to accelerate or retard the rate of growth or rate of maturation, or to otherwise alter the behavior of plants or the products thereof, but shall not include substances to the extent that they are intended as plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant inoculants, or soil amendments. The term "plant regulator" does not include surfactants or any of those nutrient mixtures or soil amendments which are commonly known as vitamin-hormone horticultural products, intended for improvement, maintenance, survival, health and propagation of plants, and which are not for pest destruction and are nontoxic, nonpoisonous in the undiluted package concentration;

(31)"Producer and produce":

(a)"Produce", to manufacture, formulate, prepare, compound, propagate, or process any pesticide or device;

(b)"Producer", the person who manufactures, formulates, prepares, compounds, propagates, or processes any pesticide or device;

(32)"Registrant, register, and registration":

(a)"Register", to record pesticides with the director of agriculture pursuant to the provisions of sections 281.210 to 281.310;

(b)"Registrant", a person who has registered any pesticide pursuant to the provisions of sections 281.210 to 281.310;

(c)"Registration", the process of registering pesticides pursuant to the provisions of sections 281.210 to 281.310;

(33)"Restricted use pesticide", any pesticide, when applied in accordance with its directions for use, warnings and cautions and for the uses for which it is registered, or for one or more of such uses, or in accordance with a widespread and commonly recognized practice, the director subsequent to a hearing, or the federal government, determines may cause, without additional regulatory restrictions, unreasonable adverse effects on the environment, including injury to the applicator;

(34)"Rodent", any of an order Rodentia of relatively small gnawing mammals having a single pair of upper incisors with a chisel-shaped edge;

(35)"Rodenticide", any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any rodents;

(36)"Sale", selling or offering for sale any pesticides;

(37)"Snails or slugs" includes all harmful mollusks;

(38)"Unreasonable adverse effects on the environment", any unreasonable risk to man or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide; and

(39)"Weed", any plant which grows where not wanted.

§ 281.220, RSMo

L. 1955 p. 26 § 2, A.L. 1982 H.B. 1514 § 263.280