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The first year · Month 6

On the garage shelf

Reading a pesticide label, part by part

Look first for the registration number: the APVMA says that if you cannot see an APVMA or NRA number on the label, the product may not be registered and could be dangerous, so do not use it. Then check that the label names your pest and your situation, because a use the label does not specify is one the APVMA has not approved.

General information, not safety or legal advice for a particular product. The product’s own label governs; the official sources are listed at the foot of this page.

The drawing

Six places to look

A pesticide label with six numbered places to look A drawn container label with no real product on it. Numbered markers point to the registration number, the list of uses, the directions for use, the safety directions, the hazard wording, and a note that a booklet is attached. PRODUCT NAME HAZARD WORDING Active constituent FOR THE CONTROL OF DIRECTIONS FOR USE SAFETY DIRECTIONS APVMA No. 00000 See booklet 1 2 3 4 5 6
A drawing of a label’s parts, not a real product. Layouts differ between products; look for the words, not the position.
  1. 1

    The registration number

    An APVMA number, or an older National Registration Authority (NRA) number. No number, and the APVMA’s advice is not to use the product.

  2. 2

    What it is for

    APVMA labels give safe-use information for the specific uses they list. A similar product approved for your pest does not make this one approved for it.

  3. 3

    The directions for use

    Every registered agvet product in Australia carries its APVMA-approved directions for use on the label, and the APVMA says they must be followed.

  4. 4

    The safety directions

    Victoria’s health department says pesticides are generally most toxic in concentrated form, and that protective equipment should be worn as the label and the safety data sheet set out.

  5. 5

    The hazard wording

    The NSW Environment Protection Authority explains that the label tells you which products are poisonous: “Caution” means a low potential for harm, while “Dangerous Poison” means a high one.

  6. 6

    The booklet

    Some label instructions are legally binding, and the APVMA says that includes the booklet if one comes with the product.

Which parts are the law

The APVMA puts correct use first and foremost on the person using the product. Some of the approved safety and use directions are legally binding, and getting them wrong can lead to fines, litigation and, in some circumstances, criminal prosecution.

The APVMA does not police use itself. It says the police, Safe Work Australia and state and territory authorities monitor and enforce it together, and that once a registered product reaches the end user, state and territory law takes over. If you suspect a product is being used incorrectly or illegally, its advice is to report it straight away to your state or territory authority.

For the people who treat your house, Queensland adds its own layer: labelling, record-keeping and storage rules for pesticides and fumigants sit in the Pest Management Regulation, and technicians and business operators must comply with them.

A home pack and a professional drum

Several labelling codes apply to pesticides in Australia. Products supplied for large-scale use, by farmers or pest control services, generally carry more information on the label than those meant for the home and garden.

Workplace chemical labels follow different rules again. Safe Work Australia says agvet chemicals are exempt from full workplace labelling when the APVMA has registered them or they are used under its permit, and their labels follow the Agricultural Labelling Code. It adds: “Signal words and pictograms are not required on AgVet chemical labels.” Consumer products are governed by the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons, whose labelling requirements they must meet.

Victoria’s Better Health Channel adds that household pesticide products should not be Schedule 7, and the advice is to pick the least toxic, lowest-schedule product available.

A safety data sheet is not part of the label. The APVMA says these sheets are required under state and territory work health and safety law, are meant for businesses assessing chemical risks at work, and are not regulated by the APVMA.

Looking a product up

Every registered agvet product and approved active constituent in Australia is listed on the APVMA’s PubCRIS database, and many records include the relevant particulars of the label, safety and use directions among them. Three gaps to know about:

  • Products refused registration are not listed.
  • Some agvet products are exempt from registration and appear in neither PubCRIS nor the permits database.
  • Products used under a permit sit in a separate permits database, which lists every permit the APVMA has issued.

Labels also change. The APVMA can reconsider an active constituent’s approval, a product’s registration or a label’s approval at any time after registration. An old container at the back of the shelf is worth looking up before it is used.

The same search works for a treatment. In Queensland the technician’s pest control advice names each pesticide and its active constituent, as the hiring guide explains.

If the label doesn’t make sense

The APVMA is direct about this: don’t use a product if you don’t understand its label, and get help or a translation if you have trouble reading it. Keeping a chemical in its original container keeps the label and its instructions with it, as the ACT Government’s pest advice for food businesses points out.