The last year has brought several new challenges in the pesticide and disinfectant space – while the EPA has not changed their views on these products, they have seen a rise in need to regulate the market more vigorously. Presence of non-compliant products touting pesticide claims has increased significantly and in Q1 of 2021, the EPA has issued nearly $1M in fines related to FIFRA violations, alone. In response, WERCSmart has been working with retailer and supplier Partners on measures to help confirm compliance.



 WERCSmart FIFRA Updates

Pandemic related manufacturing of sanitizers and disinfectants has been a rapidly growing market. The push to create for consumers hit an all time high when demand exceeded the current supply. Many manufacturers made the commitment to step up and help with this growing demand. With this increase in manufacturers coming to market, also came a gap in compliance as not all companies are as knowledgeable in FIFRA compliance as would be expected. Consequently, this presented a shift in prioritization of FIFRA by the EPA, as is demonstrated by volume of FIFRA violations and fines in the last 18 months. 


UL WERCSmart has partnered with retailers and suppliers to help! Along with providing FIFRA Training to both UL WERCSmart and suppliers, our FIFRA expert has participated in industry events to bring awareness and knowledge to share with retail partners, as well.


The WERCSmart program has seen a revamp over the last year that helps our suppliers ensure they are properly entering data for our retailers too. Additional checks, in the form of ingredient verification against pesticide lists in our ChemAdvisor Regulatory Database gives our suppliers an opportunity to validate they are properly entering and/or attesting to pesticide claims. FIFRA25b exemptions check for proper inclusions of active and inert exempted chemicals. Our Hazard Review Team, on top of their normal EHS Checks, also checks the product labels provided for EPA Registration Info and FIFRA claims.


In the months since the program has been enhanced to validate pesticides, it has called to further action over 6,000 products that either had presence of pesticide chemicals or may have made a non-compliant claim on their label; this resulted in assisting retailers with onboarding these products in a compliant manner and saving from potential problems with the EPA downline. 


If interested in more information about these processes, please reach out to us.  WERCSmart is excited to continue to not only serve but grow with our retail communities.

 The WERCSmart program provides a secure, permission-based platform that facilitates the safe exchange of product information between manufacturers, intermediaries, and retailers with the highest standards of confidentiality and service.