Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 2-2624

Current with changes through the 2024 First Special Legislative Session

Section 2-2624 - Terms, defined

For purposes of the Pesticide Act:

(1) Active ingredient means:

(a) In the case of a pesticide other than a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant, an ingredient that prevents, destroys, repels, or mitigates a pest;

(b) In the case of a plant regulator, an ingredient that, through physiological action, accelerates or retards the rate of growth or rate of maturation or otherwise alters the behavior of an ornamental or crop plant or a product of an ornamental or crop plant;

(c) In the case of a defoliant, an ingredient that causes leaves or foliage to drop from a plant; or

(d) In the case of a desiccant, an ingredient that artificially accelerates the drying of plant tissue;

(2) Administrator means the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency;

(3) Adulterated means:

(a) That the strength or concentration is not accurately expressed on the labeling under which a pesticide is sold;

(b) That any substance is substituted wholly or in part for the pesticide; or

(c) That any valuable constituent of the pesticide has been wholly or in part abstracted;

(4) Animal means a vertebrate or invertebrate species, including humans, other mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish;

(5) Antidote means a practical treatment used in preventing or lessening ill effects from poisoning, including first aid;

(6) Biological control agent means any living organism applied to or introduced into the environment that is intended to function as a pesticide against another organism;

(7) Bulk means any distribution of a pesticide in a refillable container designed and constructed to accommodate the return and refill of greater than fifty-five gallons of liquid measure or one hundred pounds of dry net weight of the product;

(8) Commercial applicator means any applicator required by the act to obtain a commercial applicator license;

(9) Dealer means any manufacturer, registrant, or distributor who is required to be licensed as such under section 2-2635;

(10) Defoliant means a substance or mixture of substances intended to cause the leaves or foliage to drop from a plant, with or without causing abscission;

(11) Department means the Department of Agriculture;

(12) Desiccant means a substance or mixture of substances intended to artificially accelerate the drying of plant tissue;

(13) Device means an instrument or contrivance, other than a firearm, that is used to trap, destroy, repel, or mitigate a pest or other form of plant or animal life, other than a human or a bacteria, virus, or other microorganism on or in living humans or other living animals. Device does not include equipment intended to be used for the application of pesticides when sold separately from a pesticide;

(14) Director means the Director of Agriculture or his or her designee;

(15) Distribute means to offer for sale, hold for sale, sell, barter, exchange, supply, deliver, offer to deliver, ship, hold for shipment, deliver for shipment, or release for shipment;

(16) Environment includes water, air, land, plants, humans, and other animals living in or on water, air, or land and interrelationships which exist among these;

(17) Federal act means the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, 7 U.S.C. 136 et seq., and any regulations adopted and promulgated under it, as the act and regulations existed on January 1, 2019;

(18) Federal agency means the United States Environmental Protection Agency;

(19) Fungus means any non-chlorophyll-bearing thallophyte, including rust, smut, mildew, mold, yeast, and bacteria, but does not include non-chlorophyll-bearing thallophytes on or in living humans or other living animals or those on or in a processed food or beverage or pharmaceuticals;

(20) Inert ingredient means an ingredient that is not an active ingredient;

(21) Ingredient statement means a statement which contains the name and percentage of each active ingredient and the total percentage of all inert ingredients in the pesticide;

(22) Insect means any of the numerous small invertebrate animals generally having a segmented body and for the most part belonging to the class Insecta, comprising six-legged, usually winged forms such as beetles, bugs, bees, and flies. Insect includes allied classes of arthropods, the members of which are wingless and usually have more than six legs, such as spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and wood lice;

(23) Label means the written, printed, or graphic matter on or attached to a pesticide or device or any of its containers or wrappers;

(24) Labeling means all labels and any other written, printed, or graphic matter (a) accompanying the pesticide or device at any time or (b) to which reference is made on a label or in literature accompanying or referring to a pesticide or device, including information distributed in any electronic format, except accurate, nonmisleading references made to a current official publication of a federal or state institution or agency authorized by law to conduct research in the field of pesticides;

(25) License holder means any person licensed under the Pesticide Act;

(26) Licensed certified applicator means any person licensed and certified under the act as a commercial applicator, noncommercial applicator, or private applicator;

(27) Misbranded means that any pesticide meets one or more of the following criteria:

(a) Its labeling bears any statement, design, or graphic representation relative to the pesticide 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 the standards established by the administrator pursuant to 7 U.S.C. 136w(c) of the federal act;

(c) It is an imitation of or distributed under the name of another pesticide;

(d) Its label does not bear the registration number assigned under 7 U.S.C. 136e of the federal act to each establishment in which it was produced;

(e) Any word, statement, or other information required by or under authority of the Pesticide Act 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 7 U.S.C. 136a(d) of the federal act, are adequate to protect health and the environment;

(g) The label does not contain a danger, warning, symbol, or cautionary statement which may be necessary and if complied with, together with any requirements imposed under the Pesticide Act or 7 U.S.C. 136a(d) of the federal act, is adequate to protect health and the environment;

(h) In the case of a pesticide not registered in accordance with sections 2-2628 and 2-2629 and intended for export, the label does not contain, in words prominently placed thereon with such conspicuousness, as compared with other words, statements, designs, or graphic matter in the labeling, as to render it likely to be noted by the ordinary individual under customary conditions of purchase and use, the words Not Registered for Use in the United States of America;

(i) The 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 any, through which the ingredient statement on the immediate container cannot be clearly read, which is presented or displayed under customary conditions of purchase, except that a pesticide is not misbranded under this subdivision if:

(i) 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

(ii) The ingredient statement appears prominently on another part of the immediate container or outside container or wrapper, permitted by the administrator;

(j) The labeling does not contain a statement of the use classification under which the product is registered;

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

(i) The name and address of the producer, registrant, or person for whom produced;

(ii) The name, brand, or trademark under which the pesticide is sold;

(iii) The net weight or measure of the content, except that the administrator may permit reasonable variations; and

(iv) When required by regulations of the administrator to effectuate the purposes of the federal act, the registration number assigned to the pesticide under such act and the use classification; or

(l) The pesticide contains any substance or substances in quantities highly toxic to humans, unless the label bears, in addition to any other matter required by the Pesticide Act:

(i) The skull and crossbones;

(ii) The word poison prominently in red on a background of distinctly contrasting color; and

(iii) A statement of a practical first-aid or other treatment in case of poisoning by the pesticide;

(28) Nematode means an invertebrate animal of the phylum Nemathelminthes and class Nematode, an unsegmented roundworm with an elongated, fusiform, or sac-like body covered with cuticle, inhabiting soil, water, plants, or plant parts;

(29) Noncommercial applicator means

(a) any applicator who is not a commercial applicator or a private applicator and uses restricted-use pesticides only on property owned or controlled by his or her employer or for a federal entity, state agency, political subdivision of the state, or postsecondary educational institution in this state or

(b) any employee or other person acting on behalf of a political subdivision of the state who is not a commercial applicator or a private applicator who uses pesticides for outdoor vector control;

(30) Person means any individual, partnership, limited liability company, association, corporation, or organized group of persons, whether incorporated or not;

(31) Pest means any destructive, detrimental, or undesirable:

(a) Insect, snail, slug, rodent, bird, nematode, fungus, weed, or other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or animal life, excluding humans; or

(b) Virus, bacteria, or other microorganism, other than a virus, bacteria, or microorganism in or on living humans or other living animals;

(32) Pesticide means a substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any pest or any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant, including any biological control agent. Pesticide does not include any article that is a new animal drug within the meaning of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. 321(v), as the section existed on January 1, 2019;

(33) Pesticide management plan means a management plan for a specific, identified pesticide to implement a strategy to prevent, monitor, evaluate, and mitigate (a) any occurrence of the pesticide or pesticide breakdown products in ground water and surface water in the state or (b) any other unreasonable adverse effect of the pesticide on humans or the environment;

(34) Plant regulator means a substance or mixture of substances intended through physiological action to accelerate or retard the rate of growth or rate of maturation or otherwise to alter the behavior of an ornamental or crop plant or the product of an ornamental or crop plant but does not include a substance to the extent that it is intended as a plant nutrient, trace element, nutritional chemical, plant inoculant, or soil amendment;

(35) Pollute means to alter the physical, chemical, or biological quality of or to contaminate water in the state, which alteration or contamination renders the water harmful, detrimental, or injurious to humans, the environment, or the public health, safety, or welfare;

(36) Private applicator means an applicator who is not a commercial applicator or a noncommercial applicator and uses or supervises the use of any restricted-use pesticide for purposes of producing any agricultural commodity on property owned, rented by, or under the general control of 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 the property of another person. To meet the definition of a private applicator, an employee of an employer described under this subdivision may only provide labor for the pesticide use. An employee who provides restricted-use pesticides or equipment used to apply restricted-use pesticides is a commercial applicator;

(37) Property means any land or water area, including airspace, and any plant, animal, structure, building, contrivance, commodity, or machinery, whether fixed or mobile, appurtenant to or situated on a land or water area or airspace, including any vehicle used for transportation;

(38) Restricted-use pesticide means a pesticide classified as a restricted-use pesticide by the federal agency or any pesticide for which an exemption under 7 U.S.C. 136p of the federal act has been granted;

(39) State management plan means a generic plan developed by the department to implement a strategy to prevent, monitor, evaluate, and mitigate any occurrence of pesticides in ground water and surface water in the state and any specific plans developed when an occurrence has been detected;

(40) State pesticide applicator certification plan means the plan developed by the department to enter into a cooperative agreement with the federal agency to assume the responsibility for the primary enforcement of pesticide use and the training and licensing of certified applicators;

(41) State-limited-use pesticide means any pesticide included on a list of state-limited-use pesticides established by the department pursuant to a pesticide management plan;

(42) Unreasonable adverse effect on humans or the environment means any unreasonable risk to humans or the environment taking into account the severity and longevity of adverse effects of use of the pesticide and also taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of the pesticide. The costs and benefits of a pesticide used for public health purposes shall also weigh any risks of the use of the pesticide against the health risks to be mitigated or controlled by the use of the pesticide;

(43) Vector means any organism capable of transmitting the causative agent of human disease or capable of producing human or animal discomfort or injury, including mosquitoes, flies, fleas, cockroaches, ticks, mites, other insects, mice, and rats; and

(44) Weed means any plant that grows where not wanted.

Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 2-2624

Laws 1993, LB 267, § 32; Laws 1993, LB 588, § 3; Laws 1994, LB 884, § 7; Laws 2002, LB 436, § 3; Laws 2003, LB 157, § 1; Laws 2006, LB 874, § 2; Laws 2013, LB 69, § 1; Laws 2019, LB 320, § 1.

Amended by Laws 2019, LB 320,§ 1, eff. 9/1/2019.