Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management
How To Find Ingredients in Pesticide Products
Beyond Pesticides offers resources below to evaluate the health and ecological effects of specific chemical exposure from ACTIVE INGREDIENTS in pesticide products, as well as regulatory information and supporting scientific documents. Because various pesticide products can contain more than one active ingredient, it is important to READ the LABEL to determine chemical components.
With 192 different active ingredients and counting, it is essential to establish the connection between the use of these chemicals and their respective hazards.
View the step-by-step guide on how to search for the active ingredient(s) in pesticide products below:
- Go to U.S. EPA's Pesticide Product and Label System and enter the product name. The generic product name may vary.
- After searching, click on the chemical ingredients tab or the link for the most recent label to find Active Ingredients.
Chemical List Label List
If one selects the chemical ingredients tab, skip to Step 4 . If not, proceed to step number 3 - To find the active ingredient(s) on the label, search for the page in the document containing the date of registration. Usually, the active ingredients section occurs within the first few pages of the label document.
- Return to the Beyond Pesticides Gateway and search for the active ingredient name in the yellow box to the right or from the list below.
DEET
General Information
- Fact Sheet: deet.pdf
- Product Names:
- Chemical Class: Aromatic amide insecticide
- Uses: Households/Domestic Dwellings, Human body/clothing while being worn (insect repellent), Cats
(adults/kittens), Dogs/canines (adults/puppies), Horses, Pet living/sleeping quarters; targets Biting flies, biting midges, black flies, chiggers (redbugs), deer flies, fleas, gnats, horse flies, mosquitoes, no-see-ums, sand flies, small flying insects, stable flies and ticks - Alternatives: Least-Toxic Insect Repellent
- Beyond Pesticides rating: Toxic
Health and Environmental Effects
- Cancer: Not documented
- Endocrine Disruption: Not documented
- Reproductive Effects: Not documented
- Neurotoxicity: Yes (7)
- Kidney/Liver Damage: Yes (4)
- Sensitizer/ Irritant: Yes (7)
- Birth/Developmental: Yes (6)
- Detected in Groundwater: Yes (6)
- Potential Leacher: Yes (7)
- Toxic to Birds: Not documented
- Toxic to Fish/Aquatic Organisms: Not documented
- Toxic to Bees: Not documented
Residential Uses as Found in the ManageSafe™ Database
Additional Information
- Regulatory Status:
- EPA Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) signed (9/1998)
- Supporting information:
- Daily News Blog entries (Beyond Pesticides)
- NCAP DEET Factsheet (Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides)
- Extoxnet DEET Factsheet (Extension Toxicology Network)
- PAN Pesticides Database: DEET (Pesticide Action Network
- Synergy: the Big Unknowns of Pesticide Exposure (Beyond Pesticides 2004)
- The Truth About West Nile Virus (Beyond Pesticides 2003)
- West Nile Virus/Mosquito Management (Beyond Pesticides program page)
- Studies:
- DEET and Permithrin Syntax Study Experimental Neurology (2001)
- Prenatal exposure to pesticides and risk for holoprosencephaly: a case-control study. Addissie, Y.A., Kruszka, P., Troia, A., Wong, Z.C., Everson, J.L., Kozel, B.A., Lipinski, R.J., Malecki, K.M. and Muenke, M., 2020. Environmental Health, 19(1), pp.1-13.
- Genotoxicity studies on permethrin, DEET and diazinon in primary human nasal mucosal cells. Tisch, M., et al. 2002. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 259:150-153.