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.
Dichlorvos (DDVP)
General Information
- Fact Sheet: DDVP.pdf
- Product Names:
- Chemical Class: Organophosphate insecticide
- Uses: Agricultural sites, commercial, institutional and industrial sites; in and around homes; on pets,in greenhouses; mushroom houses; storage areas for bulk, packaged and bagged raw and processed agricultural commodities; food manufacturing/processing plants; animal premises; and non-food areas of food-handling establishments Target pests are flies, gnats, mosquitoes, chiggers, ticks, cockroaches, armyworms, chinch bugs, clover mites, crickets, cutworms, grasshoppers, and sod webworms.
- Alternatives: Organic Agriculture, Least-Toxic Insect Control, Least-Toxic Pet Care
- Beyond Pesticides rating: Toxic
Health and Environmental Effects
- Cancer: Possible (10), Yes (21)
- Endocrine Disruption: Not documented
- Reproductive Effects: Yes (22)
- Neurotoxicity: Yes (4)
- Kidney/Liver Damage: Yes (4)
- Sensitizer/ Irritant: Yes (4)
- Birth/Developmental: Not documented
- Detected in Groundwater: Not documented
- Potential Leacher: Yes (4)
- Toxic to Birds: Yes (8)
- Toxic to Fish/Aquatic Organisms: Yes (8)
- Toxic to Bees: Yes (4)
Residential Uses as Found in the ManageSafe™ Database
Additional Information
- Regulatory Status:
- EPA Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) signed (7/2006)
- Beyond Pesticides' OP cumulative risk RED comments
- Supporting information:
- Daily News Blog entries (Beyond Pesticides)
- Extoxnet pesticideFactsheet (Extension Toxicology Network)
- PAN Pesticides Database: Dichlorvos (Pesticide Action Network)
- PAN UK Organophosphate Factsheet (Pesticide Action Network UK)
- Studies:
- Effects of a mixture of pesticides on the adult female reproductive system of Sprague-Dawley, Wistar, and Lewis rats. Pascotto VM, Guerra MT, Franci JA, et al. 2015. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 78(9):602-16
- Home pesticide use and childhood cancer: A case-control study. Leiss, J., et al. 1995. American Journal of Public Health 85:249-252
- Incident Diabetes and Pesticide Exposure among Licensed Pesticide Applicators: Agricultural Health Study, 1993–2003. Montgomery et al. American Journal of Epidemiology 2008 167(10):1235-1246
- Effects of Dichlorvos on cardiac cells: Toxicity and molecular mechanism of action. Salem, I.B., Boussabbeh, M., Da Silva, J.P., Saidi, N.E., Abid-Essefi, S. and Lemaire, C., 2023. Chemosphere, 330, p.138714.