2006-2007 Pesticide Market Estimates: Usage (Page 3)

3.7  Most Commonly Used Conventional Pesticide Active Ingredients in the U.S. Non-Agricultural Market Sectors

Table 3.7 and Table 3.8 show the 10 most commonly used conventional pesticide active ingredients in the two non-agricultural sectors (home & garden and industry/commercial/government) for 2007 and selected earlier years. In both sectors, 2,4-D was the most used active ingredient, with between 8 and 11 million pounds used in the home and garden sector (see Table 3.7) and between 19 and 22 million pounds used in the industry/ commercial/government sector (see Table 3.8). Seven of the top 10 active ingredients used in the home and garden sector are herbicides, and three are insecticides. Six of the top 10 active ingredients used in the industry/ commercial/government sector are herbicides, two are fungicides, and two are insecticides. As noted in Table 3.8, because some applicators apply pesticides in both markets, there may be some usage reported in one market that may have occurred in the other. The rankings are based on EPA proprietary data.

3.8  Amount of Organophosphate Insecticides Used in the United States

Table 3.9 Table 3.9 shows the total amount of organophosphate insecticide used annually since 1990. The top 10 active ingredients used in 2007 in this pesticide class are chlorpyrifos, malathion, acephate, naled, dicrotophos, phosmet, phorate, diazinon, dimethoate, and azinphos-methyl (see Table 3.10). Since the passage of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) in 1996, this class of conventional pesticides has been a primary focus of EPA reregistration and registration review activities. For more information on the active ingredients included in this pesticide class and their registration status, refer to U.S. EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs Special Docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2007-0151 at www.regulations.gov.

The amount of organophosphate insecticides used has declined more than 60% since 1990, from an estimated 85 million pounds in 1990 to 33 million pounds in 2007 (see Table 3.9). Organophosphate use as a percent of total insecticide use has decreased from 70% in 1990 to 36% in 2007. The estimates of organophosphate insecticide use rely on the estimated amount used and changes in the amount used of organophosphates from public and proprietary EPA databases.