Is it a pesticide?

Is it a pesticide?

The company classifies the NanoFlashing™ Air Filter as a device under Section 2(h) of FIFRA, 7 U.S.C. § 136(h), and 40 C.F.R. § 152.500(a), not as a pesticide.

FIFRA and the regulation define the two separately. Section 2(u) defines a pesticide as “any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest”. 40 C.F.R. § 152.500(a) defines a device as “any instrument or contrivance (other than a firearm) intended for trapping, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest or any other form of plant or animal life (other than man and other than a bacterium, virus, or other microorganism on or in living man or living animals) but not including equipment used for the application of pesticides (such as tamper-resistant bait boxes for rodenticides) when sold separately therefrom.” An air filter is an instrument. A charge is a physical property. It is not a substance or a mixture of substances. The filter therefore incorporates no substance or mixture of substances to perform its intended pesticidal purpose. For the United States, the Statement of Classification states: “A device is not required to be registered under FIFRA section 3.” It lists the requirements that 40 C.F.R. § 152.500(b) applies to a device instead: labelling; establishment registration and reporting; books and records; inspection of establishments; violations, enforcement and penalties; import and export; child-resistant packaging; and the Agency's authority under FIFRA section 25(c)(4). The company accepts that each of them applies to the article. The company's classification is its own statement of how the law applies to the filter, and it is not a decision by any authority. No authority has approved, registered, endorsed or cleared the filter; the company classifies its own article.

Source: Statement of Classification for the NanoFlashing™ Air Filter, sections 3.6, 3.7 and 4.1, issued by NF Technical Products Inc.; Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, section 2(u), 7 U.S.C. § 136(u), text as posted by EPA, https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fifra.pdf; 40 C.F.R. § 152.500, https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-40/chapter-I/subchapter-E/part-152/subpart-Z/section-152.500.

Reviewed on 21 September 2026.