What intended uses and claims would change the regulatory position described for this product?

What intended uses and claims would change the regulatory position described for this product?

The position turns on two things: what the article is intended to do, and what performs that purpose.

A device is defined at 40 C.F.R. § 152.500(a) 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.” EPA states the test for a device in its own words: “A device must work solely by physical means (such as electricity, light or mechanics).” That sentence is EPA's published interpretation in a compliance advisory, not the text of the statute. A claim that the article acts on a pest by some means other than physical means, a use on or in living man or living animals, or selling or packaging the article with a pesticide, would each take it outside that description. A claim to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease is a different law again, and the company's label states that the filter is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. For the NanoFlashing™ Air Filter, the Statement of Classification states at 3.3: “The filter is not intended for use on or in living man or living animals.” At 3.4 it states: “The filter is not equipment for applying a separately supplied pesticide. It is not sold or packaged with any pesticide.” The Terms of Use state: “As of the Effective Date, the Water, Textiles, Food packaging, and Medical devices chapters describe Research Applications. They do not describe finished products currently available from C-POLAR for those uses.” NanoFlashing™ is a permanent positive polarity engineered into filter media itself. It is a physical property of the filter. 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.

Source: 40 C.F.R. § 152.500, as published on eCFR; EPA Compliance Advisory 305F20004, EPA Regulations About UV Lights that Claim to Kill or Be Effective Against Viruses and Bacteria (October 2020), at 1; NanoFlashing™ Air Filter label, About This Product; Statement of Classification for the NanoFlashing™ Air Filter, sections 2.1, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.6, issued by NF Technical Products Inc.; C-POLAR — Terms of Use, section 4, https://cpolar.tech/terms/.

Reviewed on 21 September 2026.