EPA Registration Number Lookup
How do I look up an EPA registration number?
To look up a US EPA pesticide registration number, enter it in EPA's Pesticide Product Label System (PPLS). PPLS lets you search by "EPA Registration, Distributor Product, or Special Local Need Number", and also by product name, company name or active ingredient. EPA says the number is usually on the back panel of the product label (EPA: How to search for pesticide ingredients and labels).
Approach: I checked the EPA product lists and notices in our datasets, then EPA's own guidance pages. Our datasets don't hold EPA's full register of pesticide products, so the main lookup is through EPA's systems.
EPA's lookup options
- PPLS (search page): shows the product, its registration status and the stamped labels EPA has accepted. You can open a registration number directly with
https://ordspub.epa.gov/ords/pesticides/f?p=PPLS:102:::NO::P102_REG_NUM:<number>. EPA's examples are 100-60 and 666551-1 (EPA: PPLS more information). - Label PDFs: the file names follow the pattern company number (six digits, with leading zeros), product number (five digits, with leading zeros), then the stamp date as yyyymmdd. EPA's example is
066551-00001-19940701.pdf(same page). So the registration number has two parts, company number and product number, joined by a hyphen. - APPRIL (Active Pesticide Product Registration Informational Listing): lets you search registration numbers and links each one to its PPLS record.
- PPIS (Pesticide Product Information System): EPA's downloadable registration data, which it describes as ASCII files you open in database or spreadsheet software. EPA also offers a PPLS API for automated lookups (linked from the PPLS page).
What I can check here directly
- EPA's disinfectant lists: I can search these by registration number. For example, 1677-129 (Oxonia Active) appears on Lists A, N, O, Q and S [1][2][3][4][5].
- State Section 24(c) Special Local Need registrations: these use a state-prefixed number. For example, LA130006 is Karmex DF, registered 5 May 2014 [6].
If you send me a specific registration number, I can check it against both lists.
How is the establishment number different?
The registration number identifies the product and the establishment number identifies the site that produced it. Under FIFRA, EPA registers each pesticide-producing establishment and "assign[s] it an establishment number" [7]. A product is misbranded if its label does not bear that number for each establishment where it was produced [8].
Approach: I searched FIFRA as codified at 7 U.S.C. chapter 6 and EPA's Pesticide Registration Notices.
How they differ
| EPA Registration No. | EPA Establishment No. | |
|---|---|---|
| What it identifies | The registered pesticide product | The facility where the pesticide, or an active ingredient used in it, is produced |
| Legal basis | Registration of the pesticide under FIFRA | FIFRA §7 (7 U.S.C. 136e) "Registration of establishments" [7] |
| When it is needed | Before the product is sold or distributed | No one "shall produce" a pesticide or active ingredient in any State unless the establishment where it is produced is registered with EPA. The application must give the name and address of the establishment and of the producer who operates it [7] |
| Label | Required on the label | Must be on the label, one for each establishment where the product was produced [8] |
| Ongoing duties | Tied to the product registration | Within 30 days of registration, the producer "shall inform" EPA of the types and amounts of pesticides it is producing, produced in the past year, and sold or distributed in the past year. This information must be kept current and submitted annually [7] |
What they look like on a label: EPA's sample label in PR Notice 93-7 shows them on separate lines: "EPA Registration No. 12345-10" and "EPA Establishment No. 56787-CO-3" [9]. The registration number has two parts (company number and product number). The establishment number in the sample has three parts and includes a state code ("CO").
Practical consequences
- One registration number can go with several establishment numbers, because the same product can be made at more than one site and each producing site's number is required on the label.
- EPA treats them as separate identifiers. PR Notice 2014-1 on web-distributed labeling says a product's unique labeling identifier "must be distinguished from the EPA registration number, establishment number, and distributor number" [10].
- Relabeling or repackaging also counts as production. PR Notice 95-5 says transferred stocks must be repackaged or relabeled "at a registered establishment" [11].
The establishment number won't find the product in a registration lookup such as PPLS. Use the EPA Registration No. for that.