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EPA Charges New Jersey Company with Selling Unregistered Pesticidal Tub and Tile Cleaner; Agency Continues Enforcement Push Against Co’s Making Unsubstantiated Claims

Release Date: 05/22/2000
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(#00107) New York, N.Y. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has charged North Brunswick, New Jersey-based USA Detergents, Inc. with 18 counts of violating the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the federal law that regulates pesticides. The agency is seeking a penalty of $99,000 for the violations, which involve the sale of a USA Detergents product called Tile Action, a tub and tile cleaner. EPA inspected the USA Detergents facility at 1735 Jersey Avenue in North Brunswick on June 4, 1999 and found that the company sold Tile Action on at least 15 separate occasions in 1999. The product bore a label that read: "Deodorizes and Removes Mildew." This statement suggests that the product acts as a pesticide to kill or mitigate mildew -- a fungus. All pesticides marketed or sold in the United States must be registered with EPA first. This product was not registered, and as a result, each individual sale of the product amounted to a separate violation of FIFRA. FIFRA also requires companies like USA Detergents to provide EPA with information about the types and amounts of pesticides they produce and sell by March 1 of every year. The company filed its information for 1997, 1998 and 1999 late, constituting three additional violations of FIFRA. "Our nation’s pesticide laws were designed to protect the consumer and the environment," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Regional Administrator. "Companies cannot sell products making claims that their products act as pesticides unless EPA has first determined that the products actually do what the label says, and that they do not pose an unreasonable risk to the environment and human health. This and other cases filed by EPA in recent months should serve as a warning that we are serious about bringing an end to this practice." The pesticide registration process requires that a variety of tests be performed to determine whether the product does what the manufacturer claims, and what human health and environmental effects the product may have. Based on the information compiled by EPA about the product, the agency decides whether to register it, and if so, approves specific label instructions to appear on it. In April 1994, EPA sent a formal notice of warning to USA Detergents stating that the claim "Deodorizes and Removes Mildew" suggested that Tile Action is a pesticide, and that if the company wanted to continue to market the product, it had to either change the label to remove all pesticidal claims or register the product with EPA. In a response letter to EPA, the company stated that it would revise the product label to read "Deodorizes and Removes Mildew Stains," a change EPA found acceptable at the time. The EPA inspection in 1999, however, revealed that the label change had never been made, prompting the agency to file a formal complaint charging 18 violations of FIFRA and seeking $99,000 in penalties. Several days after EPA’s 1999 inspection, USA Detergents informed the agency that it would immediately revise all labels of Tile Action to include the word "stains" at the end of the sentence in question. EPA has confirmed that this change has been made.  USA Detergents manufactures a variety of nationally-distributed laundry and household cleaning products, and reported net sales in 1999 of $242.7 million.