Revised Code of Washington
Chapter 15.58 - Washington Pesticide Control Act.
15.58.030 - Definitions.

RCW 15.58.030
Definitions.

The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(1) "Active ingredient" means any ingredient which will prevent, destroy, repel, control, or mitigate pests, or which will act as a plant regulator, defoliant, desiccant, or spray adjuvant.
(2) "Antidote" means the most practical immediate treatment in case of poisoning and includes first aid treatment.
(3) "Arthropod" means any invertebrate animal that belongs to the phylum arthropoda, which in addition to insects, includes allied classes whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs; for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and isopod crustaceans.
(4) "Business licensing system" means the mechanism established by chapter 19.02 RCW by which business licenses, endorsed for individual state-issued licenses, are issued and renewed using a business license application and a business license expiration date common to each renewable license endorsement.
(5) "Complete wood destroying organism inspection" means inspection for the purpose of determining evidence of infestation, damage, or conducive conditions as part of the transfer, exchange, or refinancing of any structure in Washington state. Complete wood destroying organism inspections include any wood destroying organism inspection that is conducted as the result of telephone solicitation by an inspection, pest control, or other business, even if the inspection would fall within the definition of a specific wood destroying organism inspection.
(6) "Defoliant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to cause the leaves or foliage to drop from a plant with or without causing abscission.
(7) "Department" means the Washington state department of agriculture.
(8) "Desiccant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to artificially accelerate the drying of plant tissues.
(9) "Device" means any instrument or contrivance intended to trap, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate pests, or to destroy, control, repel or mitigate fungi, nematodes, or such other pests, as may be designated by the director, but not including equipment used for the application of pesticides when sold separately from the pesticides.
(10) "Director" means the director of the department or a duly authorized representative.
(11) "Distribute" means to offer for sale, hold for sale, sell, barter, or supply pesticides in this state.
(12) "EPA" means the United States environmental protection agency.
(13) "EPA restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide with restricted uses as classified for restricted use by the administrator, EPA.
(14) "FIFRA" means the federal insecticide, fungicide, and rodenticide act as amended (61 Stat. 163, 7 U.S.C. Sec. 136 et seq.).
(15) "Fungi" means all nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophytes (all nonchlorophyll-bearing plants of a lower order than mosses and liverworts); for example, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, yeasts, and bacteria, except those on or in living persons or other animals.
(16) "Fungicide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any fungi.
(17) "Herbicide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any weed.
(18) "Inert ingredient" means an ingredient which is not an active ingredient.
(19) "Ingredient statement" means a statement of the name and percentage of each active ingredient together with the total percentage of the inert ingredients in the pesticide, and when the pesticide contains arsenic in any form, the ingredient statement must also include percentages of total and water soluble arsenic, each calculated as elemental arsenic. The ingredient statement for a spray adjuvant must be consistent with the labeling requirements adopted by rule.
(20) "Insect" means any of the numerous small invertebrate animals whose bodies are more or less obviously segmented, and which for the most part belong to the class insecta, comprising six-legged, usually winged forms, for example, beetles, bugs, bees, flies, and to other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs, for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and isopod crustaceans.
(21) "Insecticide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any insects which may be present in any environment whatsoever.
(22) "Inspection control number" means a number obtained from the department that is recorded on wood destroying organism inspection reports issued by a structural pest inspector in conjunction with the transfer, exchange, or refinancing of any structure.
(23) "Label" means the written, printed, or graphic matter on, or attached to, the pesticide, device, or immediate container, and the outside container or wrapper of the retail package.
(24) "Labeling" means all labels and other written, printed, or graphic matter:
(a) Upon the pesticide, device, or any of its containers or wrappers;
(b) Accompanying the pesticide, or referring to it in any other media used to disseminate information to the public; and
(c) To which reference is made on the label or in literature accompanying or referring to the pesticide or device except when accurate nonmisleading reference is made to current official publications of the department, United States departments of agriculture; interior; education; health and human services; state agricultural colleges; and other similar federal or state institutions or agencies authorized by law to conduct research in the field of pesticides.
(25) "Land" means all land and water areas, including airspace and all plants, animals, structures, buildings, devices and contrivances, appurtenant thereto or situated thereon, fixed or mobile, including any used for transportation.
(26) "Nematocide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate nematodes.
(27) "Nematode" means any invertebrate animal of the phylum nemathelminthes and class nematoda, that is, unsegmented round worms with elongated, fusiform, or saclike bodies covered with cuticle, and inhabiting soil, water, plants or plant parts, may also be called nemas or eelworms.
(28) "Person" means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, or organized group of persons whether or not incorporated.
(29) "Pest" means, but is not limited to, any insect, rodent, nematode, snail, slug, weed and any form of plant or animal life or virus, except virus on or in a living person or other animal, which is normally considered to be a pest or which the director may declare to be a pest.
(30) "Pest control consultant" means any individual who sells or offers for sale at other than a licensed pesticide dealer outlet or location where they are employed, or who offers or supplies technical advice or makes recommendations to the user of:
(a) Highly toxic pesticides, as determined under RCW 15.58.040;
(b) EPA restricted use pesticides or restricted use pesticides which are restricted by rule to distribution by licensed pesticide dealers only; or
(c) Any other pesticide except those pesticides which are labeled and intended for home and garden use only.
(31) "Pesticide" means, but is not limited to:
(a) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate any insect, rodent, snail, slug, fungus, weed, and any other form of plant or animal life or virus, except virus on or in a living person or other animal which is normally considered to be a pest or which the director may declare to be a pest;
(b) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to be used as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant; and
(c) Any spray adjuvant.
(32) "Pesticide dealer" means any person who distributes any of the following pesticides:
(a) Highly toxic pesticides, as determined under RCW 15.58.040;
(b) EPA restricted use pesticides or restricted use pesticides which are restricted by rule to distribution by licensed pesticide dealers only; or
(c) Any other pesticide except those pesticides which are labeled and intended for home and garden use only.
(33) "Pesticide dealer manager" means the owner or other individual supervising pesticide distribution at one outlet holding a pesticide dealer license.
(34) "Plant regulator" means any substance or mixture of substances intended through physiological action, to accelerate or retard the rate of growth or maturation, or to otherwise alter the behavior of ornamental or crop plants or their produce, but does not include substances insofar as they are intended to be used as plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant inoculants, or soil amendments.
(35) "Registrant" means the person registering any pesticide under the provisions of this chapter.
(36) "Restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide or device which, when used as directed or in accordance with a widespread and commonly recognized practice, the director determines, subsequent to a hearing, requires additional restrictions for that use to prevent unreasonable adverse effects on the environment including people, lands, beneficial insects, animals, crops, and wildlife, other than pests.
(37) "Rodenticide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate rodents, or any other vertebrate animal which the director may declare by rule to be a pest.
(38) "Special local needs registration" means a registration issued by the director pursuant to provisions of section 24(c) of FIFRA.
(39) "Specific wood destroying organism inspection" means an inspection of a structure for purposes of identifying or verifying evidence of an infestation of wood destroying organisms prior to pest management activities.
(40) "Spray adjuvant" means any product intended to be used with a pesticide as an aid to the application or to the effect of the pesticide, and which is in a package or container separate from the pesticide. Spray adjuvant includes, but is not limited to, acidifiers, compatibility agents, crop oil concentrates, defoaming agents, drift control agents, modified vegetable oil concentrates, nonionic surfactants, organosilicone surfactants, stickers, and water conditioning agents. Spray adjuvant does not include products that are only intended to mark the location where a pesticide is applied.
(41) "Structural pest inspector" means any individual who performs the service of conducting a complete wood destroying organism inspection or a specific wood destroying organism inspection.
(42) "Unreasonable adverse effects on the environment" means any unreasonable risk to people or the environment taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide, or as otherwise determined by the director.
(43) "Weed" means any plant which grows where not wanted.
(44) "Wood destroying organism" means insects or fungi that consume, excavate, develop in, or otherwise modify the integrity of wood or wood products. Wood destroying organism includes, but is not limited to, carpenter ants, moisture ants, subterranean termites, dampwood termites, beetles in the family Anobiidae, and wood decay fungi (wood rot).
(45) "Wood destroying organism inspection report" means any written document that reports or comments on the presence or absence of wood destroying organisms, their damage, and/or conducive conditions leading to the establishment of such organisms.

[ 2013 c 144 § 9. Prior: 2011 c 103 § 35; 2004 c 100 § 6; 2003 c 212 § 1; 2000 c 96 § 1; 1992 c 170 § 1; 1991 c 264 § 1; 1989 c 380 § 1; 1982 c 182 § 26; 1979 c 146 § 1; 1971 ex.s. c 190 § 3.]
NOTES:

Reviser's note: The definitions in this section have been alphabetized pursuant to RCW 1.08.015(2)(k).


Purpose—2011 c 103: See note following RCW 15.26.120.


Effective date—2004 c 100: See note following RCW 17.21.020.

Structure Revised Code of Washington