7.3 Directions for Use, REI, PHI, and Site/Pest Restrictions

If signal words tell you how acutely hazardous the concentrate is, Directions for Use tell you what you are legally allowed to do with it. 40 CFR 156.10(i) requires those directions to be stated so an average user can understand them, and to be adequate to protect the public from fraud and personal injury and to prevent unreasonable adverse effects on the environment. 40 CFR 171.103(c)(1)(vi) then requires commercial applicators to comply with all use restrictions and directions, including being certified in the certification category appropriate to the type and site of the application. In New Jersey that means Core plus the matching N.J.A.C. 7:30-6.3 category — 3B does not authorize a 7C fumigation, and a labeled agricultural plant use does not authorize Category 7A household work.

Immediately under the Directions for Use heading, 40 CFR 156.10(i)(2) requires the use-classification statement and this sentence: “It is a violation of Federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling.” That sentence is not boilerplate. It is the same rule as FIFRA Section 12(a)(2)(G) and 40 CFR 171.103(c)(1)(iii). N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2(a) adds the State hook: no person shall use or apply a pesticide in a manner inconsistent with its Federal or State registered label or labeling, or with the extra restrictions in Chapter 7:30.

What Directions for Use must contain

Under 40 CFR 156.10(i)(2), look for all of the following:

• Site(s) of application — crops, animals, areas, or objects that may be treated.
• Target pest(s) associated with each site.
• Dosage rate associated with each site and pest.
• Method of application, including dilution instructions and required equipment.
• Frequency and timing needed for effective results without unreasonable adverse effects.
• Worker protection statements meeting 40 CFR Part 156 Subpart K (agricultural uses).
• Storage and Disposal grouped under that heading.
• Limitations required to prevent unreasonable adverse effects, including required intervals between application and harvest of food or feed crops (the pre-harvest interval), rotational-crop restrictions, and warnings against use on certain crops, animals, objects, or in or adjacent to certain areas.

40 CFR 171.103(c)(4) adds a pest-identification duty that belongs on this page of the Core: identify the pest, select a product that lists the site, and verify that the label does not prohibit that pest. A site on the label is not a blank check for every organism that lives there if EPA has required the product to be used only for specified pests.

New Jersey’s 7:30-10.2(a) exceptions track FIFRA Section 2(ee) with extra state limits. You may, unless the label or NJDEP says otherwise: apply at a lower dosage, concentration, or frequency; apply against a pest not named if the site, crop, or animal is named; use a method not prohibited, except aerial (see 7:30-10.6(x)) and chemigation; mix with a fertilizer when not prohibited; or use the product under FIFRA Sections 5 or 18. You may not raise the rate, invent a site, skip a mandatory restricted-entry interval (REI) or pre-harvest interval (PHI), drop labeled PPE, or treat “it worked” as a legal test.

REI: who may enter the treated area, and when

40 CFR 156.203 defines restricted-entry interval or REI as the time after the end of a pesticide application during which entry to the treated area is restricted. Agricultural (WPS) labels place the command under Agricultural Use Requirements: “Do not enter or allow worker entry into treated areas during the restricted-entry interval (REI)” (40 CFR 156.208(a)).

Default agricultural REIs in 156.208(c) are based on the acute toxicity of the active ingredient (dermal, eye, and skin; oral is a surrogate if dermal data are missing), not on the signal word alone:

If a product has more than one active ingredient, the longest REI controls. Product-specific REIs based on actual data supersede these defaults. Fumigants are set case by case; the 48/24/12 table does not apply to them. Early-entry exceptions, when they exist, still require the early-entry PPE listed on the label. A New Jersey commercial applicator who lets workers into a greenhouse “because the spray is dry” before the REI ends has used the product inconsistent with labeling.

N.J.A.C. 7:30-6.8 turns the REI into a recordkeeping duty. For commercial applications, if a specific REI is on the label, the record must include the date and the hour completed, plus the re-entry time and date. Written records are due no later than 24 hours. Keep them 3 years (termiticide 5 years). Notify the agricultural employer before WPS REI applications (location, start/end, product, REI, posting/oral notice, restrictions). N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2(j) separately forbids applying on an agricultural field while persons other than those involved in the application or evaluation are inside the target site unless they have the labeled protective clothing.

Non-agricultural labels may use different re-entry language (for example, “do not allow people or pets to enter until sprays have dried”). That language is still mandatory. New Jersey adds a daycare rule in 7:30-10.2(n): except for rodenticides, insect baits, and antimicrobial agents, do not apply in or around a day care facility during normal operating hours. After hours, children may not contact treated areas until ventilation requirements and the numerical re-entry time on the label have been met, or — if there is no numerical re-entry time — until seven hours have passed. Recreational fields and separate structures unused by children during operating hours are the listed exceptions; public-health officials acting in the course of their duties are exempt.

PHI: when the crop may be harvested

The pre-harvest interval (PHI) is the required interval between application and harvest of food or feed crops listed among use limitations in 40 CFR 156.10(i)(2)(x)(A). It is a residue-and-food-safety restriction, not a worker-entry restriction. Harvesting (or grazing, or cutting for hay) before the PHI is use inconsistent with labeling even if nobody walks into the field during the REI. The two clocks often start at the same application, but they answer different questions:

A Category 1A grower who waits out a 12-hour REI and then harvests lettuce two days before a 7-day PHI has still broken the label. A Category 3B turf job generally has no PHI because you are not harvesting food; it may still have an REI or a “until dry” re-entry, plus New Jersey’s 7:30-9.13 “Pesticide Treated Area” posting for 72 hours. Do not import a PHI into a turf question or an REI into a harvest question.

Site, pest, rate, and “it works” is not a defense

Use inconsistent with labeling includes applying to a site not on the label, exceeding the labeled rate, using a forbidden method, skipping required PPE, ignoring an REI or PHI, and failing to follow a Bulletin the label requires. Efficacy is not an element of the offense. FIFRA Section 12(a)(2)(G) and N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2(a) are violated when the use does not match the labeling, whether or not a pest dies and whether or not anyone is injured.

N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2 layers additional, label-independent restrictions you must still obey: do not transport, mix, or apply in a way that causes harm or a significant risk of harm; do not apply directly to a non-target site; take reasonable precautions and transmit relevant precautionary label statements to exposed or potentially exposed people; do not permit reasonably foreseeable drift onto a non-target site; do not rinse equipment into water; fit mix-water lines with an effective backflow device; keep the readable registered label at the mix/application site. Other 10.2 limits (diazinon on large turf or waterfowl sites, commercial fumigant presence for the duration of the application, TBT antifoulant rules, Pinelands right-of-way herbicides) bind even when a federal label is silent.

Dual registration still applies. An EPA-registered insecticide whose directions perfectly match your German-cockroach job is still illegal to hold or use in New Jersey if it is not currently registered with NJDEP (7:30-2.1(a)). Category certification still applies. A perfect indoor label does not authorize a Core-only applicator to make the application.

Worked New Jersey scenarios

Scenario G — unlabeled indoor site. A Category 7A technician has an unclassified liquid labeled only for outdoor perimeter treatment of listed crawling insects. Indoor crack-and-crevice “works great” on German cockroaches. The site is not on the label. FIFRA 2(ee) and 7:30-10.2(a)2 allow an unlabeled pest on a labeled site, not an unlabeled site. The indoor job is illegal even if every cockroach dies and the product is NJDEP-registered.

Scenario H — REI versus PHI on a farm. A Category 1A label lists REI 12 hours and PHI 7 days on peaches. Application ends at 6:00 p.m. Monday. Workers may not enter for ordinary work until 6:00 a.m. Tuesday (and the record must show hour completed and re-entry). Fruit may not be harvested until the following Monday. Entering at 10:00 p.m. Monday, or picking on Friday, is labeling-inconsistent use.

Scenario I — daycare with no numerical re-entry. After closing, a Category 7A applicator treats a day-care kitchen with a spray whose label has no numerical re-entry time. 7:30-10.2(n) requires ventilation requirements to be met and seven hours to pass before children may contact treated areas. “Until dry” on the federal label does not shorten New Jersey’s seven-hour default when no numerical re-entry is prescribed. Baits, rodenticides, and antimicrobials are the listed product exceptions; a spray is not.