TITLE 2 AGRICULTURE

Section 7. Plant Disease, Pest Control, and Pesticides, 2-7-1 through 2-7-204.

ARTICLE 2 CONTROL OF PESTICIDES

2-7-52. Definitions.

As used in this article, the term:

1. "Active ingredient" means any ingredient which will prevent, destroy, repel, control, or mitigate pests or which will act as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant.
2. "Adulterated" shall apply to any pesticide:
   1. If its strength or purity falls below the professed standard of quality, as expressed on its labeling or under which it is sold;
   2. If any substance has been substituted wholly or in part for the pesticide; or
   3. If any valuable constituent of the pesticide has been wholly or in part abstracted.
3. "Animal" means all vertebrate and invertebrate species, including, but not limited to, man and other mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish.
4. "Antidote" means the most practical immediate treatment in case of poisoning and includes first-aid treatment.
5. "Beneficial insects" means those insects which, during their life cycles, are effective pollinators of plants, are parasites or predators of pests, or are otherwise beneficial.
6. "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Agriculture.
7. "Defoliant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended for causing the leaves or foliage to drop from a plant, with or without causing abscission.
8. "Desiccant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended for artificially accelerating the drying of plant tissue.
9. "Device" means any instrument or contrivance, other than a firearm, which is intended for trapping, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest or any other form of plant or animal life, other than man and other than bacteria, viruses, or other microorganisms on or in living man or other living animals; the term does not include equipment used for the application of pesticides when such equipment is sold separately therefrom.
10. "Distribute" means to offer for sale, hold for sale, sell, barter, ship, deliver for shipment, or receive and, having so received, deliver or offer to deliver pesticides in this state.
11. "Environment" includes the water, air, and land, all plants and man and other animals living therein, and the interrelationships which exist among these.
12. "Environmental Protection Agency" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
13. "FIFRA" means the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, and the amendments thereto.
14. "Fungi" means all nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophytes, that is, all nonchlorophyll-bearing plants of a lower order than mosses and liverworts, as, for example, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, yeasts, and bacteria, except those on or in living man or other living animals and except those in or on processed food, beverages, or pharmaceuticals.
15. "Highly toxic pesticide" means any pesticide determined to be a highly toxic pesticide under the authority of Section 25(c)(2) of FIFRA or by the Commissioner under paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of Code Section 2-7-63.
16. "Imminent hazard" means a situation which exists when the continued use of a pesticide during the time required for cancellation proceedings pursuant to Code Section 2-7-59 would likely result in unreasonable adverse effects on the environment or will involve unreasonable hazard to the survival of a species declared endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and any amendments thereto.
17. "Inert ingredient" means an ingredient which is not an active ingredient.
18. "Ingredient statement" means a statement of the name and percentage of each active ingredient in a pesticide, together with the total percentage of the inert ingredients in the pesticide. When the pesticide contains arsenic in any form, the ingredient statement shall also include percentages of total and water soluble arsenic, each calculated as elemental arsenic.
19. "Insect" means any of the numerous small invertebrate animals generally having a body more or less obviously segmented, for the most part belonging to the class Insecta, comprising six-legged, usually winged forms, as, for example, beetles, bugs, bees, and flies, and to other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs, as, for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and wood lice.
20. "Label" means the written, printed, or graphic matter on or attached to the pesticide or device or any of its containers or wrappers.
21. "Labeling" means the label and all other written, printed, or graphic matter:
    1. Accompanying the pesticide or device at any time; or
    2. To which reference is made on the label or in literature accompanying the pesticide or device, except for current official publications of:
       1. The Environmental Protection Agency;
       2. The United States Department of Agriculture;
       3. The United States Department of the Interior;
       4. The United States Department of Health and Human Services;
       5. State experiment stations;
       6. State agricultural colleges; and
       7. Other similar federal or state institutions or agencies authorized by law to conduct research in the field of pesticides.
22. "Land" means all land and water areas, including airspace, and all plants, animals, structures, buildings, contrivances, and machinery appurtenant thereto or situated thereon, fixed or mobile, including any used for transportation.
23. "Nematode" means invertebrate animals of the phylum Nemathelminthes and class Nematoda, that is, unsegmented roundworms with elongated, fusiform, or saclike bodies covered with cuticle and inhabiting soil, water, plants, or plant parts; they may also be called nemas or eelworms.
24. "Permit" means a written certificate issued by the Commissioner or his authorized agent, authorizing the purchase, possession, or use, or any combination thereof, of certain pesticides or pesticide uses defined in paragraphs (31) and (33) of this Code section.
25. "Person" means any individual, partnership, association, fiduciary, corporation, or organized group of persons, whether or not incorporated.
26. "Pest" means:
    1. Any insect, rodent, nematode, fungus, or weed; or
    2. Any other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or animal life or virus, bacterium, or other microorganism, except viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms on or in living man or other living animals, which the Environmental Protection Agency administrator declares to be a pest under Section 25(c)(1) of FIFRA or which the Commissioner declares to be a pest under paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of Code Section 2-7-63.
27. "Pesticide" means:
    1. Any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pests; and
    2. Any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant.
28. "Plant regulator" means any substance or mixture of substances, intended through physiological action for accelerating or retarding the rate of growth or rate of maturation or for otherwise altering the behavior of ornamental or crop plants or the produce thereof; the term shall not include substances to the extent that they are intended as plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant inoculants, and soil amendments.
29. "Protect health and the environment" means protection against any unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.
30. "Registrant" means a person who has registered any pesticide pursuant to this article.
31. "Restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide whose label bears one or more uses which have been classified as restricted by the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
32. "Restricted use pesticide dealer" means any person who distributes any restricted use pesticide or any pesticide whose label bears a state restricted pesticide use to any person other than a manufacturer or distributor of pesticides.
33. "State restricted pesticide use" means any pesticide use which, when carried out in accordance with label directions and other commonly recognized good practices, the Commissioner determines, subsequent to a hearing, to require additional restrictions for that use to protect the environment, including man, lands, beneficial insects, animals, crops, and wildlife, other than pests.
34. "Unreasonable adverse effects on the environment" means any unreasonable risk to man or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide.
35. "Weed" means any plant which grows where not wanted.
36. "Wildlife" means all living things that are neither human, domesticated, nor, as defined in this article, pests, including, but not limited to, mammals, birds, and aquatic life.

(Ga. L. 1950, p. 390, § 2; Ga. L. 1960, p. 178, § 1; Ga. L. 1976, p. 282, § 4.)