CalPIP Navigation Menu

Data Sources
PUR
Selected Data Source
Pesticide Use Report
Search by Data Category
Date
Site/Crop
Product
Chemical
Other Criteria
Other Datasets
California Pesticide Information Portal (CalPIP) Application

CalPIP Terms and Definitions

Help/User Guide Contents

Fields

Active ingredient(s): The ingredient(s) of a pesticide that prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate a pest. In the case of a plant growth regulator, an ingredient that through physiological or biochemical action, accelerates or retards the growth rate of maturation or otherwise alters the behavior of plants. In the case of a desiccant, an ingredient which artificially accelerates the drying of plant tissue.

Aerial/ground indicator: Also known as the Air/Ground Application Flag, or Method of Application. Indicates whether a product was applied by aerial or ground equipment: A - Aerially applied; B - Ground (ground-based equipment) applied; O - Other application methods. Other application methods (O) may include: paint, ear tag, injection, chemigation, etc.; F – Fumigant – since 2008, an F is required for fumigant applications in five ‘non-attainment’ areas (areas that do not meet air quality standards for pesticide volatile organic compounds (VOCs) : San Joaquin Valley NAA, Sacramento Metro NAA, South Coast NAA, Southeast Desert NAA, and Ventura NAA maps. Note that some counties outside of the non-attainment areas also use the F code to track fumigants for their own record-keeping, although they are not legally required to do so.

Commodity: Indicates the target site to which a pesticide was applied. "Commodity" and "site" are used synonymously.

Inert ingredient: Ingredient which does not have pesticidal activity in a pesticide product, but which is intentionally added as part of the formulated product. Examples include wetting and spreading agents, solvents, baits such as sugar, starches, dust carriers such as talc and clay, fillers, propellants in aerosol dispensers, and emulsifiers.

Institutional use: Pesticide applications in or around property that serves the general public or private organizations. This use category includes buildings such as hospitals, schools, libraries, sports facilities, and office complexes.

Label database: The purpose of this database is to collect and make available information concerning the registration of pesticide products in California.

Outlier: A probable error in the data fields for acres treated and the pounds of pesticide used. To improve data quality, DPR developed a statistical method to detect probable errors in the database. Called the outlier program, this method calculates pesticide use rates (pounds of active ingredient applied divided by acres treated) that are then examined using a variety of statistical methods. The records with highly unlikely use rates (outliers) are identified, thereby serving to flag suspect pesticide use records.

Errors occur, for example, when those reporting pesticide use shift decimal points during data entry. We used three different criteria to identify outliers by comparing each use rate with an estimate of the maximum rate for that type of use.

Pesticide: A pesticide includes the following: A substance, or mixture of substances, intended to defoliate plants, regulate plant growth, or prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any insects, fungi, bacteria, weeds, rodents, predatory animal, or any other form of plant or animal life declared to be a pest detrimental to vegetation, man, animal, or households, or any environment.

Pesticide use data: The information in the Pesticide Use Data section comes from the pesticide use report database and various other data sets maintained by DPR. The pesticide use report contains information submitted by the grower or applicator about an application or summary of monthly applications. Agricultural applications include data such the permit number of the grower, the pesticide product, the 1x1 square mile section of the application location, the commodity, the application date, and the product amount When a pesticide use report is processed by DPR, information from DPR’s product label database is included to supply additional information about the product as well as identification of the active ingredients and their amounts.

Registration number: Each pesticide product is identified by a four-part California Registration Number. The fields making up this number are: manufacturer firm number (MFG_FIRMNO), label sequence number (LABEL_SEQ_NO), revision number (REVISION_NO), and registrant firm number (REG_FIRMNO). The product registration number usually does not appear on the product label in this format; it may appear only as the first two of the four parts. The first two (MFG_FIRMNO, LABEL_SEQ_NO) are usually assigned by the US EPA. These fields represent the US EPA number for the company (MFG_FIRMNO) and a product sequence within the company (LABEL_SEQ_NO). California appends a revision code (REVISION_NO) to the EPA code to identify modifications to product labels throughout the span of the product’s registration. An additional field (REG_FIRMNO) is used to identify the firm actually registering the product in California. When one company manufactures the product and another registers it as a subordinate seller, it is considered a ’sub-registration’’. Approximately 25% of the products registered in California are sub-registrations.

Well inventory database: The purpose of this database is to collect and make available information concerning the presence of pesticides in California groundwaters. The database contains data from a wide variety of monitoring studies.





Version 2024.01 (2022 PUR Data Update)