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Child resistant packaging

When it is required

On this page9
The second condition is a question about your own label, which means you can influence it.

The rule

Unless exempted, a pesticide product must be distributed and sold in child-resistant packaging where it meets a toxicity criterion and its labeling either directly recommends residential use or reasonably can be interpreted to permit residential use.

The toxicity criteria

An acute oral LD50 of 1.5 g/kg or less. An acute dermal LD50 of 2000 mg/kg or less. An acute inhalation LC50 of 2 mg per litre or less. Irreversible eye damage or corneal involvement persisting 21 days or more. Tissue destruction or severe skin irritation at 72 hours.

Any one of them is enough

They are alternatives rather than a cumulative test. A product that is mild by every oral measure and severely irritating to the eye is caught by the eye criterion alone.

And one more, on human data

A product posing a serious accidental injury hazard on the basis of human toxicological data is caught regardless of the animal numbers.

The residential use condition

"Directly recommends residential use or reasonably can be interpreted to permit residential use." Reasonably interpreted is the operative phrase, and it is read against your whole label rather than against a single sentence.

Which gives you a real decision

A product positioned and labeled strictly for commercial or agricultural use is in a different position from the same chemistry sold for a home garden. That is a market decision with a packaging consequence.

But do not try to have it both ways

Labeling a product for professional use while marketing it to homeowners is exactly what "reasonably can be interpreted" is written to catch. The website and the retail channel speak to it.

Exemptions exist

The regulation points to exemptions under a separate section. Whether one applies is a question to answer against that text rather than to assume from the category.

References

40 CFR 157.22, child-resistant packaging for pesticides: "Unless exempted under 157.24, a pesticide product must be distributed and sold in child-resistant packaging" where it meets a toxicity criterion and "the product's labeling either directly recommends residential use or reasonably can be interpreted to permit residential use". The toxicity criteria include an acute oral LD50 of 1.5 g/kg or less, an acute dermal LD50 of 2000 mg/kg or less, an acute inhalation LC50 of 2 mg/litre or less, irreversible eye damage or corneal involvement persisting 21 days or more, and tissue destruction or severe skin irritation at 72 hours. law.cornell.edu
Written from 40 CFR 156.10, 165.25 and 157.22, and from the catalog as it stood on 18 October 2026. A pesticide may not be distributed or sold in the United States unless it is registered, and the label is approved as part of that registration; nothing here is a substitute for EPA guidance on a specific product, and whether a given product is a pesticide at all is a determination with consequences.