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EPA says Amazon sold illegal pesticides on website for years

By Deedee Sun, KIRO 7 News
By Deedee Sun, KIRO 7 News

The EPA says Amazon sold illegal pesticides on its website for years through third-party sellers.

Now, in a settlement, Amazon will be paying one of the largest-ever penalties under federal pesticide law – $1.2 million.

The products are off Amazon’s site, but the EPA is warning shoppers that other online retailers are still selling them. One the EPA says is most dangerous of the violations is called “Miraculous Insecticide Chalk.”

“The EPA has a long history with this product across the country, tracking it down and trying to deal with it,” said Chad Schulze, who is on the EPA’s pesticide enforcement team.

He says the EPA has been trying to get rid of the “notorious” chalk for more than 20 years. In 2014 the EPA found the chalk being sold on Amazon’s marketplace.

“You’re supposed to draw an outline of where you don’t want cockroaches to cross,” he said.

The “Miraculous Insecticide Chalk” along with the following products were all listed in court documents from the EPA as violating regulation policy:

  • "Cockroach Cockroaches Bugs Ants Roach Kills Chalk"
  • "HUA Highly Effective Cockroach Killer Bait Powder"
  • "R.B.T.Z. Safe Highly Effective Roach Killer Bait Powder Indoor"
  • "ARS Electric Mosquito Killer Convenient, Clean & Smokeless"

Pesticide products not regulated by the EPA are illegal to sell in the U.S.

The EPA says the listed products all contain ingredients that affect the nervous system.

“They can cause symptoms like nausea, headache, muscle weakness, shortness of breath, seizures, convulsions, and yes in acute cases even death due to respiratory failure,” Schulze said.

The EPA says between 2013 and 2016, Amazon sold thousands of unregulated pesticide products – 14 of them in Washington State.

Schulze says of all the products, the chalk is the most dangerous.

“This looks exactly like sidewalk chalk. A child went to hospital because they used the chalk as regular chalk and started convulsing,” Schulze said.

The EPA says Poison Control Centers in the United States received 668 calls involving pesticide chalk between 1992 and 1995. It does not have more recent data, but says since the product is still out there, the cases likely have continued.

On Amazon, the products all came from third-party sellers, but were “fulfilled by Amazon,” meaning Amazon stored it and shipped it after someone placed an order.

The EPA says that increased Amazon’s liability.

It says Amazon is fully complying and it’s been working closely with the company handle the situation. Settlement terms also required the retailer to create an online training course, which will be mandatory for retailers planning to sell pesticides on Amazon.

The company said in a statement:

“Regulatory compliance is a top priority at Amazon. Third-party sellers are required to comply with all relevant laws and regulations when listing items for sale on Amazon. When sellers don’t comply with our terms, we work quickly to take action on behalf of customers. We will continue to innovate on behalf of our customers and to work with brands, manufacturers, government agencies, law enforcement, and others to protect the integrity of our marketplace.”

A quick search on e-Bay brings hits for “Miraculous Pesticide Chalk” and the other products. The EPA says because online retails are so hard to regulate, some of the responsibility is on you.

It urges customers shopping for pesticides to look for a EPA regulation number, which shows  the product meets certain standards.

An example of what the number looks like would be: EPA Reg. No. 4822-447, as seen on a bottle of Raid on Amazon.

The EPA says if you have any of the listed pesticides, you should throw them away, and call the National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) at 1-800-858-7378, or visit www.npic.orst.edu for more information.

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