The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conditionally registering a pesticide product containing nanosilver as a new active ingredient. The antimicrobial pesticide product, HeiQ AGS-20, a silver-based product for use as a preservative for textiles to help control odors, is being granted registration despite a long list of outstanding studies that have yet to be submitted and reviewed by EPA. As a testament to EPA's flawed registration process, the agency will now require additional data on the product after it has entered the marketplace to confirm its assumption that the product will not cause 'unreasonable adverse effects on human health or the environment,' the general standard for registration under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

HeiQ AGS-20 is a nanosilver-silica composite with nanosilver particles that are incorporated into textiles and release of silver ions to suppress the growth of bacteria, which cause textile odors, stains, and degradation. Despite an emerging database that shows that nanosilver is much more toxic than conventional-sized silver and can cause damage in new ways, the agency pressed forward with registration of a product for which it has not fully evaluated human and environmental health data. For conditional registration, which is allowed under Section 3(c)(7) of FIFRA, pesticide registration can be granted even though all data requirements have not been satisfied or reviewed, by assuming that no unreasonable adverse effects on the environment will occur. Conditional registration allows pesticides to be introduced to the market with unknown and unevaluated risks to human and environmental health, which oftentimes leads to serious consequences. EPA is giving the registrant, HeiQ, four years to submit its data.