About the Incident Data System (IDS)
When people report adverse effects from pesticides to EPA, these reports are stored in the Incident Data System (IDS). Pesticide incident reports tell EPA about adverse effects on people, domestic animals (such as pets or livestock), wildlife, or the environment (air, soil, water, plants). Reporting a pesticide incident helps provide EPA with information on the effects and consequences of exposures to pesticides affecting people and the environment.
There are two parts of IDS:
- The first data set contains individual incidents that were submitted to EPA with a description of the incident (e.g., how and where the incident occurred).
- The second data set contains incidents that were submitted in aggregate to the Agency. These incidents are submitted in bulk and only contain information on the product and the severity of the incident, with no narrative description. Incidents may be aggregated under certain conditions, as outlined in the Agency’s PR Notice 98-3.
For either data set, a single submission may contain one or more incidents.
EPA has limited confidence in the accuracy and validity of the data because the data entries are reports of one individual’s perspective of what happened. These perspectives vary widely, which is why EPA evaluates the legitimacy of the reports before using them for regulatory decisions. The public should use caution when analyzing these data as EPA does not guarantee the completeness or adequacy of the contents of the IDS. Any rigorous analysis of these data would be expected to reveal errors in the content of the data sets.
Who Submits Incident Reports to EPA?
Incident reports can be submitted by anyone who experiences an adverse effect from using a pesticide. Although anyone can submit an incident report, the majority in IDS are submitted by:
- Pesticide registrants, who are required by Section 6(a)(2) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to report information concerning unreasonable adverse effects from the use of their pesticide products
- State agencies who are responsible for pesticide regulation in their state
- The National Pesticide Information Center, a source for science-based pesticide information to help answer people’s questions about the health and safety of pesticides
- The National Poison Centers, who help with poisoning emergencies and provide advice to healthcare professionals and the public
Reports of incidents may also be submitted by others who experience or observe an adverse effect from a pesticide’s use. These people may include:
- Pest control workers, who apply pesticides in homes and commercial establishments
- Agricultural workers, who may be exposed to pesticides as part of their jobs
- Homeowners or tenants, who may observe applications or use pesticides in their homes, schools or office environments
- Healthcare professionals
- Anyone else
How Reliable are the Data Contained in IDS?
EPA has limited confidence in the accuracy and validity of the data because the data entries are reports of one individual’s perspective of what happened. The system contains raw data, as reported to EPA. These data are not routinely evaluated for accuracy, completeness, reliability, or causality (meaning an incident may be reported that was not necessarily caused by the pesticide). EPA evaluates the validity of a dataset by following a rigorous scientific process, on a case-by-case basis, if needed for regulatory purposes.
Single incident reports may be entered more than once in the data. Multiple entries may occur when a single incident is reported by multiple people or organizations. EPA receives each entry as a unique incident and enters each as separate reports, leading to multiple entries.
When an incident is updated because of follow-up or results of an investigation, the update(s) will be entered as a separate incident in the data.
How Do I Read the Data Results?
When you query the database, the system will return a table of incidents that match the search criteria (or all of the incidents, if the criteria are all blank). Each row of the returned table provides a summary of one incident submission. Multiple incidents may be contained in a single submission. If any column contains a blank value, then that information has not been submitted to EPA. These columns contain:
- Submission Number: the unique number assigned to each incident submission
- Incident Date: the date an incident occurred, which may be much earlier than the date the incident was submitted to EPA
- Reason for Report: the reason the event was reported (adverse effect, product defect, etc.)
- Impact of Incident: the severity category, which describes the extent of the incident and what was affected
- Country, County, State, City: the location of the incident
- Product Registration Number and Product Name: the product involved in the incident
- PC Code and Ingredient: the active ingredient(s) in the product involved in the incident
- Submission Description: a short description on the incident package (note that the field may describe numerous incidents – it may not be limited or applicable to the incident in the incident in the current row, and it may be incomplete)
Does the Data Contain Personally Identifiable Information?
For incident reports that contain personally identifiable information, EPA has made every effort remove this information before making the records public. EPA will continue to redact this information as it updates the IDS database on a monthly basis.
What if I Have Questions?
If you have questions about the contents of this data, please submit a FOIA request. EPA is publishing this data to increase transparency to the public, but the Agency does not currently have the resources to answer individual questions about its content.