HB4523 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB104 18016 BDA 31453 b

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
HB4523

Introduced 1/30/2026, by Rep. Diane Blair-Sherlock

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

415 ILCS 60/4	from Ch. 5, par. 804
415 ILCS 60/6	from Ch. 5, par. 806

Amends the Illinois Pesticide Act. Provides that the statements that are to be provided by pesticide registrants under the Act must include either a specific statement that the pesticide to be registered contains no PFAS or, if the pesticide (including its active and inert ingredients) contains any PFAS, certain information regarding the PFAS, including the name of the specific chemical and the quantity of the chemical in the product. Provides that the Director of Agriculture shall not register any pesticide product that contains a chemical that is an intentionally added PFAS and that the use of any pesticide that contains any chemical that is an intentionally added PFAS is prohibited. Further provides, beginning January 1, 2030, that the use of any spray adjuvant that contains intentionally added PFAS is prohibited. Requires the Department of Agriculture to adopt rules to implement these provisions. Defines "PFAS" and "intentionally added PFAS".

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning safety.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Illinois Pesticide Act is amended by changing Sections 4 and 6 as follows:

(415 ILCS 60/4) (from Ch. 5, par. 804)

Sec. 4. Definitions. As used in this Act:

1. "Director" means Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture or his authorized representative.

2. "Active Ingredient" means any ingredient which will prevent, destroy, repel, control or mitigate a pest or which will act as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant.

3. "Adulterated" shall apply to any pesticide if the strength or purity is not within the standard of quality expressed on the labeling under which it is sold, distributed or used, including any substance which has been substituted wholly or in part for the pesticide as specified on the labeling under which it is sold, distributed or used, or if any valuable constituent of the pesticide has been wholly or in part abstracted.

4. "Agricultural Commodity" means produce of the land, including, but not limited to, plants and plant parts, livestock and poultry and livestock or poultry products, seeds, sod, shrubs and other products of agricultural origin including the premises necessary to and used directly in agricultural production. Agricultural commodity also includes aquatic products, including any aquatic plants and animals or their by-products that are produced, grown, managed, harvested and marketed on an annual, semi-annual, biennial or short-term basis, in permitted aquaculture facilities.

5. "Animal" means all vertebrate and invertebrate species including, but not limited to, man and other mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish.

5.5. "Barrier mosquitocide" means a pesticide that is formulated to kill adult mosquitoes and that is applied so as to leave a residual mosquitocidal coating on natural or manmade surfaces. "Barrier mosquitocide" does not include a product that is exempt from registration under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, or rules adopted pursuant to that Act.

5.6. "Barrier mosquitocide treatment" means application of a barrier mosquitocide to a natural or manmade surface.

6. "Beneficial Insects" means those insects which during their life cycle are effective pollinators of plants, predators of pests or are otherwise beneficial.

7. "Certified applicator".

A. "Certified applicator" means any individual who is certified under this Act to purchase, use, or supervise the use of pesticides which are classified for restricted use.

B. "Private applicator" means a certified applicator who purchases, uses, or supervises the use of any pesticide classified for restricted use, for the purpose of producing any agricultural commodity on property owned, rented, or otherwise controlled by him or his employer, or applied to other property if done without compensation other than trading of personal services between no more than 2 producers of agricultural commodities.

C. "Licensed Commercial Applicator" means a certified applicator, whether or not he is a private applicator with respect to some uses, who owns or manages a business that is engaged in applying pesticides, whether classified for general or restricted use, for hire. The term also applies to a certified applicator who uses or supervises the use of pesticides, whether classified for general or restricted use, for any purpose or on property of others excluding those specified by subparagraphs 7 (B), (D), (E) of Section 4 of this Act.

D. "Commercial Not For Hire Applicator" means a certified applicator who uses or supervises the use of pesticides classified for general or restricted use for any purpose on property of an employer when such activity is a requirement of the terms of employment and such application of pesticides under this certification is limited to property under the control of the employer only and includes, but is not limited to, the use or supervision of the use of pesticides in a greenhouse setting. "Commercial Not For Hire Applicator" also includes a certified applicator who uses or supervises the use of pesticides classified for general or restricted use as an employee of a state agency, municipality, or other duly constituted governmental agency or unit.

8. "Defoliant" means any substance or combination of substances which cause leaves or foliage to drop from a plant with or without causing abscission.

9. "Desiccant" means any substance or combination of substances intended for artificially accelerating the drying of plant tissue.

10. "Device" means any instrument or contrivance, other than a firearm or equipment for application of pesticides when sold separately from pesticides, which is intended for trapping, repelling, destroying, or mitigating any pest, other than bacteria, virus, or other microorganisms on or living in man or other living animals.

11. "Distribute" means offer or hold for sale, sell, barter, ship, deliver for shipment, receive and then deliver, or offer to deliver pesticides, within the State.

12. "Environment" includes water, air, land, and all plants and animals including man, living therein and the interrelationships which exist among these.

13. "Equipment" means any type of instruments and contrivances using motorized, mechanical or pressure power which is used to apply any pesticide, excluding pressurized hand-size household apparatus containing dilute ready to apply pesticide or used to apply household pesticides.

14. "FIFRA" means the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, as amended.

15. "Fungi" means any non-chlorophyll bearing thallophytes, any non-chlorophyll bearing plant of a lower order than mosses or liverworts, as for example rust, smut, mildew, mold, yeast and bacteria, except those on or in living animals including man and those on or in processed foods, beverages or pharmaceuticals.

16. "Household Substance" means any pesticide customarily produced and distributed for use by individuals in or about the household.

17. "Imminent Hazard" means a situation which exists when continued use of a pesticide would likely result in unreasonable adverse effects on the environment or will involve unreasonable hazard to the survival of a species declared endangered by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior or to species declared to be protected by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

18. "Inert Ingredient" means an ingredient which is not an active ingredient.

19. "Ingredient Statement" means a statement of the name and percentage of each active ingredient together with the total percentage of inert ingredients in a pesticide and for pesticides containing arsenic in any form, the ingredient statement shall include percentage of total and water soluble arsenic, each calculated as elemental arsenic. In the case of spray adjuvants the ingredient statement need contain only the names of the functioning agents and the total percent of those constituents ineffective as spray adjuvants.

20. "Insect" means any of the numerous small invertebrate animals generally having the body more or less obviously segmented for the most part belonging to the class Insects, comprised of six-legged, usually winged forms, as for example beetles, caterpillars, and flies. This definition encompasses other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless and usually have more than 6 legs as for example spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and millipedes.

21. "Label" means the written, printed or graphic matter on or attached to the pesticide or device or any of its containers or wrappings.

22. "Labeling" means the label and all other written, printed or graphic matter: (a) on the pesticide or device or any of its containers or wrappings, (b) accompanying the pesticide or device or referring to it in any other media used to disseminate information to the public, (c) to which reference is made to the pesticide or device except when references are made to current official publications of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Departments of Agriculture, Health, Education and Welfare or other Federal Government institutions, the state experiment station or colleges of agriculture or other similar state institution authorized to conduct research in the field of pesticides.

23. "Land" means all land and water area including airspace, and all plants, animals, structures, buildings, contrivances, and machinery appurtenant thereto or situated thereon, fixed or mobile, including any used for transportation.

24. "Licensed Operator" means a person employed to apply pesticides to the lands of others under the direction of a "licensed commercial applicator" or a "licensed commercial not-for-hire applicator".

25. "Nematode" means invertebrate animals of the phylum nemathelminthes and class nematoda, also referred to as nemas or eelworms, which are unsegmented roundworms with elongated fusiform or sac-like bodies covered with cuticle and inhabiting soil, water, plants or plant parts.

26. "Permit" means a written statement issued by the Director or his authorized agent, authorizing certain acts of pesticide purchase or of pesticide use or application on an interim basis prior to normal certification, registration, or licensing.

27. "Person" means any individual, partnership, association, fiduciary, corporation, or any organized group of persons whether incorporated or not.

28. "Pest" means (a) any insect, rodent, nematode, fungus, weed, or (b) any other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or animal life or virus, bacteria, or other microorganism, excluding virus, bacteria, or other microorganism on or in living animals including man, which the Director declares to be a pest.

29. "Pesticide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest or any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant.

30. "Pesticide Dealer" means any person who distributes registered pesticides to the user.

31. "Plant Regulator" means any substance or mixture of substances intended through physiological action to affect the rate of growth or maturation or otherwise alter the behavior of ornamental or crop plants or the produce thereof. This does not include substances which are not intended as plant nutrient trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant or seed inoculants or soil conditioners or amendments.

32. "Protect Health and Environment" means to guard against any unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.

33. "Registrant" means a person who has registered any pesticide pursuant to the provision of FIFRA and this Act.

34. "Restricted Use Pesticide" means any pesticide with one or more of its uses classified as restricted by order of the Administrator of USEPA.

35. "SLN Registration" means registration of a pesticide for use under conditions of special local need as defined by FIFRA.

36. "State Restricted Pesticide Use" means any pesticide use which the Director determines, subsequent to public hearing, that an additional restriction for that use is needed to prevent unreasonable adverse effects.

37. "Structural Pest" means any pests which attack and destroy buildings and other structures or which attack clothing, stored food, commodities stored at food manufacturing and processing facilities or manufactured and processed goods.

38. "Unreasonable Adverse Effects on the Environment" means the unreasonable risk to the environment, including man, from the use of any pesticide, when taking into account accrued benefits of as well as the economic, social, and environmental costs of its use.

39. "USEPA" means United States Environmental Protection Agency.

40. "Use inconsistent with the label" means to use a pesticide in a manner not consistent with the label instruction, the definition adopted in FIFRA as interpreted by USEPA shall apply in Illinois.

41. "Weed" means any plant growing in a place where it is not wanted.

42. "Wildlife" means all living things, not human, domestic, or pests.

43. "Bulk pesticide" means any registered pesticide which is transported or held in an individual container in undivided quantities of greater than 55 U.S. gallons liquid measure or 100 pounds net dry weight.

44. "Bulk repackaging" means the transfer of a registered pesticide from one bulk container (containing undivided quantities of greater than 100 U.S. gallons liquid measure or 100 pounds net dry weight) to another bulk container (containing undivided quantities of greater than 100 U.S. gallons liquid measure or 100 pounds net dry weight) in an unaltered state in preparation for sale or distribution to another person.

45. "Business" means any individual, partnership, corporation or association engaged in a business operation for the purpose of selling or distributing pesticides or providing the service of application of pesticides in this State.

46. "Facility" means any building or structure and all real property contiguous thereto, including all equipment fixed thereon used for the operation of the business.

47. "Chemigation" means the application of a pesticide through the systems or equipment employed for the primary purpose of irrigation of land and crops.

48. "Use" means any activity covered by the pesticide label, including, but not limited to, application of pesticide, mixing and loading, storage of pesticides or pesticide containers, disposal of pesticides and pesticide containers and reentry into treated sites or areas.

49. "Education course" means a course approved by the Department of Agriculture that may be used by a certified applicator, licensed operator, or registered pesticide dealer to meet renewal requirements under the Act.

50. "License transfer" means the transfer of an existing license or certification by the Department from one certified applicator or operator to another certified applicator or operator for the period of time remaining on the license before renewal.

51. "Perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substance" or "PFAS" means a chemical in the class of fluorinated organic chemicals containing at least one fully fluorinated carbon atom.

52. "Intentionally added PFAS" means any chemical that is a PFAS and that is deliberately added during the manufacture of a product if the continued presence of the chemical is desired in the final product or desired in one of the product's components to perform a specific function in the final product. "Intentionally added PFAS" includes (i) any degradation byproduct of a chemical that is a PFAS, (ii) any chemical that is a PFAS and that is a breakdown product of an added chemical, and (iii) any chemical that is a PFAS and that is used as a processing agent, mold release agent, or intermediate in any situation in which any PFAS is detected in the final covered product. "Intentionally added PFAS" does not include a chemical that is a PFAS and that is present in the product due to use of water that contains the chemical if the manufacturer took no action that resulted in the chemical being present in the water.

(Source: P.A. 103-154, eff. 6-30-23; 104-363, eff. 1-1-26.)

(415 ILCS 60/6) (from Ch. 5, par. 806)

Sec. 6. Registration.

1. Every pesticide which is distributed, sold, offered for sale within this State, delivered for transportation or transported in interstate commerce or between points within the State through any point outside the State, shall be registered with the Director or his designated agent, subject to provisions of this Act. Such registration shall be for a period determined under subsection item 1.5 of this Section and shall expire on December 31st. Registration is not required if a pesticide is shipped from one plant or warehouse to another plant or warehouse by the same person and is used solely at such plant or warehouse as a constituent part to make a pesticide which is registered under provisions of this Act and FIFRA.

1.5. In order to stagger product registrations, the Department shall, for the 2011 registration year, register half of the applicants and their products for one year and the other half for 2 years. Thereafter, a business registration and product registration shall be for 2 years.

2. Registration applicant shall file a statement with the Director which shall include:

A. The name and address of the applicant and the name and address of the person whose name will appear on the label if different from the applicant's.

B. The name of the pesticide.

C. A copy of the labeling accompanying the pesticide under customary conditions of distribution, sale and use, including ingredient statement, direction for use, use classification, and precautionary or warning statements.

3. The Director may require the submission of complete formula data.

4. The Director may require a full description of tests made and the results thereof, upon which the claims are based, for any pesticide not registered pursuant to FIFRA, or on any pesticide under consideration to be classified for restricted use.

A. The Director will not consider data he required of the initial registrant of a pesticide in support of another applicants' registration unless the subsequent applicant has obtained written permission to use such data.

B. In the case of renewal registration, the Director may accept a statement only with respect to information which is different from that furnished previously.

5. The Director may prescribe other requirements to support a pesticide registration by regulation.

6. For the years 2024 through 2025, the product registration fee shall be $800 per product per 2-year registration period and shall be paid at the time of registration. For the year 2026 and for each year thereafter, the product registration fee shall be $850 per product per 2-year registration period and shall be paid at the time of registration.

For the years 2024 through 2025, the business registration fee shall be $1000 per 2-year registration period and shall be paid at the time of registration. For the year 2026 and for each year thereafter, the business registration fee shall be $1,050 per 2-year registration period and shall be paid at the time of registration. Each legal entity of the business shall pay the business registration fee.

For the years preceding the year 2004, any applicant requesting an experimental use permit shall pay the annual fee of $100 per permit and all special local need pesticide registration applicants shall pay an annual fee of $100 per product. For the years 2004 through 2010, the annual experimental use permit fee and special local need pesticide registration fee is $200 per permit. For the years 2011 and thereafter, the annual experimental use permit and special local need pesticide registration fee shall be $300 per product. Subsequent SLN registrations for a pesticide already registered shall be exempted from the registration fee.

A. All registration accepted and approved by the Director shall expire on the 31st day of December in any one year unless cancelled. Registration for a special local need may be granted for a specific period of time with the approval date and expiration date specified.

B. If a registration for special local need granted by the Director does not receive approval of the Administrator of USEPA, the registration shall expire on the date of the Administrator's disapproval.

7. Registrations approved and accepted by the Director and in effect on the 31st day of December, for which renewal application is made, shall continue in full force and effect until the Director notifies the registrant that the renewal has been approved and accepted or the registration is denied under this Act. Renewal registration forms will be provided to applicants by the Director.

8. If the renewal of a pesticide registration is not filed within 30 days of the date of expiration, a penalty late registration assessment of $100 per product shall apply in addition to the regular product registration fee. The late registration assessment shall not apply if the applicant furnishes an affidavit certifying that no unregulated pesticide was distributed or sold during the period of registration. The late assessment is not a bar to prosecution for doing business without proper registry.

9. The Director may prescribe by regulation to allow pesticide use for a special local need, pursuant to FIFRA.

10. The Director may prescribe by regulation the provisions for and requirements of registering a pesticide intended for experimental use.

11. The Director shall not make any lack of essentiality a criterion for denial of registration of any pesticide. Where 2 pesticides meet the requirements, one should not be registered in preference to the other.

12. It shall be the duty of the pesticide registrant to properly dispose of any pesticide the registration of which has been suspended, revoked or cancelled or which is otherwise not properly registered in the State.

13. Beginning January 1, 2027, a statement under subsection 2 of this Section shall include either a statement that the pesticide contains no chemical that is a PFAS or, if the pesticide (including its active and inert ingredients) contains any chemical that is a PFAS, the following information:

A. the name and purpose for which each chemical that is a PFAS is used in the pesticide, including its active and inert ingredients;

B. the amount of each chemical that is in the pesticide and that is a PFAS, identified by its name, chemical structure, analytical methods, Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number, or other unique method approved by the Director; and

C. any additional information required by rule by the Director.

The Department of Agriculture shall adopt rules implementing this subsection 13.

14. Beginning January 1, 2027, the Director shall not register any pesticide product that contains any chemical that is an intentionally added PFAS, and the use of any pesticide that contains any chemical that is an intentionally added PFAS is prohibited. The Department of Agriculture shall adopt rules implementing this subsection 14.

15. Beginning January 1, 2030, the use of any spray adjuvant that contains any chemical that is an intentionally added PFAS is prohibited. The Department of Agriculture shall adopt rules implementing this subsection 15.

(Source: P.A. 103-441, eff. 1-1-24; 104-363, eff. 1-1-26.)