- Department:Comprehensive Planning Division
When purchasing, selling on the Internet, or carrying environment agents back to their home countries, the public shall comply with the 4 Dos and 3 Don'ts of environmental agents and ensure that legal, safe, and effective environmental agents are used in order to avoid violating the law, and those who violate the law shall be subject to a fine of NT$30,000 to 300,000.
According to the Chemicals Administration of the Ministry of the Environment, in 2023, the national environmental protection authorities examine a total of 25,010 environmental agent advertisements, labeling, counterfeit agents and sampling of the active ingredient content, with an average pass rate of 96.9%, of which 4,608 environmental agents advertisements were checked, with 374 illegal online advertisements, and most of the illegal cases were the sale of insecticide and natural substance environmental pest control products by people without a license on the e-commerce channel platform. 20,273 labeling cases were checked, and 388 cases were found to be illegal; 125 cases of environmental agents were sampled and tested for their active ingredient content, and 5 cases were found to be illegal; 4 cases of unchecked and unregistered counterfeit and prohibited environmental agents containing active ingredients were found; and all the illegal products were penalized in accordance with the Environmental Agents Control Act and were required to be removed from the shelves within a certain period of time to make improvements.
Based on the checking results, the Chemicals Administration of the Ministry of the Environment reminds the public that when purchasing environmental agents, they shall follow the "4 Dos" principle of safe use of environmental agents: "1. To be appropriate for the case", the correct environmental agent shall be used to prevent and control pests; "2. To be legal", a permit number and symbols such as "Production Approval by Ministry of the Environment/Environmental Protection Administration", "Import Approval by Ministry of the Environment/ Environmental Protection Administration", or "Ministry of the Environment/ Environmental Protection Administration Pest Prevention Agent", etc., are shown on the outer packaging of the product; "3. To be valid", the date of manufacture and the validity period are shown on the outer packaging of the product, so as to avoid purchasing expired and inferior products; "4. To be aware of the labeling", follow the labeling (outer packaging of the product ) and use it correctly to be safe and effective.
In addition, in recent years, the sale of goods through online platforms has become a major mode of consumption, and some people may sell environmental agents on the Internet or through other means of advertisement after bringing them back into the country during their return from overseas trips. However, if you are not a licensed environmental agent manufacturers or vendors, please do not advertise environmental agents (including pesticides, anti-mosquito plates, etc.) on the Internet, and if you are found to be in violation of the regulations on advertising environmental agents, you shall be subject to a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000. In addition, if you sell environmental agents that you bring back home you shall be subject to a fine of NT$30,000 to NT$150,000.
The Chemicals Administration of the Ministry of the Environment urges the public to adhere to the "3 Don'ts" principle of environmental agent advertisements: "Don't advertise", don't advertise online without a license; "Don't buy indiscriminately", don't buy environmental agents that are of unknown origin and have not been labeled with a permit number and symbols such as "Production Approval by Ministry of the Environment/ Ministry of Health and Welfare", "Import Approval by Ministry of the Environment/ Environmental Protection Administration", or "Ministry of the Environment/ Environmental Protection Administration Pest Prevention Agent"; "Don’t recommend", do not recommend environmental agents to have the efficacy of killing or preventing pests in social network advertisements.
Environmental agents shall not be used if they can be avoided, and they shall be used as little as possible. Replacing the use of environmental agents with environmental cleanup is the ultimate way to control pests. If you want to know whether the environmental agents you purchase are legally registered, you can go to the "environmental agent permit and pest control industry license" website of the Chemicals Administration of the Ministry of the Environment (https://mdc.moenv.gov.tw/PublicInfo) to look up the name of the product or the number of the permit, and you can also inquire about the legal pest control opertors and environmental agent vendors. If you want to learn about the habits of different environmental pests, control techniques, or inquire about illegal environmental agent products, please visit the "Safe Use of Environmental Agents Website" .
