Terminating e-trafficking. (Regulations).

In December 2002, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered American Biotech Labs of Alpine, Utah, to stop selling a product advertised online as an "anthrax killer," it was the fifth time in a 12-month period that the agency had ordered an Internet vendor to stop the sale of such a product. There are no registered products that control anthrax, but the recently highlighted risk of bioterrorist attacks has created a tempting marketplace that some online advertisers seek to exploit with unregistered products bearing unproven claims. And thanks to the ubiquity of Internet access, a frightened public has vast opportunities to locate and purchase these goods.

In fact, the problem of illegal Internet pesticide sales is far broader than a few websites selling bogus anti-anthrax products. Concerned by the proliferation of websites making questionable claims about the pesticides they were selling, the EPA and state health officials embarked on a program in early 2001 to identity and stop offending sites. Their purpose is to ensure that pesticide sales comply with the requirements of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). If they find anyone--a company, a person, or an auction site--making unaccepted claims, such as purporting to kill anthrax, the seller may be ordered to stop and may face civil and criminal penalties, including fines, for offering to sell an unregistered pesticide.

The EPA's focus on electronic commerce, or "e-commerce," has grown as Internet sales have increased. About two years ago, a few state pesticide control officials decided to address the proliferation of websites selling chemicals with dubious powers. "There were an alarming number of websites of companies that were selling misbranded pesticides, unregistered pesticides, and restricted chemicals being sold to uncertified applicators," says Tim Creger, a program manager with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture. "Everything that our state and federal pesticide programs are designed to regulate was being counteracted on the web." Creger is active in the Association of American Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO) and began pushing for greater attention to the new regulatory challenges on the Internet. As a result, AAPCO created an Information Technology Committee, and Creger was named to head it.

AAPCO and the EPA joined forces on the e-commerce issue very quickly, and in June 2001 both groups set aside one day, which they called Surf Day, when the teams in federal and state pesticide control offices spent the day surfing the Internet in search of sites that may not have been FIFRA-compliant. When the day was done, the list of suspect sites numbered more than 600.

The next step was the creation of a "shot across the bow" letter. The letter is sent as an e-mail message that informs website operators that they may be violating the law and that by clicking embedded links in the letter they can learn more about how to comply with federal and state laws.

According to Creger, all sites that were found to present a significant regulatory concern were contacted. Many have taken steps to comply with the laws; the others are involved in regulatory enforcement actions.

It's not that the Internet has created new legal turf beyond the reach of rules and laws. As Creger says, "It's just expanded the exposure of the illegal activity to the world. Now the little bathtub operation in Kokomo can go worldwide, and you can have a big problem." According to Ann Pontius, director of the EPA's Toxics and Pesticides Enforcement Division, Internet activity that is illegal under FIFRA essentially falls into three categories: the sale of unregistered products, the making of unaccepted claims about the registered pesticides being sold, and the sale of restricted-use pesticides to people who aren't certified to use them.

Tom Hall, stewardship director for CropLife America, a pesticide industry trade association, says that reputable manufacturers and distributors are also concerned about illegal websites. "Any two people with computers can get into the e-commerce trade," he says. "We're just as concerned as the EPA is about that."