Section 2-7-92. Definitions

   As used in this article, the term:

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

   (2) "Beneficial insects" means those insects which, during their life cycles, are effective pollinators of plants, are parasites or predators of pests, or are otherwise beneficial.

   (3) "Board" means the Pesticide Advisory Board.

   (4) "Certified applicator" means any individual who is certified under this article to use or supervise the use of any restricted use pesticide restricted to use by certified applicators or any state restricted pesticide use restricted to use by certified applicators.

   (5) "Commercial applicator" means any individual:

      (A) Who is not a "private applicator," who uses or supervises the use of any restricted use pesticide restricted to use by certified applicators or any state restricted pesticide use restricted to use by certified applicators; or

      (B) Who uses or supervises the use of any other pesticide for a pesticide contractor, as an employee or otherwise.

   (6) "Defoliant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended for causing the leaves or foliage to drop from a plant, with or without causing abscission.

   (7) "Desiccant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended for artificially accelerating the drying of plant tissue.

   (8) "Environment" includes the water, air, and land, all plants and man and other animals living therein, and the interrelationships which exist among these.

   (9) "Environmental Protection Agency" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

   (10) "Equipment" means any type of ground, water, or aerial equipment or contrivance using motorized, mechanical, or pressurized power and used to apply any pesticide on land and anything that may be growing, habitating, or stored on or in such land but shall not include any pressurized hand-sized household apparatus used to apply any pesticide or any equipment or contrivance of which the person who is applying the pesticide is the source of power or energy in making such pesticide application.

   (11) "FIFRA" means the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, and the amendments thereto.

   (12) "Fungi" means all nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophytes, that is, all nonchlorophyll-bearing plants of a lower order than mosses and liverworts, as, for example, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, yeasts, and bacteria, except those on or in living man or other living animals and except those in or on processed food, beverages, or pharmaceuticals.

   (13) "Insect" means any of the numerous small invertebrate animals generally having a body more or less obviously segmented, for the most part belonging to the class Insecta, comprising six-legged, usually winged forms, as, for example, beetles, bugs, bees, and flies, and other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs, as, for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and wood lice.

   (14) "Label" means the written, printed, or graphic matter on or attached to the pesticide or device or any of its containers or wrappers.

   (15) "Labeling" means the label and all other written, printed, or graphic matter:

      (A) Accompanying the pesticide or device at any time; or

      (B) To which reference is made on the label or in literature accompanying the pesticide or device, except for current official publications of:

         (i) The Environmental Protection Agency;

         (ii) The United States Department of Agriculture;

         (iii) The United States Department of the Interior;

         (iv) The United States Department of Health and Human Services;

         (v) State experiment stations;

         (vi) State agricultural colleges; and

         (vii) Other similar federal or state institutions or agencies authorized by law to conduct research in the field of pesticides.

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

   (17) "Nematode" means invertebrate animals of the phylum Nemathelminthes and class Nematoda, that is, unsegmented roundworms with elongated, fusiform, or saclike bodies covered with cuticle, and inhabiting soil, water, plants, or plant parts; they may also be called nemas or eelworms.

   (18) "Permit" means a written certificate issued by the Commissioner or his authorized agent, authorizing the purchase, possession, or use of certain pesticides or pesticide uses defined in paragraphs (26) and (27) of this Code section.

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

   (20) "Pest" means:

      (A) Any insect, rodent, nematode, fungus, or weed; or

      (B) Any other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or animal life or virus, bacterium, or other microorganism, except viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms on or in living man or other living animals,

which the Environmental Protection Agency administrator declares to be a pest under Section 25(c)(1) of FIFRA or which the Commissioner declares to be a pest under subsection (f) of Code Section 2-7-97.

   (21) "Pesticide" means:

      (A) Any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pests; and

      (B) Any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant.

   (22) "Pesticide contractor" means any person who engages in the business of contracting for the application of any pesticide to the lands of another.

   (23) "Plant regulator" means any substance or mixture of substances intended through physiological action for accelerating or retarding the rate of growth or rate of maturation or for otherwise altering the behavior of ornamental or crop plants or the produce thereof; the term shall not include substances to the extent that they are intended as plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant inoculants, and soil amendments.

   (24) "Private applicator" means any individual who purchases, uses, or supervises the use of any restricted use pesticide restricted to use by certified applicators or any state restricted pesticide use restricted to use by certified applicators, for purposes of producing any agricultural or forestry commodity on property owned or rented by him or his employer or, if applied without compensation other than the trading of personal services between producers of agricultural and forestry commodities, on the property of another person.

   (25) "Protect health and the environment" means to protect against any unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.

   (26) "Restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide whose label bears one or more uses which have been classified as restricted by the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

   (27) "State restricted pesticide use" means any pesticide use which, when used as directed or in accordance with a widespread and commonly recognized practice, the Commissioner determines, subsequent to a hearing, to require additional restrictions for that use to protect the environment, including man, lands, beneficial insects, animals, crops, and wildlife, other than pests.

   (28) "Under the direct supervision of a certified applicator" means that, unless otherwise prescribed by its labeling or regulations of the Commissioner, a pesticide shall be considered to be applied under the direct supervision of a certified applicator if it is applied by a competent person acting under the instructions and control of a certified applicator who is available if and when needed, even though such certified applicator is not physically present at the time and place the pesticide is applied.

   (29) "Unreasonable adverse effects on the environment" means any unreasonable risk to man or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide.

   (30) "Weed" means any plant which grows where not wanted.

   (31) "Wildlife" means all living things that are neither human, domesticated, nor, as defined in this article, pests, including, but not limited to, mammals, birds, and aquatic life.

Ga. L. 1972, p. 849, § 4; Ga. L. 1976, p. 369, § 4; Ga. L. 1994, p. 97, § 2.