Cap. 430 Art. 2Interpretation.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires -

"active substances" means chemical substances or micro-

organisms including viruses, which have a general or specific action against harmful organisms or on plants or plant products;

"advertising" means the promotion of the sale and, or, use of any pesticide by print, audio or visual media, signs, displays, gifts, demonstration or word of mouth; "antidote" means the specific therapeutic treatment used in cases of poisoning;

"authorisation" means an administrative act by which the Authority may permit, following a submitted application, the placing on the market of a pesticide; "Authority" means the Food Safety and Security Authority as established by article 4 of the Food Safety and Security Authority Act and shall include, to the extent of the authority given by the aforementioned Authority, any of its officers authorised in writing to act on its behalf for the purposes of this Act;

"biocidal products" means the active substances and preparations containing one or more active substances, in the form in which they are supplied to the user, intended to destroy, deter, render harmless, prevent the action of, or otherwise exert a controlling effect on any harmful organism by chemical or biological means;

"Board" means the Pesticides Control Board established under article 10;

"brand" refers to the name under which the pesticide is labelled, registered and provided by the manufacturer or supplier and which, if protected under existing legislation, can be used exclusively by the manufacturer or supplier to distinguish the product from other pesticides;

"C.A.S. Number" means the Chemical Abstract Service number as used by International Standard Authorities;

"chemical" means a substance obtained by or used in chemical processes;

"common name" means the name assigned to the active substance of a pesticide by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) or, in the absence of such assigned name, the name commonly accepted as the generic and non-propriety name for that particular active substance; "employer" means any person having in his employment or under his direction, supervision or control, one or more persons engaged in the handling or application of pesticides; "environment" includes water, air, land, wild species of fauna and flora, and any inter-relationship between them, as well as any relationship with living organisms;

"formulation" means the final composition of a pesticide as provided to the user consisting in the combination of active and other substances, and the proportion thereof, in such pesticide, designed to render the product effective for the purpose claimed; "fungi" means all non-chlorophyll bearing thallophytes and includes rusts, smuts, yeasts, mildews, moulds and bacteria, other than those forms in or on the bodies of living humans or animals;

"growth regulator" means any substance or mixture of substances intended, through physiological action, to alter the rate of growth or the rate of maturation, or otherwise to alter the behaviour of a plant or the produce thereof; but does not include substances to the extent that they are intended as plant nutrients, plant inoculants or soil amendments; "harmful organisms" means plants, animals, viruses, bacteria and other pathogens which have an unwanted presence or a detrimental effect for humans, their activities or the products they use or produce, or for animals, plants and the environment;

"insect" means any invertebrate belonging to the class Insecta, and any other allied arthropod forms, including spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes and woodlice, other than those forms on or in the bodies of living humans or animals; "integrated control" means the rational application of a combination of biological, biotechnological, chemical, cultural or plant-breeding measures whereby the use of chemical pesticides is limited to the strict minimum necessary to maintain the pest population at levels below those causing economically unacceptable damage or loss;

"label" means the written, graphic or printed matter, on or attached to, the pesticide or the immediate container thereof and the outside container or wrapper of the retail package of the pesticide; "manufacture" includes all of any of the stages of production of a pesticide from raw materials to the final product as supplied to the user; "Malta" has the same meaning as is assigned to it in article 124 of the Constitution of Malta; "Minister" means the Minister responsible for food, in consultation with the Minister or Ministers responsible for Health and the Environment;

"mollusicides" means substances employed to kill snails, slugs and species of the same family; "nematode" means invertebrate animals of the class Nematoda inhabiting soil, water, plants or plant parts other than those forms on or in the bodies of living humans or animals, and ''nematodes'' shall be construed accordingly;

"owner" includes any person who may dispose of, or is entrusted in any capacity with the disposal of, any consumable produce or pesticide; "packing" means the transfer or re-packing of pesticides from any package into any other container; "person" includes any commercial partnership or association of persons or any other legal entity; "pest" means such form of plant or animal life, viruses or other pathogens considered to have a net negative effect on man and his activities, other than those forms on or in the bodies of living humans or animals;

"pesticide" includes all plant protection; "placing on the market" means any importation or supply of a pesticide, followed by consignment or disposal, whether in return for payment or free of charge, other than for storage;

"plant products" means products derived from plants, which are in an unprocessed state or have undergone a simple, preliminary processing; "plant protection products" means active substances and preparations containing one or more active substances, in the form in which they are supplied to the user, intended to -

(a) protect plants or plant products against all harmful organisms or prevent the action of such organisms, in so far as such substances or preparations are not otherwise defined below;

(b) influence the life processes of plants, other than as a nutrient;

(c) preserve plant products, in so far as such substances or products are not subject to special provisions on preservatives;

(d) destroy undesired plants; or

(e) destroy parts of plants, check or prevent undesired growth of plants; "plants" means live plants and parts of live plants, including fruit and seeds; "preparations" means mixtures or solutions composed of two or more substances of which at least one is an active substance, intended for use as pesticides;

"registration" means the process whereby the Authority approves the placing on the market and use of a pesticide following the evaluation of comprehensive scientific data, demonstrating that the product is effective for the purpose intended and is not unduly hazardous to human or animal health or the environment; "residues" means one or more substances present in or on plants or products of plant origin, edible animal products or elsewhere in the environment and resulting from the use of a pesticide, including their metabolites and products resulting from their degradation or reaction; "rodenticides" means substances employed to kill rodents;

"rodents" means all rats and mice belonging to the genera Rattus and Mus;

"substances" means chemical elements and their compounds, as they occur naturally or by manufacture, including any impurity inevitably resulting from the manufacturing process; "vendor" means any person who sells or otherwise disposes of any pesticide; "worker" means any person actually engaged in the handling or application of pesticides, whether on his own account or under the direction or employment of another person.