This Act is formulated to prevent harm from environmental agents, preserve human health, and protect the environment.

“Competent authority” as referred to in this Act means the Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan, at the central government level, the municipal government in special municipalities and the county or city government in counties or cities.

The matters designated as the responsibility of the central competent authority
I. Planning, drafting, supervision and implementation of national environmental agents control policies, programs and plans
II. Implementation, drafting, deliberation and interpretation of environmental agents control laws and regulations
III. Environmental agents control research, development and public awareness
IV. Training and management of national environmental agents control personnel
V. Supervision of national environmental agents control work
VI. Coordination or implementation of national environmental agents control work
VII. International cooperation and technology exchanges in the area of environmental agents control
VIII. Other matters related to national environmental agents management.

The responsibilities of special municipality, county and city competent authorities are as follows:
I Planning and implementation of environmental agents control action programs and plans under jurisdiction.
II. Implementation of environmental agents control laws and regulations, and drafting, interpretation and implementation of environmental agents control laws and regulations under jurisdiction.
III. Environmental agents control research, development and public awareness.
IV. Environmental agents control statistics compilation and reporting tasks under jurisdiction.
V. Other environmental agents control matters under jurisdiction.

The terms used in this Act are defined as follows.
I. “Environmental agents” means the following types of chemical agents or microbial preparations used for environmental sanitation and pollution control, and which are distinguished as technical grade environmental agents, general use environmental agents, and restricted use environmental agents in accordance with use concentration and method of use:
1. Pesticides, miticides, rodenticides, bactericides/fungicides used for environmental sanitation, and other chemical agents used against organisms injurious to environmental sanitation.
2. Synthetic chemical agents used to prevent air, water, or soil pollution, or treat waste, and that have been officially announced by the central competent authority.
3. Microbial preparations produced from natural or artificially-modified microbe organisms or their metabolic products, and used to control air pollution, water pollution, or soil pollution, treat waste, or control environmental sanitation disease vectors.
4. Other environmental agents officially announced and designated by the central competent authority.
II. “Technical grade environmental agents” means active component raw materials used to manufacture or process general use environmental agents and restricted use environmental agents.
III. “General use environmental agents” means those environmental agents that are used in a simple manner, are manufactured or processed from technical grade environmental agents, and contain amounts of active components within the limits designated and officially announced by the central competent authority.
IV. “Restricted use environmental agents” means those environmental agents that are manufactured or processed from technical grade environmental agents and shall be used in conjunction with safety protection measures, or other chemical agents designated by the central competent authority.
V. “Environmental agent manufacturing enterprises” means those enterprises engaged in the manufacture, processing, or packaging of environmental agents, the export, wholesale, or retail sales of self-produced products, and the import of technical grade environmental agents for self-use.
VI. “Environmental agent vendors” means those enterprises engaged in the import, export, wholesale, and retail sale of environmental agents. However, this term does not include wholesale suppliers and retailers of general use environmental agents.
VII. “Pest control operators” means those enterprises engaged in the control of pests and disease vectors such as insects, mites, and rodents, or in disinfection for environmental and sanititary purposes.
Unless other regulations of this Act apply, those environmental agents manufacturing enterprises referred to in Subparagraph 5 of the foregoing paragraph that are engaged in the export, wholesale, or retail sale of self-made products shall be subject to relevant regulations for environmental agents vendors.

The counterfeit environmental agents referred to in this Act mean those environmental agents to which one of the following circumstances apply:
I. Unauthorized manufacturing, processing or import without central competent authority authorization.
II. Contains intermixed domestic and foreign products or mutual substituted domestic and foreign products without change of packaging.
III. Alteration or change of validity period markings.
IV. The active components are not consistent with approved items.
The validity period labeling referred to Subparagraph 3 of the foregoing paragraph means manufacturing dates, batch numbers and expiration dates stated on the labels of environmental agents.

The prohibited environmental agents referred to in this Act mean environmental agents containing components whose manufacture, processing, import, export, sale, or use has been officially announced as prohibited by the central competent authority.

The inferior quality environmental agents referred to in this Act mean those environmental agents to which one of the following circumstances applies:
I. The addition or modification of coloring agents, preservatives, fragrances, solvents or excipients without central competent authority authorization.
II. The active component content does not comply with allowable error standards.
III. Has exceeded the validity period.