Disinfectant, Pesticides and Fungicides - Indian Laws - General

Meaning of disinfectant, Pesticides and Fungicides As per Webster Comprehensive Dictionary As a substance used to disinfect or to destroy the germs of infectious and contagious diseases. In the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English Disinfectant is defined as `a commercially produced chemical liquid that destroys germs . In Encyclopedia Britanica , Volume 4, it is explained to mean, Any substance, such as creosote or alcohol, applied to inanimate objects to kill micro-organisms. Disinfectants and antiseptics are alike in that both are germicidal, but antiseptics are applied primarily to living tissue. The ideal disinfectant would rapidly destroy bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoans, would not be corrosive to surgical instruments, and would not destroy or discolour materials on which it is used. It thus cannot be disputed that a disinfectant is also a killing agent. Even the Tribunal found that the goods produced by the appellant which contained high boiling tar acid kill the bacteria in the gutters and the bathrooms. In the Report of the Deputy Chief Chemist it was mentioned that all above products numbering 14 were formulations containing high boiling tar acid as the principal active ingredient. It then noticed definition of pesticide and disinfectant and observed that, it appears from the above definition that disinfectants are used for killing or inactivating micro-organisms, in some literature for oils (containing high boiling tar acid) are mentioned in pesticide manual . But he opined that it was not clear whether the formulations containing tar acids, as in the case of the goods produced by the appellant which were used as disinfectants, will be covered broadly by the term `pesticides . `Pesticide has been defined in Butterworths Medical Dictionary, Second Edition, as `a comprehensive word to include substances that will kill any form of pest, e.g., insects, rodents and bacteria . The term `pesticide includes a large variety of compounds of diverse chemical nature and biological activity grouped together usually on the basis of what pests they are used to destroy or eliminate. Under the US Federal Environment Pesticide Control Act, the term `Pesticide has been defined to include (1) any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, insect, rodent, nematode, fungus, weed, other forms of terrestrial or aquatic plants or other forms of animal life e.g., viruses, bacteria, or other micro-organisms, which the administrator declares to be a pest and (2) any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant [Pesticides in the Indian Environment, by P.K. Gupta p. 2]. Fungicide inhibits growth or destroys fungi pathogonic to man or other animals or inanimate surfaces. BOMBAY CHEMICAL PVT. LTD. VERSUS COLLECTOR OF CENTRAL EXCISE, BOMBAY - 1995 (4) TMI 59 - SUPREME COURT