The  Environmental Protection Agency's announcement  April 16, 2009 that it would intensify evaluation of spot-on pesticide products for pets comes on the heels of the  Center for Public Integrity's  Perils of the New Pesticides project, according to a CPI press release.

One of the project stories,  Pets and Pesticides: Let's Be Careful Out There , reported that at least 1,600 pet deaths linked to spot-on pesticide treatments had been reported to the EPA over the previous five years. The number of deaths linked to such treatments was about double the number of fatalities reportedly tied to similar treatments without these pesticides, according to the CPI article.