In the United States, pesticide safety labeling is determined at the federal level. However, the distribution, sale and use of pesticides takes place within a multi-tiered regulatory framework in which a pesticide approved at the federal level may be subject to stricter use conditions imposed by state and local jurisdictions, which are often first to ban or restrict the sale or use of a pesticide when any question of product safety is raised, regardless of merit. The number of state and local jurisdictions capable of enacting some form of restriction on the use of a pesticide creates a minefield for litigants who must deal with the specter that restrictions not based on the scientific determinations of the agencies tasked with evaluating their products will nevertheless be put forward as affirmative evidence that those products are unsafe.