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 Canadian
Medical Association Journal
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Feds announce plan to reduce domestic use of pesticides
As more and more Canadian municipalities consider banning the use of lawn pesticides, Ottawa has announced a plan to reduce domestic use and speed up the re-evaluation of certain chemicals. The Action Plan for Urban Use Pesticides provides consumer information on pest prevention and the use of reduced-risk products. Because of public concern, the plan gives re-evaluation priority to the 7 most commonly used active ingredients in lawn-care products. The 7 products include the insecticides diazinon, carbaryl and malathion, and the herbicides 2,4-D and mecoprop. This re-evaluation, due for completion this year, will include exposure guidelines for children. Marc Richard, spokesperson for Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), says Canada will rely on US reports on basic toxicology in conducting its re-evaluations, which will save taxpayers about 80% of the cost of an evaluation. A risk assessment that considers uniquely Canadian conditions will be performed by Health Canada. For the past 5 years Canadian and American scientists have collaborated on researching low-risk products by sharing expertise and dividing up the work. Considering that each chemical can be accompanied by about 20 000 pages of data, says Richard, it's "extremely efficient" to work together. The action plan also addresses the problem of manufacturers who fail to comply with requests to withdraw products voluntarily or restrict their uses. In June 2000, US manufacturers agreed to phase out production of chlorpyrifos, but Dow AgroSciences, Canada's largest manufacturer of the chemical, refused to do the same here. Under the action plan, PMRA will ask Canadian-based companies to comply with US re-evaluation activities that result in these requests for voluntary action. — Barbara Sibbald, CMAJ
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