Book Reviews - Pesticides News No.42
Industry considers
implications of OP ban
A recent industry
report credits OPs as the most successful group of pesticides in use
today, whilst highlighting the threat of regulatory restrictions because
of concerns over operator and consumer safety.
The
fact that Agrow, one of the main agrochemical industry analysts, is
questioning international regulatory status of OP insecticides, signals
that this sector of the market is indeed in trouble.
OPs can cause serious damage to the nervous system of insects, humans and
other vertebrates. As a result, some active ingredients are banned or
under review in a number of countries worldwide. In the European Union,
for example, nine OPs are currently being reviewed. Separate review are
also being carried out in the UK (see p. 15).
Particularly significant is the review under way in the US. This is as a
result of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), which came into force in
August 1996. The FQPA requires the US Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to re-examine all the pesticide tolerances (maximum residue
levels), which establish a legal limit for pesticide residues in both raw
and processed food. The EPA has said that it will review OPs tolerances by
August 1999.
According to Agrow, the outcome of the
US review is still unclear. However the FQPA includes provisions for
considering the aggregate exposure to a pesticide from dietary, drinking
water and residential sources, and also assessing cumulative exposure from
pesticides with a common mode of action. This tougher way of assessing
tolerances means that industry fears there could be large-scale
restrictions on OPs.
OPs are among the most widely
used group of pesticides. In the US, they are used on over 32 million
hectares of crops every year, and are also important in the
non-agricultural sectors. The world’s best-selling insecticide is the OP
chlorpyrifos, which had sales of over US$600 million in 1997. Sales of the
other OPs, acephate, methamidophos and terbufos, were each estimated at
US$200-300 million in 1997.
In volume terms,
methamidophos was the leading insecticide in 1997, with over 90,000 tonnes
of active ingredients consumed, mostly in China. However, it is one of the
more acutely toxic OP insecticides, and is implicated in many cases of
poisoning every year.
A major factor in the success
of OPs is their low cost. Alternatives are often significantly more
expensive. In the US for example, treatment with an OP could cost as
little as US$10 per ha, while an alternative might cost ten times as
much.
This report analyses the major markets, both
in terms of country reports and company profiles. In some cases, the
multinationals have decided to move out of the market. Valent sold its US
Dibrom (naled) business to American Vanguard with effect from November
1998. Zeneca of the UK has stopped manufacturing fonofos, as it competes
with its newer product, Force (tefluthrin). Novartis the Swiss market
leader has decided to phase out six of its older OPs, and believes it has
other products in its range that can fill the gap in the market.
Crop Protection Without OPs,
Agrow reports, 18/20 Hill Rise, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6UA, UK, Fax +44
181 332 8992, www.pjbpubs.co.uk/agrep, Agrow
offers its reports at half price to non-profit-making organisations,
pp74.
Meeting of
minds – chemical workers and chemical users
The T&G Conference on Pesticide production, use and protection
was a lively meeting in December last year that brought together two
different groups of workers who are involved with pesticides—the chemical
workers who produce pesticides, and the agricultural workers who use them.
The conference, which the Pesticides Trust [now PAN UK] helped to organise, was
co-chaired by Fred Higgs, the National Secretary for Chemicals, and Barry
Leathwood the Agriculture National Secretary and represented a bold
attempt to reconcile two very different interests.
The conference heard from a distinguished platform of speakers in the
morning representing producers, regulators and NGOs. The afternoon was
given over to a discussion for union members to discuss their own policy.
Overall, it was apparent that the relatively stringent health and safety
precautions that can be implemented in a factory producing toxic chemicals
were almost impossible to duplicate when the same pesticides were used in
the real life situation of daily farm work.
The
report contains a helpful overview of pesticide reduction by the T&G’s
National Health and Safety Officer Alan Dalton which covers the background
to pesticide use, and looks at alternatives including integrated crop
management, precision farming, biological control, organic farming, the
impact of genetically modified crops, and the safe labelling of
pesticides, and how to report pesticide poisoning incidents. This
attractively produced booklet provides a short synopsis of the conference
and discussion and is a good, accessible and up to date account of
pesticides issues.
Report of the T&G Conference,
Pesticide production, use and protection, Transport and General Workers
Union, 16 Palace Place, London, SW1E 5JD, August 1998, 20pp.
Web
guide
This guide provides a useful
introduction to the origin, workings and terminology that is in use on the
Internet. It explains the importance of the internet to the crop
protection industry and what type of information groups or
individual users may be seeking. Methods involved in setting up a web site
from homepage design to consideration of legal issues are explained with
the use of graphic examples. There is also a web site
directory.
Agrochemical Marketing Strategies on the
Internet, Agrow Reports, PJP Publications, 18-20 Hill Rise, Richmond,
Surrey TW10 6UA, UK, fax: +44 (0)181 332 8991, 1998, 66pp.
WHO drinking water
values
This World Health Organisation (WHO)
report contains guideline values for a range of chemical substances that
may be found in drinking water, including 12 pesticide active ingredients
(betazone, carbofuran, cyanazine, 1,2-dibromopropane,
2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 1,2-dichloropropane, diquat, glyphosate,
pentachlorophenol, and terbuthylazine).
The fumigant 1,2-dibromoethane has been classified for some years by the
International Agency for Research on Cancer, as a probably human
carcinogen. WHO have identified serious limitations in the studies
critical of this chemical meaning the provisional guideline value has been
set in the range 0.4-15 ug/litre.
The world’s most
widely used herbicide, glyphosate, does not have a guideline value because
the report states it is “not deemed necessary.” WHO considers glyphosate
in drinking water does not present a hazard to human health.
Guidelines for drinking water quality,
2nd Edition, Addendum to Vol. 1, Recommendations, WHO, Geneva, 1998, 36pp.
 |
Order the 2nd edition 2001, direct from Amazon. |
Biopesticide
manual
The British Crop Protection
Council (BCPC) has launched The BioPesticide Manual as an authoritative
world compendium of the diverse range of natural products, pheromones,
living system predators and genes now commercially available for pest,
disease and weed control.
The manual
offers detailed information, in a readable form, on the sources,
production, targets, biological activity, properties and tradenames of
more than 170 ‘active ingredients’ in over 500 biocontrol
products.
Most of the compounds mentioned in
the book are highly compatible with organic farming practices and
appropriate for use in environmentally sensitive situations. The clear
exceptions are the transgenic crops, which organic agriculture standards
prohibit from using.
L.G Copping (Ed.), The BioPesticide Manual, BCPC Sales, Bear Farm, Binfield, Bracknell, Berks, RG45 5QE, UK, Fax +44 (0)118 934 1998, 333pp. Order the 2nd revised edition (1 November, 2001) direct from Amazon.
 |
Order
direct
|
Biopiracy
Vandana Shiva’s
new book shows how western powers are using patenting and genetic
engineering to re-colonize the Third World. The author argues that we must
protect biological and cultural diversity, and that this will be best
brought about by developing and supporting self-organised communities
based on decentralisation, local democratic control of resources, social
justice and peace.
This is an important book
that should be read by anyone wanting to understand the global threat
posed by the technological transformations of organisms, cells and
molecules, and by their exploitation for profit.
Vanda Shiva, Biopiracy, Green Books,
Foxhole, Tottnes, Devon, TQ9 6EB, UK, Tel +44 01803 863260, 143pp.
ACP
annual report 1997
The Advisory Committee
on Pesticides (ACP) is the committee that advises UK ministers on
pesticide approvals. The Annual Report for the year 1997 announces the
first full approval for some years to be given to a new molecule, the
fungicide kresoxim-methyl, sold as ‘Ensign’. In fact only two other new
molecules have been given full approval over the past ten years. This does
not necessarily mean that no new pesticide active ingredients are coming
to the market. Nearly 70 new molecules have been received provisional
approval over the same period.
The OP
insecticide pirimiphos methyl was reviewed. Data was required “to clarify
the lack of mutagenic potential.” Increased levels of personal protective
equipment was recommended to minimise risks to workers. The chemical is
very toxic to most insect life; and there were concerns about whether high
exposures might present risks to the reproductive abilities of insect
eating birds; and about what the effects on non-target insects might be,
including honeybees.
Benomyl and
carbendazim were reviewed in response to concerns about residues in infant
foods and in particular, whether the chemicals could cause chromosome
abnormalities or teratogenic effects. Although the ACP accepted that both
could cause chromosome abnormalities, it was considered that this was at
higher doses and that there was a threshold below which the effect did not
occur, and the threshold combined with a margin of safety would protect
consumer health. Both benomyl and carbendazim can cause microphthalmia and
hydrocephaly in the rat at high doses, but new tests did not show any
teratogenic effect.
Advisory Committee on Pesticides Annual
Report 1997, The Stationery Office, Fax (0)171 873 8200, London 1998, 82 pp.
Farm children and
chemicals
A new book from the US
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) highlights the impact of
pesticides on children in farming communities. All children are
disproportionately exposed to pesticides compared with adults, but
children living in farming areas, or whose parents work in agriculture,
are exposed to an even greater degree.
NRDC back up this claim by citing a number of examples. The herbicide
atrazine was detected inside all the houses of Iowa farm families sampled
in a small study during the application season, and in only 4% of 362
non-farm houses. Organophosphate pesticides have been detected on the
hands of farm children at levels that could result in exposures above US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated ‘safe’ levels.
The report recommends that the US EPA phase
out use of the most hazardous OP and carbamate pesticides, endocrine
disruptors and carcinogens, while developing and promoting alternative
pest management.
Trouble on the Farm: Growing up with
pesticides in agricultural communities, NRDC, 40 West 20th Street, New
York, NY 10011, Fax +1 212 727 1773, http://www.nrdc.org/, October 1999, 53pp.
School grounds maintenance
goes organic
Can the use of pesticides for
the maintenance of school grounds ever be justified? Is it appropriate for
children to eat their sandwiches on lawns treated with selective
herbicides and insecticides, to play hide-and-seek in shrub beds coated
with residual herbicides, or to graze their knees on playgrounds sprayed
with herbicides? The answer must be a resounding “No!”, yet this is
precisely the way in which most school grounds are maintained.
Organic Grounds Maintenance Manual,
HDRA, Ryton Gardens, Coventry CV8 3LG, Tel 01203 303517, Fax 01203 639229,
Email enquiry@hdra.org.uk,
1998.