AgroPages-Canada restricts uses of acephate-Agricultural news

The registration of certain uses of insecticide acephate in Canada is proposed for cancellation. Other labelled uses of acephate are proposed for continued registration with mitigation measures to protect human health and/or the environment.

Acephate is an insecticide registered to control a broad spectrum of insect pests on a wide variety of crops and use sites, including forest and woodlots, terrestrial food and feed crops, and outdoor ornamentals. Acephate is an important component of pest management programs to manage economically important pests and is used as a rotational insecticide for managing insect resistance.

Registered pesticide product labels include specific directions for use. Directions include risk mitigation measures to protect human health and the environment that must be followed by law. As a result of the re-evaluation of acephate, further risk mitigation measures for product labels are being proposed.

The proposed regulatory decision pertaining to human health was presented in PRVD2016-01, which included, among other mitigation measures, a prohibition of foliar application in residential areas, the cancellation of uses on potatoes, and the replacement of the soluble powder formulation with a pellet formulation. The transfer of uses from the soluble powder product label to the pellet product label is currently in progress. Consideration of and responses to comments pertaining to the health assessment already received for PRVD 2016-01 will be presented in the final re-evaluation decision for acephate.

To protect the environment, the following measures are proposed:

• Cancellation of airblast and outdoor mistblower applications, which are currently registered for use on various trees and ornamentals, and in Christmas tree plantations, farm woodlots, nurseries, shelter belts, right of ways and municipal parks

• Cancellation of the highest foliar application rate (resulting from the cancellation of applications by airblast/mistblower, the only method for which the highest rate is registered)

• Uses in farm woodlots, shelter belts, rights of way and municipal parks are limited to spot treatments using hand-held equipment only

• Precautionary and hazard statements to inform users of the toxicity and potential risk of acephate to pollinators, beneficial arthropods, birds, mammals, and aquatic organisms

• Label statements directing users to avoid application during periods of bloom or during the 9-day period before crop bloom for crops that are attractive to pollinators (or for other crops when using managed bees for pollination services)

• Statements directing users that tree injection applications must be made after the blooming/pollen shedding period

• A label statement directing users not to discharge acephate-contaminated effluent from greenhouses into aquatic environments

• Precautionary label statements informing users of ways to reduce the potential for runoff

Proposed label amendments resulting from these environmental mitigation measures are presented in Appendix II of PRVD2019-04.

Next Steps

The public, including the registrant and stakeholders are encouraged to submit additional information that could be used to refine the environmental risk assessment during the 90-day public consultation period upon publication of this proposed re-evaluation decision.

It should be noted that only information related to the updated environmental risk assessment or its impact on the value of uses will be considered within the context of this consultation.

All comments received during the 90-day public consultation period will be taken into consideration in preparation of a re-evaluation decision document, which could result in revised risk mitigation measures. The re-evaluation decision document will include the final re-evaluation decision, the reasons for it and a summary of comments received on the proposed re-evaluation decision with Health Canada’s responses.