AgroPages-New Zealand EPA seeks submissions on Chemical Review 2012

The New Zealand Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is calling for submissions on its application for a modified reassessment of a range of substances under its Chemical Review 2012–2014. This reassessment covers hazardous substance approvals for which new information has become available during that period.

The new information for a number of approved hazardous substances was identified from internal and external sources, which indicated changes were required to some or all of the following aspects of the approvals:

• the approval name of the substance

• the hazard classification(s) applied to the substance

• the controls applied to the substance.

The chemical review is intended as a means of making changes to a number of approvals at once, taking into account the new information available. The application details the changes to approvals that are proposed as a result of the new information.

The EPA encourages companies using substances with approvals listed in this reassessment to determine the impact of the proposed changes. In particular, if the proposed changes could result in a hazardous substance no longer matching an approval, we encourage submissions on the impact of the proposals on the approval status of the substance.

This application includes changes that are required as a result of two reassessments – the reassessment of organophosphate and carbamate pesticides in plant protection products, and the antifouling paints reassessment. Changes were made to the classification of a number of pesticide active ingredients in these reassessments, and these changes need to be applied to substances containing these active ingredients that were not part of the reassessments.

The public are invited to make submissions on the application to the EPA.

The submission period for this application will start on 16 June 2015 and will end on 28 July 2015 at 5pm.

Submissions are an opportunity to provide further information and raise issues about an application. They will inform a Decision-making Committee that will decide whether to approve the application.

For some substance approvals, the EPA does not have the full composition of all substances using that approval. As a result, the EPA has proposed a preliminary updated classification and resulting controls changes for those substances. The EPA encourages companies using these approvals to provide the full composition of the substance using the approval.