AgroPages-Brazil Anvisa's glyphosate, paraquat reevaluation to conclude at end of year-Agricultural news

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Brazil Anvisa maintains the decision to ban paraquat

Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) should complete its reevaluation of the active ingredients paraquat and glyphosate at the end of 2016, according to Renato Porto, director of Authorization and Health Registration at the agency.

Since 2008, 14 requests for reevaluation were fielded, of which eight procedures were completed, with six products being banned and two being approved with restrictions.

“We have to complete the remaining six reevaluations, and the number of contributions needed is variable. The procedure is extremely technical and complex, so Anvisa will be forced to revisit all the data generated from the use of this product, and even clinical studies will need to be assessed. As one of the stages of the procedure involves introducing the product to the public, Anvisa will gather all producers for a public discussion on the best ways to regulate the product,” explained Porto.

For Paraquat, the director of Anvisa said the public consultation had already drawn 3,000 suggestions. “This is the stage where we check with all stakeholders whether the path proposed by the agency is adequate. The results are presented to the directors, who then decide whether the product should continue to be used or whether it should have some restrictions on use. Therefore, the heads of Anvisa will decide whether to change the product's monograph,” Porto noted.

"Glyphosate is not yet under public discussion. In fact, there was a technical meeting here at the agency, with the participation of international experts who presented the case for glyphosate. The product has several peculiarities related to Brazil because it is formulated under diverse conditions. It is being evaluated by our technical staff, prior to calling for a public consultation,” remarked Porto.

"There is, in fact, no information being processed at the director level regarding a ban or possible restriction on glyphosate. My expectation is that the revisions will be issued by the end of this year because we must provide a response, as this subject has been under review since 2008,” Porto stated.

The director announced that the agency intends to “create the necessary rules to provide a permanent revision. Most of the products we currently analyze were assigned to us by judicial demands from prosecutors or from society. It is important for the agency to complete this work in a dynamic way every day.”