Urgent search for endosulfan replacement

But the APVMAs report also said endosulfan was not a significant risk to public health, despite some international reports which have identified endosulfan as an interfering with hormones and reproduction.

It is already banned in more than 60 countries, including European Union member States and New Zealand.

Although endosulfans use has shrunk significantly in Australia, the two year phase-out to a complete ban is still likely to be awkward for the tropical fruit, nut and vegetable industries, and the cotton sector, which applies the biggest quantity of the chemical.

Cotton Australia said today only 10 per cent of the crop was treated with endosulfan, and application restrictions made it increasingly hard for farmers to work with it, but the chemical was cost effective.

Cotton Research and Development Co-operative general manager, Bruce Pyke, said endosulfan was a "rather unique" product which caused limited collateral damage to friendly insect populations and fitted well with intergrated pest management strategies promoting predator bugs.

He said while fewer crops were treated with endosulfan in recent years, the looming season was shaping up as similar to 1998 when a mass of winter vegetation growth produce a "horrendous explosion" of aphids, myrids and other insects migrating into cotton.

Farm chemical manufacturer, Nufarm Australia, confirmed it would phase out endosulfan distribution as formulation supplies ran down, not continuing sales for the full phase-out period once its current stocks were exhausted.

Nufarm had generally anticipated the registration changes, and was therefore developing alternatives, but a lack of suitable replacements continued for some crops.

Macadamia growers had two alternate treatment options - an existing product called Lepidex, and a new line, Lancer, to be available in the next month.

Australian Macadamia Society chief executive officer, Jolyon Burnett, said new management strategies would be expensive in the short to medium term but growers accepted the changes were here.

"We just hope governments and others dont see this change as an opportunity to start a stampede, or Australians will end up paying a lot more to eat and eating a lot more food grown overseas," Mr Burnett said.