EU to approve the herbicide halosulfuron-methyl

The European Commission has proposed to approve Nissan Chemical Europe's herbicide halosulfuron-methyl under the EU Plant protection regulation(1107/2009). It will be formally included in Annex I on Oct 1, 2013 and the approval will expire on Sep 30, 2023.

The Commission requires that member states shall pay particular attention to the risk of leakage to groundwater of the metabolite ‘halosulfuron rearrangement’ (HSR) under vulnerable conditions. This metabolite is considered toxicologically relevant based on the available information for halosulfuron.The risk to non-target terrestrial plants.

Conditions of use shall include risk mitigation measures, where appropriate.

The applicant shall submit confirmatory information as regards: (a) information as regards the equivalence between the technical specifications of the material, as commercially manufactured, and those of the material used in the toxicological and ecotoxicological studies; (b) information on the toxicological relevance of the impurities present in the technical specification of the material as commercially manufactured; (c) data to clarify the potential genotoxic properties of chlorosulfonamide acid. The applicant shall submit to the Commission, the Member States and the Authority that information by 30 September 2015.