AgroPages-US EPA updates review schedule-Agricultural news

The US EPA has issued a new schedule for pesticides to be assessed during the next four years of the registration review programme. The requirement for pesticides to be reviewed every 15 years was laid down in the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act and confirmed by this year's reauthorisation of the 2003 Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA). PRIA II requires all pesticides registered as of October 1st 2007 to be reviewed by October 1st 2022.

Twenty-five review cases were opened in the first year of the review programme. The cases for fiscal 2007 comprised 15 conventional pesticides, three biopesticides, four biochemicals and two antimicrobials. The EPA plans to initiate 45 reviews in fiscal 2008, including 31 conventional pesticides, two biopesticides, four biochemicals and eight antimicrobials. Eleven of the 31 conventional pesticides are organophosphate (OP) insecticides.

To ensure that it meets the 2022 target, the EPA plans to start opening around 70 review cases each year from fiscal 2009. The 70 cases scheduled for fiscal 2009 include 47 conventional pesticides, of which 23 are OP insecticides. The EPA plans to open 69 cases in each of fiscal 2010 and 2011, with 46 conventional pesticide cases to be reviewed each year. The fiscal 2010 cases include 11 carbamate insecticides and nine pyrethroids, pyrethrins or synergists. A further seven such cases are scheduled for fiscal 2011, along with six sulfonylurea herbicides and three dinitroaniline herbicides.

US pesticide review cases fiscal 2007-2011

Category 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Conventional 15 31 47 46 46

pesticides

Biopesticides 3 2 4 4 4

Biochemicals 4 4 6 6 6

Antimicrobials 3 8 13 13 13

Total 25 45 70 69 69

The EPA expects most currently registered pesticides to have had reviews initiated by 2017, but some biopesticide cases will not start until 2018-2020. It expects a total of 722 cases comprising 1,135 active ingredients to undergo registration review by 2020.