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Submitted to: International Congress on the Chemistry of Crop Protection
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 1/12/2005 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Pest control chemicals are being produced by fewer companies with smaller profit margins. This is exacerbating the difficulties of getting registrations for small-acreage crops worldwide, with their combination of lower profit potential and added liability. This is a global issue. Plant diseases, weeds and insects can be just as devastating in these 'minor crops' as in major crops, and the economic value of these crops is comparable to that of major crops and often critical to a region. The IUPAC Environmental Chemistry Division project 'Pest Management for Small-Acreage Crops: a Cooperative Global Approach' is designed to bring countries together to share experiences and data, and to suggest harmonized registration approaches and modelling procedures which will help these specialty crops to survive. The approach is fourfold. We will (a) compare regulation of minor-uses between countries (b) examine minimum data requirements for determining pesticides in minor crops, (c) evaluate various techniques for estimating pesticides in minor crops (d) propose a stepwise system for making scientifically sound estimates of pesticide residues in minor crops. At present this is an internet-driven project which is limited to gathering information provided by volunteers. This paper is a 4-page 'extended abstract', a progress report on this project for the Proceedings of a conference being held jointly by IUPAC and several Costa Rica organizations. Technical Abstract: This presentation describes an ongoing technical analysis project of the IUPAC Chemistry and the Environment Division and its Advisory Committee on Crop Protection Chemistry. In the full report we describe how, in States' (national governments and regional intergovernmental regulatory bodies) approaches to 'minor use' pesticide regulation, three global trends interact to provide both opportunities for and barriers to a safer food supply, free trade, and more diverse and healthy human food consumption. These developments are: ' the globalization of agricultural commerce ' the evolution of the science of dietary pesticide exposure assessment ' efforts by international organizations to harmonize states' regulation of pesticide exposure resulting from 'minor uses' of pesticides, i.e., uses on minor crops. Our goal is to review in an accessible way the technical background for regulation of dietary intake of pesticides in minor crops, and to make specific proposals for scientifically sound regulation in situations where there are limited data on the likely amounts of pesticides present in a commodity. We will (a) compare regulation of minor-uses between countries (b) examine minimum data requirements for determining pesticides in minor crops, (c) evaluate various techniques for estimating pesticides in minor crops (d) propose a stepwise system for making scientifically sound estimates of pesticide residues in minor crops. |
