Last week, during the 33rd Near East and North Africa meeting hold in Roma, FAO and WHO have released new guidelines aimed at reducing the damage done by pesticides that pose especially high toxic risks to human health and the environment. It accelerated the governance of pesticides and moved forward the phase out of toxic pesticide when the SAICM International Conference on Chemicals Management adopted a resolution calling for concerted action to address highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs).
Products with high acute toxicity account for high numbers of immediate poisoning cases, particularly in developing countries, while products with chronic toxicity effects may cause cancer or developmental disorders among growing children. In industrialized countries, such so-called "highly hazardous pesticides" may be no longer permitted or subject to strict use limitations, yet they often remain widely available in developing countries. Even hazardous products that still are permitted in industrialized countries can cause severe problems in the developing world, where use circumstances can be very different.
Small-scale farmers in developing countries in particular often do not have, or use, the necessary protective gear and mostly use back-pack sprayers that pose high risk of exposure. Restriction on the use of such highly hazardous products often proves hard to enforce, leading to widespread use by untrained persons. High numbers of poisoning cases, contaminated food and environmental damage can be the result.
The Guideline aimed to help evaluate HHPs
A relatively small group of highly hazardous pesticides is often the cause of the majority of poisoning cases. In many cases, these can be replaced by less hazardous products or, even better integrated pest management (IPM) approaches that aim at reducing reliance on pesticides.
The Guidelines offer a road map to help countries identify and deal with highly hazardous pesticides. This involves inventory taking, assessing risks and actual needs, and then taking appropriate risk mitigation measures.
Efforts to address HHPs can best be streamlined by designing a plan of action that includes the main steps as described above and summarized below:
1. Identify which registered pesticides are to be considered HHPs,
2. Take stock of the current uses of these HHPs and the reasons for their use,
3. Determine to what extent their use is actually needed (taking into account the availability of possible alternatives),
4. Determine risks, taking into account the conditions of use,
5. Select and implement mitigating measures,
6. Monitor and review the effectiveness of the mitigation measures.
FAO has also launched a Pesticide Registration Toolkit to assist governments in conducting hazard and risk assessments as part of their national pesticide approval process. This toolkit can also be used to re-assess products that have been approved in the past, but are now identified as highly hazardous. Governments are encouraged to use the new guidelines and the toolkit to review their existing lists of approved pesticides in order to identify HHPs and take the necessary measures to reduce the risks to users, consumers and the environment. This also implies the strengthening of IPM as a recognized pillar in the design of sustainable crop protection systems.
The Pesticide Registration Toolkit has two types of tools:
1. Under the Toolkit menu, you will find technical advice on various processes and methods in pesticide registration, such as data requirements, assessment methods for parts of the registration dossier, decision making steps, etc. These are general procedures, applicable to all pesticides.
2. Under the Information sources menu, you will find links to many types of information on individual pesticides. This includes databases of registered pesticides, scientific reviews of pesticide, maximum residue limits, pesticide properties, etc. Much of this information is not maintained by FAO, but the Toolkit provides annotated links to the relevant web sites.
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