The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) New Zealand will hold public hearings on 4 Mar in Wellington and 7 Mar in Auckland for a group reassessment of organophosphate and carbamate (OPC) based insecticides used for plant protection purposes. The Chief Executive of the EPA New Zealand has released the notification of application and consultation report of the reassessment in early November last year, and the public submission period has just ended recently.
The EPA has established grounds for 36 OPCs and formulations containing theses active ingredients. Among those, 29 were included in the reassessment application. The approval status and name of the concerned substances is captured in the table below.
Approval Status in NZ | Name |
Active ingredients and/or their formulations not approved for used in NZ (or approved for containment and export only) | Bendiocarb |
Benomyl | |
Carbofuran | |
Carbosulfan | |
Chlorpyrifos-methyl | |
Dichlofention | |
Ethion | |
Fampur | |
Isazofos | |
Omethoate | |
Phoxim | |
Pyrazophos | |
Active ingredients and the formulations containing them for which all approvals relate to plant protection. | Acephate |
Dimethoate | |
Fenamiphos | |
Methamidophos | |
Oxamyl | |
Phorate | |
Pirimicarb | |
Prothiofos | |
Terbufos | |
Substances included in formulations that are only used for plant protection, but are also included in other formulations used more broadly than plant protection. | Carbaryl |
Chlorpyrifos | |
Diazinon | |
Dichlorvos | |
Fenitrothion | |
Maldison (Malathion) | |
Methomyl | |
Pirimiphos-methyl |
As all of the concerned substances and their formulations were previously approved under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 (HSNO), the HSNO Approval Number and the hazard classifications in accordance with NZ GHS criteria can be found in Appendix A of the reassessment application.
During the public submission period of 2 Nov 2012 to 22 Jan 2013, the stakeholders from various organizations and industry have lodged 34 effective submissions. The stakeholders seem to have diverse opinions regarding whether to support or oppose the application, and most of them wish to be heard in the public hearings.
The Chief Executive of the EPA New Zealand proposed three outcomes of the concerned OPCs in the application:
Continuation of approvals for substances where the positive effects outweigh the adverse effects.
Introduction of appropriate controls to manage adverse effects posed by specific substances.
Revocation of approvals for substances where the adverse effects outweigh the positive effects and cannot be managed through the application of controls (including revocation of approvals for registered substances which are not being used, based on the inherent adverse effects posed by OPC substances).
The application, together with all the supporting documents collected during the consultation process, will be reviewed by the expert HSNO committee. The final decision will be made in early June 2013.
