The Advisory Committee on Pesticides provides independent advice to Ministers on matters relating to the regulation and use of pesticides, including applications for approval of new products and reviews of existing approvals. It usually meets in closed session (because of intellectual property and commercial secrecy considerations) approximately six times a year in York.
Those present:
Chairman: Prof J G Ayres
Members: Dr J Cherrie, Mr J Clarke, Dr R Clutterbuck, Prof. D R Colman, Dr C Elcombe, Dr I Grieve, Prof G Hawksworth, Dr C V Howard, Ms R Howell, Dr A Leake, Prof L Maltby, Dr G M McPherson, Dr D Osborn, Dr H Rees, Prof R Smith, Dr V Tohani, Dr R Waring.
Apologies: Ms D McCrea, Dr P McElhatton.
Lord Rooker (Minister of State (Lords)) also addressed the meeting.
Written comments received from:
Representatives from the following Departments and other organisations were
present: The Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD), Health & Safety Executive
(HSE), Food Standards Agency (FSA), Health Protection Agency (HPA),
Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (SASA), English Nature (EN).
1. Agenda Item 1: Minutes and Detailed record of discussion
1.1 a) 321st Meeting: Minutes [ACP 1 (322/2006)]
1.1.1 Agreed as drafted. (Minutes of 321st meeting)
1.2 b) 321st Meeting: Detailed record of discussion [ACP 2 (322 /2006)]
1.2.1 Agreed as amended.
2. Agenda Item 2: Secretary's report. [ACP 3 (322 /2006)]
2.1 The Secretary to the Committee reported that no recommendations had been made since the previous meeting.
3. Agenda Item 3: Matters arising
3.1 Other matters arising [ACP 19 (322/2006)]
3.1.1 Members noted progress on other matters arising.
3.1.2 It was noted that the author of the summary NPIS report has agreed that it can be published on the ACP website.
3.1.3 Members had asked for clarification on the ‘boundaries’ of possible emergency situations. The Secretary reported that PSD are to seek such clarification in comments to the European Commission on the current proposals for a new authorisations regulation.
3.1.4 The meeting heard that the COM had met and had considered Ethaboxam. The COM Secretary reported that a COM statement was currently in preparation and this would be passed to the ACP for consideration when it was finalised.
3.1.5 As requested at meeting 321, Members heard that the Occupational Exposure Limit for Sulphuric acid is under review in Europe and that a revised lower value was expected to be included in the 3rd draft Indicative Occupational Exposure Limit Value (IOELV) directive.
3.1.6 Members discussed an outline proposal for a study to consider monitoring workers (including migrant workers) exposure to pesticides. The proposal will be finalized and submitted for consideration for research funding.
4. Report of the Environmental Panel Meeting [ACP 9 (322/2006)]
4.1 The Chairman of the panel provided a short report of discussion at the 100th meeting of the Environmental panel in October [link to report].
5. Application for UK provisional approval (COPR) for Madex containing Cydia pomonella Granulovirus (CpGV) [ACP 13 (322/2006)]
5.1 Cydia pomonella Granulovirus (CpGV) is a new biopesticide formulated as Madex (now known as Cyd-X), a suspension concentrate formulation for use on apple and pear. The target pest organism is codling moth.
5.2 Members considered the full range of information presented for consideration of the application for provisional approval.
5.3 Members agreed that the ACP would require further specialist advice on microbiology and virology before reaching a conclusion about this application.
6. Monitoring of the medical and scientific literature for epidemiological studies on pesticides published between January 2005 and December 2005 [ACP 8 (322/2006)]
6.1 Members considered the latest report from their regular monitoring programme. List of papers published in 2005 considered by this item
6.2 Members agreed that it would be useful to draw together the published reports of studies involving chlorpyrifos as there had been a number of studies published particularly considering possible low dose effects. Members heard that there had been a recent review of biomonitoring studies published and asked the medical and toxicology panel to consider this published review.
7. Draft Response to Consultation on Thematic Strategy and 91/414 Replacement [ACP 6 (322/2006)]
7.1 Two members declared a non-personal specific interest and were informed that they should therefore only contribute to the discussion if asked to do so by the Chairman.
7.2 Members had discussed the consultation document at the 321st Meeting of the ACP, and considered at this meeting a first draft of a response prepared in the light of that discussion.
7.3 The Secretary will amend the draft in line with the further discussion and circulate to members for agreement of the final response prior to the consultation closing date.
8. Position Paper: Exposures from use of Home Garden Pesticides [ACP 16 (322/2006)]
8.1 The results of some recent research indicated that the levels of exposure to pesticides arising from handling home garden pesticide concentrates in certain types of container was higher than had previously been assumed, although the exposure from applying the diluted pesticide was lower than had been assumed. Members considered the implications of these higher levels of hand exposure for amateur users.
8.2 Members noted the results from three common types of container used for home garden pesticide products varied, with the lowest level of contamination resulting from the more sophisticated design with integral measuring device. Members agreed that it would be sensible to encourage approval holders to consider re-packaging products in order to reduce unnecessary exposure.
8.3 Members also agreed that in future estimated exposure for the poorer design of packages would use the highest value for contamination observed in these studies. Members considered the need for a specific review of exposure from home garden pesticides, but concluded that revised estimates of exposure could be made as part of the re-registration of all pesticide products following the EU review.
9. Date of Next Meeting
9.1 The next meeting of the ACP will be held on Tuesday 30th January 2007, at the Monk Bar Hotel, York.
10. Any Other Business
10.1 Members noted email correspondence from The Pesticides Action Network, and considered a draft reply. It was agreed that the Chairman would respond.
10.2 The Chairman informed the Committee that Ms Georgina Downs had again raised the issue of allowing observers to attend ACP Meetings. It was noted that on occasions interested parties were invited to observe the meeting as a part of their scientific research, and these observers were bound by strict confidentiality agreements.
Members agreed that openness was very important and in principle they were in favour of holding scientific advisory committee discussions in open session where possible. However much of the discussion in the ACP necessarily involved the consideration of commercially sensitive information, so large parts of the meeting have to be held in closed session. The ACP also has a large number of stakeholders covering a wide range of interests who would all need to be given equal access to any parts of the meetings that could be identified as suitable to be held in open session. Members identified that these issues posed serious logistical problems, both in identifying the items to be discussed in open session in advance of the meeting and also in managing the arrival and departure of possibly large numbers of observers. Members asked the secretariat to consider a number of previous agendas and meeting discussions to see whether it was feasible to propose a means of managing any increased openness of regular ACP meetings.
