Number: 2004-011-1-600
Title: Development of simplified methods and tools for ecological
risk assessment of pesticides
Task Group
Chairman: Ronald Parker
Members:
Elizabeth Carazo,
Jan B.H.J. Linders,
Ken Racke, Keiji
Tanaka, and Don Wauchope
Objective:
1. To develop simplified methods and supporting tools that can be used
by developing country governments to perform ecological risk assessments
of pesticides.
2. To make these methods and tools easily available to those desiring
to use them for pesticide evaluation.
Description:
All countries use pesticides for protection of agricultural crops
and for safeguarding public health. Pesticides, however, may have unintended
adverse impacts on non-target organisms and any such potential impacts
should be assessed before these chemicals are approved by governments
for use. Many countries have developed methods for pesticide ecological
risk assessment, but the complexity of the techniques and the overall
amount of work required to use them has reached a level beyond the capacity
of the majority of governments. As a result, only about 25 of the world's
more than 180 countries routinely perform pesticide risk assessments
in terms of the accepted procedure of comparing measured toxicity concentrations
to estimated exposure concentrations. Countries besides these few would
also benefit greatly from having the capacity to quickly perform a scientifically
valid pesticide ecological risk assessment prior to approving use.
The project will develop pesticide ecological assessment methods and
tools based on simplifying some of the methods and tools that have been
established in other countries, establishing developing country scenarios
for simulation models or employing the simplifying assumptions of relative
(comparative) risk assessment.
These techniques will be made available to those who may need to use
them through IUPAC and/or other organizations that have common interests.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the US EPA Office
of Pesticide Programs (OPP) are also interested in contributing resources
toward these goals. IUPAC is an ideal participant in this kind of project
because of its long history of working with international pesticide
issues.
Progress:
A paper was presented at the November 2003 IUPAC conference in Seoul,
Korea that outlined the methodology of simplified, relative (comparative)
risk assessment to be included in the risk assessment / risk management
training module.
A draft version of the risk assessment / risk management training
module was placed on IAEA/FAO INFOCRIS training website.
Tier I USEPA/OPP screening exposure assessment models were modified
for use in the module.
A progress report on development of the relative risk methodology
and the risk assessment / risk management training module was presented
at the January 2005 IUPAC conference in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Training of government scientist and regulators from six Latin American
countries in pesticide exposure/risk assessment methods and modelling
was carried out during an IAEA/FAO workshop in Papagayo, Costa Rica
also in January 2005.
Several planning and evaluation meetings for the simplified risk assessment
project were held in Awaji, Japan in conjunction with the IUPAC international
pesticide conference in Kobe, Japan in August 2006. Project workgroup
members also discussed the possibility of replacing the relative risk
methodology with a more complex and sophisticated methodology made possible
by the availability of new modelling tools. The relative assessment
method was originally chosen because of the advantages it offers in
simplifying the exposure assessment through eliminating the necessity
of developing appropriately vulnerable national exposure estimate scenarios
for each crop in every county. The later option (developing national
and/or regional PRZM cropping scenarios for EXPRESS) is now a realistic
option.
Training of government scientists and regulators from 12 Asian countries
in pesticide exposure/risk methods was carried out during an IAEA/FAO
workshop in Daejon, South Korea in August 2006.
Training of government scientist and regulators from four Latin American
countries in pesticide exposure/risk methods and modelling was carried
out during an IAEA/FAO workshop in San Jose, Costa Rica also in January
2007.
Initial contacts with potential members of a workgroup to develop a
methodology for developing cropping scenarios for an EXPRESS-type.
Last Update: 16 July 2007
<project announcement published in
Chem.
Int. Sep-Oct
2004 >