Advisory Committee on Pesticides Annual Report 2001

Section F: Other items considered during the year
did not prevent the loss of chlorothalonil. Losses, however, were not observed
in extracts fortified with chlorothalonil, after prior removal of sulphurcontaining
compounds by the use of an alumina column impregnated with
silver nitrate. It was therefore tentatively proposed that silver nitrate should
be added to frozen onion subsamples before extraction. The ACP had
recommended that a further study be conducted into the use of silver nitrate
and the use of acetone containing 10N sulphuric acid as used by industry.
Several other techniques were also examined, one of which was the addition
of orthophosphoric acid pre-milling.
The additional study on onions was considered at the January 2001 ACP
meeting. The results showed that losses of chlorothalonil during the analysis
of onions could be minimised by the addition of 2.2M orthophosphoric acid
to the samples before milling.
The <strong>Committee</strong> recommended that:
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the findings of these studies be passed on to the EU rapporteur
(Netherlands) for consideration when evaluating the methods of analysis
used to analyse crop samples for chlorothalonil and commercial/domestic
processing data;
the use of orthophosphoric acid in the preparation of subsamples of crops
should be routinely adopted, when analysing onions (and other allium
crops) for chlorothalonil; and
industry should be informed of the findings and recommendations from
the study.
77
How a broader approach to the protection of biodiversity may affect
ecological risk assessments of plant protection products
This report highlighted that the <strong>Advisory</strong> <strong>Committee</strong> on Releases to the
Environment (ACRE) considers the risks to biodiversity from genetically
modified organisms, which has implications for the ACP. On the basis of this
report the ACP agreed to review its approach to wider biodiversity issues as a
matter of some urgency. It considered that the aim should be to take account
of risks to biodiversity in the regulation of pesticides and that the approach
taken should be based on sound science. It was also agreed that the policy
and management issues raised by the report should be discussed with the
ACRE subgroup. Once a clear way forward was identified it would also be
necessary for discussions to take place with relevant stakeholders.