Nano-pesticides in the Environment

doi:10.1515/ci-2014-0617

Article Publicly Available

Nano-pesticides in the Environment

Published/Copyright: November 18, 2014

Published by

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Author Information

From the journal Chemistry International Volume 36 Issue 6

The first workshop associated with the project titled “Guiding principles to facilitate a harmonized ecological risk assessment framework for nano-pesticides in the environment” (project 2012-020-3-600) was held in Europe at the University of York on 18-19 May 2013 coinciding with SETAC Europe meeting in Glasgow. The synthesis from the workshop discussions was captured in a “Perspective Article” published in April 2014 in Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry: dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf500232f. The workshop was jointly sponsored and organized by IUPAC and APVMA (The Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority). APVMA is the regulatory agency in Australia dealing with nanomaterials for applications in agriculture and veterinary medicines.

The participants during the May 2013 workshop on Nanopesticides at Ron Cooke Hub of the University of York, York (UK).

The workshop was attended by 18 experts from Europe, USA and Australia. Together they represented academia, researchers, and regulatory agencies. The regulatory agency of the UK - Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA), had strong representation through three FERA delegates, and including task group member Dr Chris Sinclair. Dr Philip Reeves (Chief Scientist, APVMA and project task group member) played a major role in liaising with industry and other regulators. The workshop was hosted by Dr Alistair Boxall (University of York). All project task group members were invited but only some could attend.

During the workshop, after overview presentations, notably by Dr Melanie Kah (University of Vienna), the experts worked over two days in parallel in four different groups; covering (1) Definitions and Regulatory considerations (2) Properties and Characterisation, (3) Environmental fate and Behaviour, and (4) Effects and Risk Assessment.

In the “Perspective Article” mentioned above, the current approaches for environmental risk assessment of pesticides are reviewed and the question of whether these approaches are fit for use on nanopesticides is addressed. Potential adaptations to existing environmental risk assessment tests and procedures for use with nanopesticides are discussed, addressing aspects such as analysis and characterization, environmental fate and exposure assessment, uptake by biota, ecotoxicity, and risk assessment of nanopesticides in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Throughout, the main focus is on assessing whether the presence of the nanoformulation introduces potential differences relative to the conventional active ingredients. The proposed changes in the test methodology, research priorities and recommendations would facilitate the development of regulatory approaches and a regulatory framework for nanopesticides

The second major project activity was held in San Francisco, in the form of a special symposium, at the 13^th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry in August 2014. The symposium had representations from industry, regulatory and research communities. Dr Darren Anderson from the Vive Corp gave the industry perspective. Dr Phil Reeves of APVMA provided regulatory perspective. Dr Melanie Kah reviewed the current state of science on nanopesticides. Dr Alistair Boxall brought the key messages from the 2013 workshop. Dr Kookana identified key knowledge gaps to kick start the discussion session during the symposium. Ultimately, the task group will prepare a set of recommendations and guiding principles (criteria) for ecological risk evaluation of nano-pesticides.

For more information, contact the Task Group Chair Rai Kookana <Rai.Kookana@csiro.au>

www.iupac.org/project/2012-020-3-600

Online erschienen: 2014-11-18

Erschienen im Druck: 2014-11-1

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2014-0617